Antietam National Battlefield - Hiking Trail #1

Hiking Trail - The Cornfield

Antietam National Battlefield has established this hiking trail for the sake of visitors who wish to explore the terrain around "The Bloody Cornfield" in more detail then that provided by the driving tour.

It is of course, possible to enjoy the battlefield tour without going on the hike, but history buffs will be rewarded by the trail that follows in the footsteps of Union soldiers as they advanced into battle in the pre-dawn light of September 17th 1862, and into the inferno of combat in the corn. Indeed, anyone who enjoys a good hike will be glad they went.

The National Park Service sells a tour map and pamphlet at the Visitor Center for a mere $2.00.

The map is also downloadable from the NPS site here.

http://www.nps.gov/anti/planyourvisit/hiking.htm

In addition, the website CivilWarTraveller.com provides a downloadable podcast for free. The podcast is narrated to match the tour stops.

http://www.civilwartraveler.com/audio/index.html



The tour begins at driving Tour Stop #2 (The Poffenberger Farm) The trail is 1.6 miles long, and takes between an hour and an hour and a half. Be careful of the groundhog holes and poison ivy.


Stop 1 – Parking area and Auto Tour Stop 2
(Fence across the street from the parking lot and Clara Barton monument)

Restless Night
This spot was the edge of the Union encampment on the night of Sept 16th -17th. The camps of General Joseph Hooker's 1st Corps were spread out to the north on the Poffenberger's fields. The Confederate troops under Thomas J "Stonewall" Jackson were mostly posted in the area of cornfield of the Miller farm, a half mile south. Cannons backed them up on the mild plateau near the Dunker Church.

Everyone slept knowing a fight was going to happen in the morning. Many were surprised that it had not happened the day before. On the 16th, in broad daylight, the Union 1st and 12th Corps splashed across the Antietam Creek to reach this staging area. Only a mild skirmish had occurred. And so the two armies bedded down for the night of the 16th, knowing that many of their friends would be dead within a day.

Hooker's orders from General McClellan (Commander of the Union Army of the Potomac) were to move out at first light and attack the Confederate positions. The responsibility for opening the battle would be his. Among his several vices, Hooker was given to boast, but he didn't need to stretch the truth on the night of the 16th. He commented to the several reporters that were constantly following him around, that "Tomorrow we will fight the battle that would decide the fate of the Republic".

General Hooker was an aggressive fighter, and was eager to carry out his orders. He had his soldiers on their feet at 5:00 am.

Directly south of this spot was a small woodlot known as the North Woods. An astute visitor will notice that there are many short, young trees in the immediate area. This is because the NPS is replanting the North Woods in an effort to restore the battleground to its Sept 1862 appearance.

Hiking south from Stop 1 to Stop 2 follows in the footsteps of Union soldiers as they left their camps, and crossed the North Woods.


Stop 2 – Out the Woods and Into the Fire

Battle Lines
As the soldiers woke up and formed up their battle lines, sporadic gunshots were heard. That was the skirmishers on both sides probing their opposing lines. The Union battle line of the 1st Corps was extensive, over a half mile long. One division of Union troops under Gen. Abner Doubleday stepped out of the North Woods at this point. Another division under Gen. James Ricketts formed up on the left. Behind, still back at the farm was the division of General George Gordon Meade.

Incoming!
The minute Doubleday’s men left the safety of the timberline, they were under attack by Confederate artillery. On their right flank, across the Hagerstown Pike was a ridge known as Nicodemus Heights. It is all private property today, and the heights are tree covered now. In 1862, the ground was open – and occupied by Confederate Major John Pelham’s dozen or so cannons. That number wasn’t enough to thwart the Union attack, but their advantageous position – combined with Pelham’s natural pluck and tenacity meant that these guns would punch above their weight.

Pelham’s cannons were aimed perfectly – the third shot landed in the middle of the 6th Wisconsin, killing 2 soldiers and wounding 11. Cannons from both sides joined in on the fight. More Confederate cannon engaged – those under Col. Stephen D. Lee (no close relation to the Robert E. Lee) deployed on the plateau near the Dunker Church. No Union soldier could doubt that they were in harms way. Far across the Antietam Creek, long range Union canons attempted to suppress the Confederate guns.

The Sparkling Corn
Hooker, Doubleday, and other Union officers had a much better view then their soldiers, (who had the same view the average hiker has) – they were on their horses, and their point of view was nine feet in the air. From there, they could see a foreboding sight. A half-mile away, the September sunlight caused a glistening, sparkling effect in the Miller cornfield. Thousands of Confederate soldiers, their bayonets and polished gun barrels catching the rising sun, were waiting for them.

Hiking from Stop 2 to Stop 3 traverses the Union line of battle. The hiker moves west, along what were once the ranks of Doubleday’s and then Ricketts’ men. After taking a sharp right hand turn, the hiker moves south, following in the footsteps of Ricketts’ division.


Stop 3 – Tricky Terrain an A Complicated Advance

Artillery Reaping
Immediately to the right is a subtle roll in the ground. As Doubleday and Ricketts advanced, Hooker noticed that the cornfield in front of him was filled with Confederates. Altering his battle plan slightly, he halted his infantry, and ordered 2 batteries of cannons (12 guns) to park hub-to-hub on that high ground, and destroy the Miller Cornfield and the Confederates therein. The cannons blazed away at point-blank range, firing shrapnel or ‘case shot’, an anti-personnel weapon. It was essentially a bomb fired from a cannon that was timed with a fuse to explode at a certain range. When the bomb exploded, bullets that were packed inside as well as fragments of shell scattered everywhere, killing, crippling and maiming anyone nearby. Hooker’s gunners had cut their fuses down to one-and-a-half seconds.

Tough Going
Moving a line of men a mile or so south would seem like a simple enough task. Battles however are nothing if not chaotic and unpredictable, and plans are often wrecked very soon after the first shot is fired. This happened at Antietam. Ricketts’ attack fell victim to every difficulty that could occur to a division. Confederate artillery killed and wounded soldiers as they advanced. The presence of the Union cannons delayed Doubleday, but didn’t delay Ricketts, chopping up the Federal attack. The hills and rolls in the terrain- to say nothing of the battle smoke - made it difficult to keep track of nearby friendly units.

Duryea Alone
One of Ricketts’ three brigade commanders was wounded and had to leave the field. A second brigade commander panicked at the shellfire and ran away, abandoning his troops. Only the third brigade, under General Abram Duryea made initial contact with the Confederates on schedule. Although the other two brigades would recover from their difficulties and join the fight, Duryea would begin this fight alone, and loose almost half his 1,000 men in just 30 minutes of combat.

Hiking from Stop 3 to Stop 4 continues in the footsteps of Ricketts’ men, to the point just before they entered the “Bloody Cornfield”.


Stop 4 - Corner of Death at Antietam

The worm fence marks the boundary of the Cornfield. Ricketts Union division, one brigade at a time, made deadly contact with Stonewall Jackson’s defending Confederates, pushing through the corn. Simultaneously, Doubleday’s men engaged to the west. As the battle progressed, the Cornfield would change hands several times. Troops who arrived later in the battle noticed that the horrible carnage followed a pattern- the worst casualties would always be at the edge of a landscape feature such as a woodlot, a roadway and this cornfield. Many of Ricketts men would meet their deaths at the southern end of this cornfield.

Counterattacking Confederate men would die in large numbers at this (northern) edge of the cornfield.

Hiking from Stop 4 to Stop 5 again traverses the Union line of battle, walking back along Ricketts’ lines and reaching Doubleday’s lines. Walk west along the northern border of the Cornfield to Stop 5


Stop 5 – The Most Sacred Ground – The Cornfield

The hiker is about to enter the David R. Miller Cornfield. This is the some of the most sacred and hallowed ground in the United States. Thousands of Union and Confederate soldiers died in these 30 acres of maize, as it changed hands time and again.

The reason why the cornfield was so dangerous is simple. Soldiers waiting on the other side of the cornfield couldn’t get clean shots at the men coming through the corn, and thus held their fire until the enemy reached the edge. When the soldiers finally opened fire, they did so at almost point-blank range. When Union troops first reached this point, they plunged into the corn, and the battle was joined at the southern edge. Later, when Confederate troops counterattacked, they themselves met a wall of lead from Union reinforcements at this the northern edge.

Union General John Gibbon commanded the first brigade of Doubleday’s men to enter the corn. Because of their bravery at the battles of Second Manassas and South Mountain, they had been dubbed The Iron Brigade. These Midwestern boys, men from Wisconsin and Indiana, took pride in both their nickname, and their army designation – the 1st Brigade of the 1st Division of the 1st Corps.

As the Midwesterners reached this point, they could see the dead and dying Confederates laying in the wrecked cornfield, the victims of the point-blank bombardment ordered by General Hooker. The Confederate battle line had by now abandoned the badly damaged cornfield and had regrouped on the other side of it.




Hiking from Stop 5 to Stop 6 follows in the footsteps of the Iron Brigade as they marched through the cornfield.


Stop 6 – Georgian Defense and Texas Counterattack

Douglas vs. The Iron Brigade
Col. Marcellus Douglas commanded the Confederate brigade in this area. His men bore the brunt of the artillery bombardment, and now braced for the Iron Brigade’s attack. The gray Georgia Monument to the left honors Douglas’s Georgians. As Gibbon’s Iron Brigade reached this southern edge of the cornfield, they receive their first volley at close range. Pausing at the edge of the corn, the Midwesterners fired back and the battle of Antietam was on in earnest. Hundreds of men dropped from the ranks, some killed on the spot, some wounded, but able get themselves to the rear, and others wounded so badly they could do nothing but lay there and plead for help.

Confederate Collapse
Douglas’s Confederates got the worst of this fight, having already been shocked and bloodied by the artillery. Another Confederate brigade arrived to support them, these men Louisianans under General Harry Hays. They filed in next to the Georgians, and were demolished by Ricketts men, who were, as we know covering Doubleday’s left. In a short time, both Douglas’ and Hays’ commands had lost more then half their men, and were retreating. Douglas himself was killed by an artillery shell that blew him into the air.

Gibbon’s cheering men of iron charged beyond the cornfield, followed by their reinforcements. The men of Doubleday’s division then caught a third Confederate brigade under Gen. William Starke in a murderous crossfire. After an intense firefight, during which at one point the two forces blasted away at each other from opposite sides of the Hagerstown Pike, Starke’s men were also put to flight. It was only 7:00 in the morning and already the Confederate battle line was breaking into pieces! Could anything stop the 1st Corps?

Lone Star
The rose colored monument directly across Cornfield Avenue holds the answer. It is the Texas Monument, and represents the very last reinforcements that Stonewall Jackson had available to him. General John Bell Hood’s Texans were held in reserve about a half mile away behind the Dunker Church (visible from this point between the trees). These men were all Jackson had to depend on, but they were some of the best.

The Texas Brigade had not only Texans but also Alabamians and Mississippians in their ranks. These men from the Confederate West had a reputation for being the roughest and toughest brawlers in the Confederate Army, and they took pride in living up to it. Being held in reserve, they had just started their cooking fires and were about to chow down on breakfast. Since they had been on the march for most of the campaign, it would have been their first hot-cooked meal in three days.

Before a single morsel could be eaten, the order to fall in and march to the front was given. The men of the Texas Brigade did not like this. Not one bit.

Lining up by the Dunker Church (and present day Visitor Center), the enraged Texans let out the Rebel Yell and charged into the Yankees who had dared to interrupt their meal. By now Doubleday’s men were fought out, low on ammunition, and fell back through the Cornfield, with the angry Texans right behind them.

The Texans themselves would then be crushed by Gen George Meade’s division of Union infantry and by the cannons that Hooker had deployed on the open ground to the north. The 1st Texas regiment would loose 82% of its men. The arrival of the Union 12th Corps from the east compelled Hood’s survivors to abandon this horrible Cornfield.

Hiking from Stop 6 to Stop 7 follows in the footsteps of Hood’s charging Confederates north along the Hagerstown Road.


Stop 7 – The Bugler and the General

Across the Hagerstown Pike are two cannons, representing a battery (six guns) of Union artillery. These guns were moved forward during the initial Union advance and fired on Douglas’ Confederates as the fight got underway. Perhaps it was even a shell from one of these guns that killed Col. Douglas. Such proximity to fighting infantry was incredibly dangerous, and this battery (Battery B, 4th US Artillery) took the casualties to prove it, almost 50 % including its commander.

When Hood’s Texans counterattacked, an already dangerous position became practically suicidal. There was no time to limber up the guns and retreat – the artillerymen had to either fight and win, or be overrun.

The soldiers manning the guns had just the ammunition for this sort of work – canister. Another anti-personnel weapon, canister consisted of a thin metal can packed with iron balls, like a very large load of buckshot. It could be used only at very short range. When a canister round was fired, the tin can flew apart immediately upon leaving the barrel sending the iron balls scattering everywhere. It turned the cannon into a huge shotgun. The cannons could also be loaded with two or even three rounds of canister for when things got desperate.

When Hood’s men counterattacked, things got desperate.

The effect of a blast of canister upon a line of infantry was possibly the most grisly sight in a war filled with grisly sights. The iron balls shredded human flesh, and ripped men apart where they stood. Arms and heads were torn off and thrown hither and yon. Such effects could happen from one cannon firing one load of this awful weapon. There were six cannons here, the surviving artillerymen fighting for their lives. Each cannon was loaded with at least double canister. Dozens of men would be killed and wounded in a single blast.


With half the men of the battery killed and wounded, and the battery in danger of being overrun, all hands were needed to work the guns. The battery’s bugle boy, 15-year-old Johnny Cook jumped to the task and helped load and fire the pieces. Before the war, Cook had been a Cincinnati paperboy. Before Antietam, he had been a bugler, one of the countless lads who joined up and usually served in non-combat roles, despite being very much in harms way. After Antietam he was a hero, awarded the Medal of Honor for his extreme courage in the face of mortal danger.

General John Gibbon needed these cannons’ firepower to protect his Iron Brigade. Having had training in artillery, he dismounted from his horse, loaded one of the pieces, and sighted it himself to make sure the blast was accurate.

The Confederates charged these cannons, but did not reach them. They were blasted to pieces within a few yards of the smoking muzzles of the guns. When the Union 12th Corps arrived on the battlefield, and pushed off the remaining Confederates, the combat mercifully died down in this, the bloodiest sector of the bloodiest day of the war.

Hiking from Stop 7 to Stop 8 follows the Hagerstown Road back towards Tour Stop 1. These would be the footsteps of a wounded Union soldier, limping back towards the Poffenberger Farm and medical aid.


Stop 8 -- The Miller Farm

The Northern side of the Miller Cornfield marks the furthest advance of Hood’s counterattack. Here’s were the Texans were brutally smashed by General Meade’s Pennsylvanians.

The battle of Antietam continued to rage in other sectors of the field – The West Woods, The Sunken Road, Burnside’s Bridge, and the Otto Farm would all see their share of horrors on that day, but perhaps only the Sunken Road would present a sight as grotesque as the Miller’s Cornfield.

City of Blue
After the battle, General McClellan declined to aggressively pursue Lee’s army. The Union Army stayed put in the fields around Sharpsburg. For two months, the 1200 residents of Sharpsburg reluctantly played host to 80,000 soldiers. From a certain way of looking at things, Sharpsburg became the tenth largest city in America, surpassing Buffalo, NY in population for that period of time!

80,000 soldiers had their needs, and that included wood for cooking and campfires. Entire woodlots went up in flames day by day, a tree at a time. The wooden fences has also mostly been knocked down. Even the ones that weren’t in the thick of the fighting were often knocked down simply because they were in the way. Farmers, of course build fences for a reason, and the end of the fences meant that livestock could start roaming free. That was fine by the soldiers. Although the soldiers were forbidden from stealing from the farmers, a chicken or swine that wandered into a camp full of hungry troops would probably not be seen again. Farmers like David Miller naturally resented the soldier’s continued presence, and described them as “two-legged-locusts”.

An Army of Germs was carried with the Army of the Potomac. Disease spread rapidly. Most of the armies on both sides were made up of country boys, and the army was the first time they were crowded together with city boys. Men from rural areas had much less immunity and were far more susceptible to contagious illness. Throughout the Civil War, sickness would kill 2 soldiers for every one who died in battle. Army camps were often lacking in even the most basic sanitation. The presence of the dirty army was a health threat to the residents of the area, and many got sick. David Miller’s brother Daniel became ill and died shortly after the battle.

The Miller House on top of the hill on the hiker’s side of the street was a witness to the battle. So too was the barn on the opposite side of the street. The other buildings were built later.

The hiking trail concludes by winding its way up to the north and northeast. It cuts through the North Woods, allowing the hiker to observe the growing young trees. The trail ends at Tour Stop 1.

Conclusion
The trail has cut through the scene of some of the worst fighting in US history. No man who fought through it and survived it would ever forget it. The Civil War had many battles, and many of those battles had landscapes that were named for the savagery of their fighting. Gettysburg had the Devil’s Den, The Wheatfield, The Peach Orchard Little Round Top, the Railway Cut, and The Angle. Fredericksburg had Marye’s Heights. Spotsylvania had The Bloody Angle. Shiloh had The Bloody Pond.

The Iron Brigade’s Major Rufus Dawes, a combat veteran of almost every battle fought by the Army of The Potomac, was traumatized by this combat more then any battle previous or following. It “surpassed anything, on any other battlefield of my observation …” The sanguine 1st Corps commander, Joseph Hooker agreed. “It was never my fortune to witness a more bloody, dismal battlefield.”

The Antietam National Battlefield has several other hiking trials, including the Sunken Road, Burnside’s Bridge, and The Final Attack trail

Hiking Tips # 2 -- Avoiding Toxic Relationships (with plants).

Poisonous plants are as common as they are irritating. The allergic reaction to Poison Ivy, Oak or Sumac can make a hiking trip memorable for the wrong reasons.

Plants of Poison
There are three major types of poisonous plants in North America, Poison Ivy, Oak and Sumac. All of them generate the same oil, called urushiol. About 70-85% of the population is allergic to it. All parts of each plant are poisonous- leaves, vines, berries, roots. The plants can't be trusted even when they're dead or dormant - a dead vine will still has the urushiol in it. Burning the plant is a bad idea- VERY bad. The smoke itself carries the urushiol molecules, and if inhaled, can cause the allergic reaction on the inside of a human's trachea and lungs. This can be fatal.

Once a person or animal has come into contact with these cursed weeds, the unfortunate has a mere 20 minutes or so to thoroughly wash and scrub down the affected body parts. After the 20 minutes, the oil has affixed itself to the skin, dried, and cannot be washed off (urushiol is non-water soluble).

For those of us who are allergic, the discomfort starts in but a few hours. First there's the itchy redness. Then the bumps. Then the blisters. The blisters will eventually break. It is of mild comfort that the fluid in the blisters does not actually spread the toxin. It sometimes seems that this is the case, when one part of the body has an immediate reaction, and an adjacent part has a delayed reaction. That's just because the first part to become symptomatic received a larger dose of the poison.

Clearly exposure to toxic plants is unpleasant. Happily, a savvy hiker can avoid said unpleasantness by knowing his or her way around the toxic plants. In these cases, an ounce of prevention is worth several pounds of cure -- and calamine lotion.


Know Thine Enemy
Americans have to worry about 3 different types of these wicked weeds - Poison Ivy, Poison Oak, and Poison Sumac.

Poison Ivy

The most common of the three, Poison Ivy is found in every state of the union west of the Rocky Mountains, except for North Dakota (lucky North Dakotians). It's appearance can vary, but the constant rule is that the leaves grow in clusters of three. Sometimes the leaves are all the same size, sometimes the middle one is larger, but there will always be three. Poison Ivy vines are have "hairs" on them. These traits have given rise to more then a few rhymes and mnemonics on identifying the evil plant. Among the most useful are "Leaves of Three - Let Them Be!" and "Hairy Vine, No Friend of Mine!"

Poison Oak

Common along the American south, Poison Oak comes in both Atlantic and Pacific flavors, neither enjoyable. The leaves are slightly different then the Poison Ivy - they look like Oak leaves, hence the name. Other then that the differences between Poison Oak and Ivy are slight. They both grow leaves in clusters of three, both have fuzzy vines, and are both to be avoided at all costs.

Poison Sumac



It's actually a tree. It's also by far the most toxic of the three, according to some botanists. It's leaves have no easily recognisable numerical pattern, growing in clusters of anywhere from 7-13 leaflets. This bad news is offset by good news - this hateful plant is only found in swamps and bogs. Why are you even hiking there in the first place?

Like groundhog holes, and broken bootlaces, poisonous plants are some of the irritating challenges any hiker has to get used too. Consider putting up with their existence as the fee we pay for an adventurous hike. Knowing just a bit about these pesky plants is more then enough to steer the hiker away from them and onto the more enjoyable things of the trip.

Hiking / TourDriving Tips #1 --- 'Deer'-ly Beloved ....

One of the great pleasures of hiking in a park or wilderness area (historical or otherwise) is to enjoy the sights and sounds of nature. The trees, flowers, grassplots and animals you encounter are what separates your hike from a trudge on a treadmill, or a routine stroll down your block. Rather then passive exhibits, the flora and fauna of your hike site are active participants in your outdoor adventure.

But as with all things, the natural world must be treated with both respect and common sense. Dealing with nature wisely can add on to the pleasures of the hike. Foolhardiness, on the other hand can make you wish you had stayed at home.

Today we'll talk about deer. Deer encounters spike in the fall months, but any time of year is good for reviewing basic deer dos and "doe" n'ts....

Deer pose very little risk to a hiker. As far as deer are concerned, humans look ugly, sound scary, and smell bad. Typically a deer will see, hear, or smell a human long before the human knows its there. Deer will be only too happy to get out of your way and let you enjoy your hike. In any event seeing a troop of deer in the mid-to far distance is likely to bring a grin to the face of most hikers.

The situation changes dramatically when a car is involved. Deer on-car- accidents can spoil all the fun of a vacation day, especially if such an accident immediately becomes a deer-on-car-on-tree-on-second-car accident. It can lead to serious injuries or fatalities for the driver(s), and expensive damages to the vehicle(s). It usually ends badly for the deer as well.

As a general rule, hunting is prohibited in most state parks, and almost all national parks, where a good deal of hiking and touring take place. Deer seem to know this. They may not be all that smart, but they do notice places where there's NEVER any hunting and often congregate on parkland, particularly land that has plenty of woods. This calls on drivers to be extra-alert. Obey speed limits, and always scan for the beasts.


A few law enforcement sites have some more safety tips.
St. Mary's County, MD has some tips ...
http://www.co.saint-marys.md.us/dpw/dpwtemplate.asp?content=deersafetycontent.asp

as does Daniel Boone National Forest
http://www.fs.fed.us/r8/boone/safety/critters/deer.shtml

Antietam National Battlefield -- Auto Tour

Auto Tour

Visitor Center
The visitor center is the obvious place to begin. It’s an ideal spot to get oriented to the battlefield. A video narrated by James Earl Jones details troop movements and is shown daily. Downstairs are four huge battle paintings by Antietam veteran-turned-artist James Hope.
Since the visitor center is located on a mild plateau, its observation deck provides gorgeous panoramic views of more then half the battlefield.

Eastern National’s gift shop sells everything from Antietam coffee mugs to t-shirts, to bottled water. The all-important rest rooms are there too.

Outside of the building, visitors will find a black bell. This is the ships bell for the USS Antietam, a WWII aircraft carrier. That the Navy named (and continues to name) vessels after great battles like Antietam is a testament to the place this battle has in US history.

Along the pathway that leads down to the Hagerstown Road are several cannon. They are there for two reasons. First they remind the visitor that this mildly elevated ground was a Confederate artillery emplacement. Second, the cannon of differing designs and types represent the variety of tube artillery that was all about the battlefield. Exhibit plaques and tables describe the abilities of each type of artillery.

Next to the visitor center, the impressively tall New York State monument honors all the Empire Staters who fought for the North at Antietam.


Tour Stop #1 – Dunker Church

The Dunkers were a pacifist sect of Christians. They were called Dunkers because they baptized new members by total immersion. Dunkers were plain and peaceful folk. The parishioners wary of the sin of pride, the church boasted neither a steeple nor stained glass. It was a cruel irony that their simple church would be used as a focal point to guide Union attacks. It suffered heavily from battle damage during the fight. The Confederates used the structure as a temporary aid station for their wounded.

Across the street from the church is the beautiful, gazebo like Maryland Monument. Maryland was boarder state whose citizens had both northern and southern sympathies. It was torn in two by the War. 115,000 Old Line Staters fought in the Civil War. 85,000 wore blue. 30,000 wore gray. The Maryland Monument is the only monument on the field to honor men who fought on both sides of the conflict.


Tour Stop #2- J. Poffenberger Farm

Union Springboard
One of the reasons for the heavy casualties at Antietam was that the battle began early in the morning, and the two armies had spent the previous night within sight of each other. And so, they wasted no time getting down to the deadly work. This farm was the stepping off point for the Union 1st Corps, under General Joseph Hooker. Hooker’s Corps was one of 4 Union Corps to attack the Confederate line during the battle. The men camped here the night before, and at first light moved out to the south, towards the Dunker Church. The Union attacks were piecemeal and confused. Each individual unit and brigade would make progress, then be stymied, and give ground to a Confederate counterattack.

Combat surged to and fro over the Miller Cornfield south of here (we’ll see more of it at tour stop # 4). The carnage was so appalling that one union colonel abandoned his brigade in fear and ran for the rear. Other Union soldiers broke and ran. Veteran troops would flee past this place babbling in terror.

The Angel of the Battlefield
The waves of wounded staggering back needed a hero. They received a heroine. A 40year old civilian woman named Clarissa “Clara” Harlowe Barton came onto the battlefield. She had rare permission from the War Department to distribute medical supplies directly to the troops at the front. When the Union head surgeon for the 1st Corps saw her ride up with her wagons of supplies, he threw up his hands and said “God has not abandoned us!”

As unofficial nurse, Clara Barton was never afraid to get her hands dirty. Her tireless work on behalf of wounded soldiers earned her the nickname “Angel Of The Battlefield”. She tended to the injured so close to the front that when she stopped to water one stricken man, a Confederate stray bullet tore through her sleeve and killed her patient.

One of the most beautiful monuments on the field is right next to the parking area. It is the Clara Barton monument, commemorating her efforts of mercy. The whitewashed stone memorial has at its base two bricks taken from her Massachusetts home. They are arranged to form a Red Cross, symbolizing the relief agency that Clara later helped introduce, The American Red Cross.

Four other monuments form a “battle line” along the tour road. These monuments of Union soldiers are for the regiments Pennsylvania Reserve brigade. These Keystone Statesmen went into battle with Hooker’s 1st Corps.

This is also the stepping off point for the National Park Service’s Cornfield Trail.


Tour Stop # 3 – The East Woods

Fallen Union General
On the way to this parking area, the tourist passes an impressive polished monument to Union General Joseph K. Mansfield, commander of Union 12th Corps. From the parking area, a mortuary cannon, a signature of the Antietam Battlefield is visible standing muzzle down in the stone block. Antietam has six of these cannons marking where generals died on the battlefield. Despite the loss of their leader early in the action, the 12th Corps supported the 1st Corps in battle, the second Union Corps to be committed to the fight.


Tour Stop #4 – The Cornfield

Even a novice battlefield visitor can immediately suspect that important – and horrible - things happened here. The concentration of large memorials next to the parking area makes it evident that veteran soldiers wanted to memorialize this place above all others.

David Miller’s cornfield is now simply known as The Bloody Cornfield, and Civil War soldiers did not give out the nickname “Bloody” without good reason.

It was here that the Battle of Antietam began in earnest. Union Soldiers from Tour Stop 2, the Poffenberger Farm (visible in the distance, especially if there are cars parked there) clashed here with Jackson’s waiting Confederates. Union troops gained the upper hand, but were then pushed back by a furious Confederate counterattack under Gen John Bell Hood, which saved the Confederate line. That Confederate counterattack was itself brutally crushed by Union reinforcements and artillery. The Cornfield changed hands too many times to easily count. Every stalk of corn was cut down and it became difficult for incoming soldiers to walk across the field, so thickly strewn were the dead and dying.

“Worm” fences mark the boundaries of Bloody Cornfield. Perhaps surprisingly, it doesn’t always have corn growing in it. The NPS leases the land to local farmers, and like all farmers, they rotate crops.

The large obelisk monument along the Hagerstown Pike is the Indiana Monument. Next to it is the dramatic New Jersey Monument capped by a Union officer with an upraised sword. The stout Massachusetts Monument is across Cornfield Avenue on the opposite corner.

There are only five Confederate monuments in the entire park, and two of them are here, Georgia and Texas. They made up the bulk of soldiers who blunted the Union attacks.

Be sure to investigate the exhibit tables. Here at The Cornfield, the exhibit includes two charts representing the Union and Confederate armies. Note how the Union section has many more soldiers then the Confederate section does. Note further how the chart “tracks” the progress of the battle, by coloring red the casualties that were suffered in either side


Tour Stop # 5 – The West Woods
Flanked and Routed
This clearing in the large woodlot north of the Hagerstown Pike marks the farthest penetration of the Union attacks. The Union 2nd Corps under Edwin V Sumner now stepped up to support the fought-out 1st and 12th Corps. The soldiers in this corps, the third to attack for the day, suspected that the battle was going their way, and that they would administer the deathblow to Lee’s Army.

Sumner’s 2nd Corps was divided into three divisions. The first division under Gen. John Sedgewick came here into the West Woods. Stacked three brigades deep, they engaged a few remnants of the Confederate line to their front … and immediately received a horrifying surprise.

Two fresh Confederate divisions roared in from the south, near the Dunker Church and attacked the blue lines in their vulnerable left flanks. It was a fortunate accident for the Confederate reinforcements, and the positioning could not have been better for them if they had planned it.

All three brigades of this division were hit simultaneously, and had no time to turn to fight their new attackers. Sedgewick’s division, which should have had a strong influence on the course of the battle, was squandered. Half of the men were killed and wounded and the rest ran for their lives to the north. The rout was so complete that these survivors would contribute nothing further to the battle of Antietam.

The gigantic Philadelphia Brigade monument dominates the park, and this obelisk is the tallest monument at Antietam. Along the way in, the visitor passes by a second mortuary cannon, this one to Confederate General Starke. Exhibits here illustrate the flanking of Sedgewick’s division and, like the exhibit at The Cornfield, tally up the Union and Confederate losses for this phase of the fighting.


Tour Stop # 6 – The Mumma Farm

This stop is usually of limited interest to the battlefield visitor. This is the Mumma Farm, which has the grim distinction of being the only civilian property deliberately destroyed by either army during the battle. The Confederate soldiers burned the buildings to prevent its use by Union sharpshooters. It saw no active fighting, but many a Union and Confederate soldier, while documenting their experiences on the battlefield remembered the burning Mumma Farm.


Tour Stop #7 – Union Advance

This is another tour stop that’s a bit scanty on information. The view from the parking area is that of the Roulette farm, the avenue of attack for the remainder of the Union 2nd Corps. The visitor will remember that the first division of the 2nd Corps (under Sedgwick) was knocked out of action at the West Woods (Tour Stop 5). The other two Union divisions under Generals William French and Isreal Richardson advanced across these fields to strike Confederates under Gen. D.H. Hill at the “Sunken Road”


Tour Stop #8 – The Sunken Road (Bloody Lane)

Point Blank
Before the battle, this country lane was the boundary between the Roulette farm to the east, and Piper farm to the west. Years of use by heavily laden wagons pressed the roadbed to a level below that of the surrounding area. For the Confederates of Gen D.H. Hill’s division, it was a pre-fabricated infantry trench. A thin gray line of Southerners stood there ground here, and waited for the Northern boys under French and Richardson to attack.

The viewer can see the ridge that the Federal soldiers had to crest to attack the road. It’s not even a football field away from the lane. By the time the blue-coated soldiers cleared the ridge and descended towards the rifles of DH Hill’s men, it was death at nearly point blank range.
Soldiers fell left and right as each side sent volleys of rifle fire crashing into each other. Casualties were horrendous, as detailed in both the exhibit table (another one with a chart) and yet another mortuary cannon, this one to Confederate General T.G. Anderson. The lane is fairly lengthy, and contains two parking areas. One is by Anderson’s cannon, site of the attack of French’s division. The other is about a ¼ mile to the right, next to the observation tower. Richardson’s Federals attacked in this area.

Deathtrap
The Southerners had a formidable position, but the Northerners had the superior numbers, and that carried the lane. When one Union regiment found a knoll from where they could rain down rifle fire on the Southern position, the Sunken Road became a deathtrap, and Confederate line collapsed. The Union held the ground, but the two divisions were too fought out to advance any further. Few sights of the Civil War were more gruesome then the Sunken Road filled with Confederate bodies. Unsurprisingly, the Sunken Road forever after bore the name Bloody Lane. Like Miller's cornfield, it had seen more then enough carnage to earn the gory nickname.

The view from the observation tower is as spectacular as one might imagine. Go climb! The Dunker Church, Cornfield, West Woods, Visitor Center and Sunken Road are all visible from the deck. Near the tower is the artistic monument to the Union Irish Brigade, which opened up Richardson’s attack. Richardson has his own monument too, his mortuary cannon, by now a familiar sight on this sanguine battleground.


Tour Stop # 9 – Burnside's Bridge

500 vs 12,500
The 9th Corps, under General Ambrose Burnside, made the fourth major Union attack of the day. To hit the Confederate lines, they had to cross the Antietam creek. To cross the creek, they had to capture the three-arched stone bridge. General Burnside would spend far too much time trying to claim this bridge that would bear his name.

Everything that could possibly go wrong for Burnside did go wrong. Even though only a few hundred Georgians held the Confederate side of the span, three separate Union attacks failed to capture it. One of them even got lost on their way to the bridge. Finally, the fourth attack succeeded – three hours after the bridge was supposed to have been captured Roughly 500 Confederates had paralyzed 12,500 Federals for this long.

The parking area has trails that lead down to the bridge. First, there’s a quick detour exhibiting the Confederate positions from the bluffs overlooking the bridge. On the Union side of the span, more exhibits display the scene from the Northern point of view. Here are the monuments to “The two 51sts”, the 51st Pennsylvania and 51st New York that captured the bridge.
Also near the parking area is the impressive McKinley Monument. One might wonder why a lowly commissary sergeant has a monument of this grandeur dedicated to him, but Sgt. William McKinley was no ordinary sergeant. Rather he had a brilliant and tragic future ahead of him as the 25th President of the United States, and the 3rd to be assassinated.

Exhibit tables are situated on either side of the bridge, and again the tally of casualties increases on both sides.

The Burnside’s Bridge parking lot is also the starting point for two key hiking trails. The Burnside Bridge Trail carries forth to the Union side of the creek, and walks over much of the ground seen by the four Union attacks to storm the bridge. The Final Attack Trail follows in great detail the action after Burnside seized the bridge, and outlines the end of the Battle of Antietam. This brings us to …


Tour Stop #10 – The Final Attack

Last Minute Miracle for the South
This last action tour stop is situated on the last Confederate line of resistance. The parking area has a view of the fields upon which the Union soldiers of the 9th Corps to attack the badly outnumbered Southerners. After seizing the bridge, an operation that took three hours, the 9th Corps squandered another 2 hours getting all 12,000 men across the bridge, and re-supplying the soldiers with ammo. Finally, at around 3:00pm, the massive 9th Corps moved towards where the visitor is parked, intent on capturing Sharpsburg and crushing Lee’s army.

It was a miracle of timing that saved the Confederate army. The last division of Confederates to arrive on the field showed up at 4:00pm, under Confederate General A.P. Hill. These last fresh Southern troops drove straight into the unguarded flanks of the Union 9th Corps knocking them back to the heights by Burnside’s Bridge, and ending the battle in a tactical draw.

The terrain at this tour stop works against the visitor. A viewer at the parking area is only about a half mile from Burnside’s Bridge, but the bridge is hidden by the intervening hills on the Otto Farm making it difficult to appreciate how far (or rather, how short) the Federal units had to march to engage the Confederates here. Part of this reason is that much of the land at this part of the battlefield was not acquired until the early 2000s. Because of this, the Final Attack hiking trail is strongly recommended.

Scattered monuments to the front memorialize the Union regiments that fought here, both along the road and in the undulating fields in front of it. Also along this road are two more mortuary cannons to Union general Rodman and Confederate General Branch. To the viewers rear is the obelisk to the 9th New York regiment, which made the furthest advance during this attack before being compelled to retire by Hill’s counterattack.

The by-now familiar exhibit tables bring the battle to a close, with the final grim tally for the tragic Battle of Antietam: 23,000 soldiers killed wounded and missing, Americans all.


Tour Stop # 11 – Antietam National Cemetery

The battle was over, and very little ground had changed hands at all. Union and Confederate forces had mauled each other into a stalemate. Union general McClellan had almost 25,000 soldiers ready who had not yet fired a shot. Confederate general Lee had fought his last man. But McClellan, badly shaken by the terrible casualties did not finish off his foe.

Two days after the fighting, Lee evacuated the battlefield, and his invasion was over. Although it had been tactical draw, the battle was a strategic victory for the North.

President Abraham Lincoln now had the political credibility to extend the goals of the Northern war effort. The Civil War was no longer going to be a petty feud over states rights and secession, but a noble quest to crush slavery in America. The Emancipation Proclamation, issued a mere five days after the fighting at Antietam, was an important first step. The modest, yet important Union victory at Antietam made that first step possible.

The final stop on the tour invites the tourist to contemplate the human cost of the Battle of Antietam. Most of the casualties, Northerners and Southerners were buried by Union grave details where they fell on the battlefield. And there was a lot of such work to do. More then 2100 Federals and 1500 Confederates were dead, making this one day battle the bloodiest day of violence in United States history. 9500 more Union and 7700 Confederates were wounded. In addition, more then 700 Yankees and 1000 Rebels were listed as “missing”, mostly captured.

The Antietam National Cemetery houses the remains of more then 4,000 Union soldiers. They were reintered following the war. Confederate casualties were kept apart, and buried in cemeteries in Hagerstown, Frederick, (both MD) and Shepherdsville, WV. Most of the bodies were found shortly after the war. But not all of them were. In 2008, the bones of a young New York soldier were found near the Bloody Cornfield. 146 years earlier, the reinterment details had missed his grave.

In addition to Civil War casualties, the cemetery also houses the earthly remains of veterans of the Spanish American War, the two world wars, and Korea. It was closed to further interments in 1953. However, in the year 2000, an exception was made, and the cemetery was opened again to receive the remains of yet another hero, USN Fireman Patrick Howard Roy, who died in the terrorist attack upon the USS Cole.

The Private Soldier Monument, a statue of a gigantic Union soldier stands sentinel in the center of the cemetery, guarding the rest of his brothers. His name is Old Simon, and he looks out over the battlefield towards the North, and home. An inscription on his base says all there is to say about the Union casualties that slumber at his feet. Indeed, his words bring to mind the selflessnes and bravery of soldiers on both sides of the American Civil War.

“NOT FOR THEMSELVES, BUT FOR THEIR COUNTRY”

Antietam National Battlefield - Overview

Overview of The Civil War's Bloodiest Day





Why explore this site?

The Battle of Antietam was fought on September 17th, 1862. The Confederate Army of Northern Virginia under General Robert E. Lee had been capitalizing on recent battlefield successes in Virginia by invading the North. The Union Army of the Potomac under Gen. George B. McClellan countered the invasion. The Union general placed his units to attack the Confederates, moving cautiously and slowly, despite the fact that his huge army outnumbered Lee’s by more then 2 to 1.

McClellan’s plodding and overcautious pace proved to be a fortunate break for Lee and his army, as was McClellan’s refusal to commit reserves for follow up attacks. Lee’s army barely managed to hold on and endure. But they did, and the Civil War would go on for two and a half years after the battle that many historians (as well as president Abraham Lincoln) believed should have seen the end of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia.

The Battle of Antietam ended Lee’s first invasion of the north. This marginal victory was the first major success the Union had had in the eastern part of the war. The modest triumph gave President Lincoln the political strength to release the Emancipation Proclamation, which was the beginning of the end of slavery in the United States.

The one-day battle was the bloodiest single day of violence in American history. With over 3600 soldiers killed outright, and 17000 more wounded, a greater number of Americans lost their lives on September 17th 1862 then in World War II’s D-Day invasion of June 6th, 1944 or on the attacks of September 11th 2001.

Ways to tour

Auto Tour
The battlefield is ideal for tour by car. The National Park Service provides an excellent touring map of eleven car stops for a self-guided tour. Fortunately for the modern historian, the action of the battle progressed from north to south, making it fairly easy to follow key events chronologically from stop to stop.

Besides the pittance of an entrance fee, there’s no charge for touring the park. Any visitor can have a productive day tour armed only with the brochure. It should, however be noted that in 2004 TravelBrains released a combination CD audio tour and Field Guide. This guide is available for sale at the visitor center, and is loaded with historical information and interesting anecdotes and trivia. Let your budget and interest dictate whether or not this is right for you.

Cornfield Hiking Trail
Burnside’s Bridge Hiking Trail
Final Attack Hiking Trail
Snavely’s Ford Hiking Trail