Susi Graves
History 1010
17, November 2012
Deadliest Day in American History: Battle of Antietam
The Battle of Antietam is considered the turning point of the Civil War. In August, 1862, the Union Army of Virginia lost the Battle of Second Manassas under the command of Major General John Pope to the Army of Northern Virginia commanded by General Robert E. Lee. This lose left the Union army disorganized and dispirited, forcing President Lincoln to appoint a new leader of the Union army, Major General George McClellan. No other day in the history of our nation has been as brutal, bloody, or deadly as what happened on September 17, 1862. After the Confederate army won the Battle of Second Manassas, Lee needed to plan his next move. Lee wanted to move his soldiers to an area that would help take the pressure off of the Shenandoah Valley. Lee was convinced by making this move he would get the support from Europe if he could win a battle on Northern soil. Lee thought the Union army would take some time to reorganize, so he decided to divide his army. Lee would use these divisions to capture certain areas. He would use Lieutenant General Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson to achieve these wins. Lee would send Jackson to Harper’s Ferry, were the Union garrison would end up surrendering. Meanwhile, Lee sent Lt. General James Longstreet to Sharpsburg. While entering Frederick, two Union soldiers of the 27th Indiana Regiment found papers wrapped around three cigars in a field on the Best Farm. The soldiers knew they had found something important. Commander Williams and his aide, Colonel Pittman determined these papers were Lee’s battle plans, know as Confederate Order 191 and forward them to McClellan. McClellan was overjoyed and wired President Lincoln, “’I have all the plans of the rebels, and will catch them in their own trap if my men are equal to the emergency ’”(Armstrong 110). McClellan analyzed the plans and formed his strategy. Lee learned of the two Union soldiers’ discovery by a loyal Southerner. McClellan was being cautious, which left Lee to act fast; this gave the Confederate time to figure out what they were going to do next. McClellan gave Lee seventeen hours head start before McClellan would start to move towards Sharpsburg. Lee regrouped the Confederate troops around Sharpsburg which is at the base of South Mountain. While at South Mountain, Union troops numbering 38,000 attacked 12,000 Confederate soldiers at Crampton’s, Turner’s and Fox’s Gap. When it was over, there were 2,500 Union casualties and 3,800 Confederate casualties. McClellan feared Lee outnumbered him so he moved his troops away from South Mountain and had his men rest at the east ridges of Antietam Creek. If McClellan used his 75,000 man army to fight Lee, the Confederate army would have lost. Lee only had three of his nine divisions at Sharpsburg on September 16. McClellan sent Major General Joseph Hooker out with I Corps towards the north of where the confederates were at, the result was only minor but it would give Lee the knowledge were McClellan was planning on attacking first. McClellan was very secretive about his plans, and didn’t even share them with his commanders, leaving them to eventually operate on their own. Starting early in the morning around 6 a.m. on September 17, 1862, the battle begin. Major General Joseph Hook’s Union corps was the first to attack Lee’s army. Repeated attacks from both sides where vicious. Union and Confederate troops were counterattacking each other from Miller’s cornfield to the West Woods. Even though the Union army outnumbered the Confederate, Stonewall Jackson’s division would hold their ground near Dunker Church.
Sumner’s Union corps, led by General John Sedgwick, marched into the West Woods to help General Joseph Mansfield’s men. Sedgwick’s force was destroyed. Within fifteen minutes, Sedgwick lost two thousand three hundred troops. This attack alone was the deadliest for the day. During the mid-day, General William French’s division moved to help General Sedgwick but moved to the south of the Confederates under General D. H. Hill’s division at Sunken Road. French’s attack was beginning to fail until General Israel B. Richardson’s Union flank came to help General French. This campaign was so bloody it turned the dirt unto mud. Union General Ambrose Burnside and his troops were trying to capture a bridge that crossed over Antietam Creek. The Confederate bridge, led by General Toombs, kept Burnside’s troops from capturing the bridge, but the Union troops finally captured the bridge around 1 p.m. After Burnside crossed the bridge, it took two hours to reorganize their lines and they drove General Toombs’ troops back to Sharpsburg. Coming from Harper’s Ferry, General A. P. Hill and his division arrived at Antietam. Hill and his troops saved the Northern Virginia buy counterattacking Burnside. Hill’s division convinced Burnside that he had done enough fighting for that day. Technically, the battle was over. That night both armies would bury the fallen soldiers and attend to their wounded. Lee’s corps commanders were urging him to withdraw on the night of the 17th. Lee, however, decided to withdraw the Confederate army from Antietam Creek on the night of the 18th. General McClellan decided not to follow lee even after President Lincoln asked him too. Once the battle was over, over 22,000 men were wounded, missing or dead. Many of the churches, homes, stores, and barns in the area were used for hospitals. Many of Sharpsburg civilians had to deal with diseases. The bloodiest day in history the United States ever saw happened on September 17, 1862. The battle was technically a draw but the Union was looked at as the winner because the South was not recognized as the clear winner. The Confederate army lost any chance of being a nation. President Lincoln took the opportunity to announce his Emancipation Proclamation after the battle. The Emancipation Proclamation would be effective on January 1, 1863.

Work Cited
Alexander, Ted. “Battle of Antietam.” www.historynet.com/Battle-of-Antietam. Civil War Times Magazine, September 2006. Web. 5 Nov 2012
Armstrong, Marion. Unfurl those colors!:McClellan, Sumner, and the Second Army Corps in the Antietam campaign. Tuscalossa, Alabama: The University of Alabama Press, 2008. Print.
Gallagher, Gary. Antietam: essays on the 1862 Maryland campaign. Kent, Ohio: The Kent State University Press, 1989 Print.
“The Battle of Antietam.” www.antietam.aotw.org/. N.p., n.d. Web. 5 Nov 2012 Trudeau, Noah. “Battle of Antietam.” www.history.com/topics/battle-of-antietam. N.p., n.d. Web. 2 Nov 2012