On September 17, 1862, one of this nations bloodiest battles of all time took place. It happened outside of a very small town in the Maryland countryside; called Sharpsburg. The name of the battle was the Battle of Antietam, named after the small creek that ran through the battlefield. In this writing assignment, I will write about the important facts of the battle rather than the actual troop movements. I will elaborate on the reasons why General Robert E. Lee was in Maryland, why both sides needed a victory, Special Order No. 191, General McClellan’s role, the sunken road, and finally the overall outcome of the confrontation.

General Robert E. Lee was fresh off a victory on the peninsula around Richmond, Virginia. He was, however running short on supplies and needed to strike a demoralizing blow to the north. In order to achieve this, he would have to go north with his army. He took his Army of Northern Virginia and started toward Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. The south central area of Pennsylvania was full of rich farmland thus would provide plenty of food rations.

In addition to supplies, General Robert E. Lee wanted to deal a blow to the moral of the northern people. His thinking wa

The northern army was attacking toward the rebel center with three regiments of new troops that had never seen battle. The first regiment, who were green troops with little combat experience, crested the ridge in line formation and was totally wiped out by the entrenched rebel army that picked them off as they came over the hill. The soldiers that weren’t killed turned and ran back through the next brigade that was coming up. The next brigade, who was made up of troops from the 14th Connecticut, 108th New York and the 130th Pennsylvania, suffered the same fate, despite having some combat experience.

General McClellan had demonstrated throughout the Battle of Antietam his reluctance to make decisive decisions. When General Joseph “Fighting Joe” Hooker had requested reinforcements to wipe out the rebels on the north side of the battlefield, General McClellan refused to send them until he received more replacements from Washington. Instead of sending in several divisions at a time into the battle, he would send in just a few regiments at a time. This would prove to be one of the leading causes of the high casualty rate of the battle.

The battle of Antietam was an important battle for both the south and north. For the south this battle, was important to them, for a couple of reasons. The most important of reasons was financial backing. The French and English governments had been watching the repeated successes that the Confederacy was having. The hope of the southern government was to have a major victory on northern soil and show the French and English it’s strength so the foreign governments would decide to provide financial backing and help bring the war to an end sooner.

s “ what better way to bring your enemies moral down than to march around in his own backyard?”

General Ricketts’s men fought there way down into the Cornfield and as they broke out, were met by a volley of Confederate gunfire. The next of the Union lines walked over the dead first line and engaged the enemy without cover 250 yards away and opened fire. After a little while and many casualties, both lines would lay down behind what cover they could and continued to fight. During this part of the battle, both lines would get as close as 30 yards apart.

The northern part of the battle took place in the East Woods, West Woods and the area in between, 300 yards down to the Dunkers Church. General “Fighting Joe” Hooker lead the attack due south toward the Dunkers Church with a division of men. The division under Abner Doubleday advanced with General Hooker on his right and James Ricketts division on his left and Meade’s division backed them up, centered on there rear. General “Fighting Joe’s” First Corps would open the battle with 8,600 at 6am.

There were 12,500 Federal troops to use for the assault but, the road and bottle neck at the bridge severely limited the size of an assaulting party and the creek was four to five feet deep in this area which made a crossing under fire a dismal thought, but the Union plan was to pin down the bridge defenders while forcing a crossing at a ford a little down stream to take the flank an

Some topics in this essay:
John Gordon, Federal Army, Sunken Road, French English, Antietam Ricketts’s, History United, Battle Antietam, Robert Lee, Harper’s Ferry, Washington Instead, dunkers church, battle antietam, sunken road, west woods, harper’s ferry, northern army, major victory, special 191, rebel army, robert lee, south dunkers church, “fighting joe” hooker, cornfield dunkers church, battle sunken road, bridge road leading,