ANTIETAM or SHARPSBURG if It Spelled Death for lor Amer Americans cans By ELMO SCOTT WATSON IN I N THE North they called colled it Antietam In the South Sharpsburg But which ever name is given the battle that was fought in Washington county Maryland Mary Mary- land on September 17 1862 it spelled death for some Americans from both the North and ond the South The field where it was fought taught lying along Antietam creek and ond including the littletown little littletown littletown town of Sharpsburg has come down in history as the scene of the bloodiest single day of fighting and that of September as the day of I greatest carnage during the whole four years of the American Amer Amer- scan lean Civil war Into that battle bat tie tle Gen Robert E. E Lee led approximately men ingray in ingray ingray gray and came out of it with witha a loss of nearly killed and wounded But in doing so he inflicted upon Gen Cen 1 4 I i d lit GEN GEORGE B B. B McCLELLAN McCLELL George B. B McClellan and hi his s host of men in blue a loss of more than Pointing out that this dous dour tumult of carnage was en Compassed in the brief brie f hours from Irom dawn to four tour o'clock k in the afternoon one of at the generals gen who took part in it Gen James Longstreet Lon of the Confederate Confederate erate army in do his memoirs From Manassas to Appomattox tox tax says Gettysburg was th the e greatest battle of the war but 1 it t was for lor three days and its total tots I 1 of casualties on either side terrible terrible ter I as it was should be one third one d larger to make the average per i diem to the losses at Sharpsburg Viewed by the measure meas ure of losses Antietam was the fourth battle battlo of the war Spott Spoil sylvania and the Wilderness as aswell aswell aswell well as Gettysburg exceeding it in number of killed and wounded but ea each h of these dragged ted its tragedy through several days And now three-quarters three of a century later thousands of Amen cans are gathering on that blood blood- soaked field to celebrate the sev enty fifth anniversary of the bat tie tle to see it re enacted by National Guard troops from three states and to hear again the story of the deeds of the men who fought there President Roosevelt Roosevelt Roose Roose- velt has been Invited to attend the celebration and the governors of 29 states Northern and Southern will be among the spectators when the curtain of history is rolled back and the guns of war echo through the rolling hills of Maryland Maryland Mary Mary- land once more The story of Antietam is the story of ot a great b battle which just I missed being a decisive engagement engage engage- engagement ment because of ot several queer I quirks of tate tale It came at a time when the hopes of the Confederacy acy for success were mounting high Lee had whipped Pope at the second battle of Bull BuU Run or Manassas and decided that the time was ripe to carry the war against the enemy instead of fighting on the defensive lie He hoped that the people of Maryland would rally to the Stars Stare and liars Bars if he led a strong strona force forc into that state and there was also the possibility that this threat against Washington would release the pressure on Richmond without with out endangering the capital of the Confederacy If U his reception in the border state was what he be hoped it would be be he could continuo con con- north into Pennsylvania and thus give tho the Northerners a taste of their own medicine of invasion Maryland M My Maryland l So with Jeb Job Stuart women 01 of Maryland had bad given that dashing trooper a pair of gold spurs leadIng lead lead- Ing lug the way waT and with ban bands I blar blar- ing Dg and soldiers singing Maryland Maryland Mary land My Mary Maryland land 1 Lee Leo crossed the Potomac on September 11 11 But as he advanced into his neigh boring state tato he found its people strangely apathetic to his offer to toj j a x t r tt y 1 r r At y l a aG G airy w y P I m Teri AT AT BRIDGE free them from oppression Neither recruits in any large number number num num- ber nor supplies were ing Moreover his men began to straggle because many of them were reluctant to fight outside of Virginia Then Lee decided upon a bold plan and a necessary one if ii he were to carry the war into Penn Pen n I sylvania Against the advice of some of his generals he divided his forces and ordered Stonewall Stonewall Stone wall Jackson to strike for lor Harpers Harper's liar Har pers per's Ferry and capture the Union supplies stored there and guarded by a comparatively small force Several copies of the orders for this maneuver were made and one of these copies came into the hands of a staff officer whose Identity identity iden Iden- tHy has never been established This officer wrapped up three cigars cigars ci cl gars in the paper and carelessly stuffed it in his pocket And here is where one of those queer quirks of fate late came in An Important Find Flad The officer lost the cigars with their highly important wrapping out of his pocket and they were picked up by a Union soldier W Within a short time Lees Lee's Special cial Order No was in the hands of Gen George B. B McClel Ian lan At first the Union commander com corn mander mender could scarcely believe that it was authentic Then real zing izing the golden opportunity that the t lay within his grasp that grasp that of ing Lees Lee's divided force he force he set his army of in swift motion toward Frederick By this time Lee Leo had reached H Hagerstown No word had yet been received from the force sent to capture Harpers Harper's Ferry and the Confederate commander began to t be concerned Ills His alarm des deep a ened when Jeb Stuart brought brough t roc s t rr r 41 I GEN ROBERT RODEnT TOOMBS TOOl I word of McClellan's advance Le Lee Lei knew Little Mac as a skillful ul but over over- over cautious commander an and d could not understand why he h e should be moving with such sureness sureness sure sure- ness tow toward rd his objective II He lie e knew nothing of the loss of th the e copy of Special Order No but he suspected that McClellan Ft had guessed his situation and was wa s marching to take advantage te of II it Then word came from Jocks Jackson on that he had captured Harpers harper s Ferry and asked for tor further or oz ders dens Lee at once sent word to toa for fora r a concentration of his scattered scatter forces at Sharpsburg toward towar d which McClellan was advancing g On the tho afternoon of September 1 16 6 Lee drew up his troops on the e west bank of Antietam creek an and made as strong a display of force tor toras Ce as possible in an effort to stall o off g McClellan's McClellan attack until the trop troops ps under Jackson A. A P. P Hill and M McLaws Mc- Mc Laws should arrive looker Hooker Opens s the Affair In the afternoon McClellan a sent cat Gen Joe Hooker to cross the An and attempt to turn Lees Lee Lee a left Hooker Booker met with some come su success suc a cess but when night came he w was IS content to rest upon his arms and hold the small amount of ground grow and he had gained The next morals morning g the two armies were drawn up o op t polite each other in lines three ee i miles mUes long At dawn Hook Hooker er again attacked and soon the b bat at I tie tle was raging all aU along the line fin e I The fiercest fighting took pla place ce I In n the center and made immortal two wo spots spots Bloody spots Bloody Lane a sunken sunk sunk- en road washed out by rains which made a natural rifle pit for forthe forthe the he Confederates and a stonebridge stonebridge stone bridge over Antietam creek to toe tobe tobe be e known later as Burnsides Burnside's bridge In the sunken road lay the men of two Rodes Rode's and Andersons Anderson's of the five brigades commanded by Gen D D. Ii H. H Hill Bill When the Union general French advanced to attack at al alack tack ack his men were met with a withering fire as they pushed up the he hill hUt beyond Antietam creek But they dug in and held on for a little ittle while Then in one of the most desperate parts of the whole battle attle they surged over the rail rall fence ence from behind which the Confederates Con Con- federates had been pouring in their destructive fire and over over- overwhelmed whelmed the gray defenders of the sunken road When this part of the battle was over the road was filled with dead and dying Thus Bloody Lane got its name At this point McClellan had another another an an- other opportunity to smash Lee Lee Lee- and threw it away I lie He had in reserve reserve reserve re re- re- re serve John Fitz-John Porters Porter's corps of 1000 men who had not had not yet been engaged Military experts believe that hat had he immediately thrown this his force into the fight to follow tollow up ip Frenchs French's success he could have lave split Lees Lee's army in two and won the battle then and there Toombs' Toombs Heroic Defense But for some strange reason he failed ailed to do so 0 Instead he was sending repeated orders to General General Gen Gen- eral Burnside to attack the stone stoneridge brIdge ridge over the Antietam This was bridge bridge was defended by Ge Gen Robert Rob Rob- R Robert ert Toombs once a member of Jefferson Davis' Davis cabinet but now commander of a small force lorce of two Georgia regiments and several sev eral erel fragments of other com corn The bridge was a key to the Confederate rear If the Union Forces captured it they would block one of the routes of retreat So in the face of overwhelming odds adds Toombs and his small force held field on grimly against repeated attacks by Burnside Considering the heroic quality of that defense it would seem fitting that that bridge should Lear hear the name of Toombs Insides Inside's In In- stead that honor goes to the general gen eral seal whose forces captured it forto for to this day it is known as Burnsides Burnside's Burn Burn- sides side's bridge Considering too the amount of blood that was shed in capturing the bridge it seems Ironical enough that few lew of Burnsides Burn Bum Burnsides Burnside's sides side's men after driving off oft Toombs' Toombs forces used it to cross the stream Instead the majority of them waded across the Antietam Antietam Antie Antie- tam just below or above it iti Early in the rho afternoon Burnside was able to report to McClellan that by a brilliant charge of the first Fifty F Pennsylvania Volun leers the hard fought bridge had been carried After occupy ing l ag the other bank Burnside halted until 3 o'clock when peremptory peremptory per per- orders came from the commander to push leeward forward and carry the heights to which the enemy had retired Held up for tor a awhile awhile while by a Confederate battery on the left of the line Burnside final final- ly succeeded in reaching the ilia heights and some of his troops even advanced to the outskirts of Sharpsburg A. A P P. P Hill Arrives At this juncture reinforcements which Lee had been praying for arrived red shined General Hill red r red bearded A. A P P. P Hill who him who had been making a forced march from Harpers Harper's Ferry arrived on the field Tired as his men were they were weco Immediately hurled against Burnside The boys in n blue were driven back to the creek and there they prepared to make their stand tand If this Important movement Burnside advance had been consummated two hours earlier McClellan wrote to the War department de a position would have been bees secured upon the heights from which our batteries might have lave enfiladed the greater part of the enemy's line and turned their right and rear Our victory might have been much more de But McClellan had bad missed his chance for a smashing victory when he did not throw John Fitz-John Porter into the fray Iray and when he did not support Burnsides Burnside's attack as strongly as he might have done Darkness ended the fighting fighting fight fight- ing on Antietam's Antietam bloody field and that night Union and Confederate soldiers rested on their arms At dawn the Union artillery opened opened op op- ened fire tire again General Couch's division arrived giving McClellan fresh men but he made no attempt to push the fight He now had men and more were on the rho way Believing that Lee had hadet at et least although there were never more than men menn in n gray the ilia Union commander I decided to wait walt even though he Sr V 5 GEN ROBERT RODEnT E. E LEE LEE LEE- I knew there was a chance that Lee would escape across the Potomac Finally the Confederates sent a white flag fiat asking for an armistice to gather up the wounded between the two armies and it was granted Neither army resumed the attack at at- tack during the day and that night the Union pickets heard the rum rum- b bling ling of wheels The next morn mom in ing g revealed what they had sus sus- sus p Lee had retreated in safety safe safe- ty across the Potomac Immediately Immedi Immedi- a tely McClellan gave orders for foran foran foran a an advance Porters Porter's corps the corps the v very troops which he had held back during the battle forded battle forded the river formed on the Virginia shore and started to advance But t the men in m gray had a strong position tI t lion tion now They threw back the tt I Union advance with heavy casU casual l. l t ties thereby adding to the losses v which McClellan had suffered 1 lives that had been given in vain Back in Washington a tall taU gaunt man awaited news of ot the battle lie He had written a pearls procla- y yS r S GEN A. A E. E BURNSIDE I matlon freeing treeing the slaves He would follow up the first great Union victory with this tion lion ad as a blow against southern resistance Then the news of the bloody struggle at Antietam came bearing bearIng bear bear- Ing with it the story of McClelIan's McClel McClel- lans lan's tragic failure and Abraham Lincoln sadly faced a future in which there seemed little hope C 0 Western Newspaper r Union Ul