The first major Civil War engagement on Northern soil, and one of the bloodiest days in American history.
Flushed with his recent victories, Lee
was marching into Maryland, and must be met and checked by the remnants of
Pope's army and the Army of the Potomac. It is touching to read of the men's joy
and renewed confidence when they knew that "Little Mac" was
again in command. The magnetism was like that ascribed to Napoleon. Organizing
as he proceeded, he marched into Maryland parallel with Lee, who had advanced as
far as Frederick. Lee was disappointed by the coolness of his reception, and on
the approach of McClellan fell back to Turner's and Crampton's gaps in the South
mountain, where he was defeated and driven from the former by Reno's corps, and
from the latter by Franklin on 13 and 14 September McClellan
was now to encounter the full force of the enemy on Antietam creek, a small
tributary of the Potomac, which it joins about seven miles north of Harper's
Ferry.
By the failure of General Miles to fortify Maryland heights, and in spite
of the entreaties of McClellan that Harper's Ferry should be abandoned and its
garrison added to his army. Jackson captured the post on 13 September and took
11,500 prisoners. He was thus enabled to join forces with Lee at Antietam. On
the 16th Lee had only two divisions across the Potomac, but the National army
did not come into position till the 17th. McClellan placed Hooker and Mansfield
on the right, next came Sumner, with Franklin as a support, Burnside was on the
left, and Porter in the centre. Lee had placed his army in the acute angle enclosed
by the Potomac and the Antietam on the heights between the two streams, to the
right and left of the Boonsboro road, he had posted Long-street and Hill, with
Hood on the left. In the centre of the position was the Dunker church, which
seemed an objective point for both armies.
Three stone bridges cross the Antietam, and there are also several fords.
The bridge on the left was in front of Burnside, the central one in front of
Porter, and the right opposite Hooker and
Mansfield. McClellan's plan was for Hooker to cross and attack the enemy's left,
supported if necessary by Sumner and Franklin, and upon the apparent success of
that attack Burnside was to cross the bridge in his front, press the enemy's
right, passing if possible to the south and rear of Sharpsburg. At daylight on
the morning of the 17th Hooker, followed by Mansfield, having crossed the
stream, made so furious an attack upon Hood and Jackson that they were driven
back beyond the Dunker church. Re-enforced by D. It. Hill, the Confederates
returned the attack, and drove Hooker back in turn. Then Sumner came up, moved
forward, was driven back, and again, with Franklin's aid, forced them beyond the
Dunker church. Sumner even attempted to move, with a portion of his corps, to
the left upon Sharpsburg, but he could only hold his ground. But the movements
on the left were less fortunate. Burnside had been ordered at 8 A. M. to take
the stone bridge, and aid the general movements by occupying the heights beyond.
The approach to the bridge being swept by the guns of the enemy, the order to
take it was not obeyed until 1 o'clock, when the Confederates had so
strengthened their position beyond it that it was impossible to dislodge them.
Thus it happened that the principal fighting was on the right, where Mansfield
was killed, and Hooker wounded. The desperate attempts of the enemy to pierce
the National line on the right and centre were foiled. In spite of repeated
orders, the failure of Burnside's corps to
take the lower stone bridge invalidated McClellan's combinations, and to some
extent neutralized his success. Had it been carried early in the day, Lee might
have been driven pell-mell into the Potomac. As it was, when we consider all the
circumstances, the forcing back of the Confederate line, and their inability to
make any effect upon the National line, the engagement at Antietam, so often
regarded as only a drawn battle, must be looked upon as a decided success. About
13,000 men fell on each side, but McClellan retained the field when the enemy,
his plans entirely foiled, sullenly withdrew. As an offset to the disaster of Harper's
Ferry, McClellan had, in this brief campaign, taken 13 guns, 39 colors, upward
of 15,000 stand of arms, and more than 6,000 prisoners, while he had not lost a
gun or a color.
No swift pursuit was attempted, and Lee crossed the Potomac at his leisure
on the 19th. McClellan then followed, advancing his army between Longstreet's
corps and the main body under Lee, and halted at Warrenton to recruit, while the
powers at Washington, withholding all praise for what he and his army had
achieved, were scolding him for his delay. He needed supplies of all kinds, and
with regard to the arrival of these there has since been a long controversy. He
believed that what time was lost in immediate pursuit of the enemy would be more
than compensated by the concentration, freshness, equipments, good spirits, and
recovered morale of his army. Urgent orders were sent him to move on, and
irritating insinuations were hurled upon him. At last an order from the
President came on 7 November, relieving McClellan of the command, and conferring
it upon General Burnside, who then (as he had before) declared his unfitness for
it and his indisposition to accept it. McClellan was directed to await orders at
Trenton, New Jersey, and afterward at New York.
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Battle
of Antietam
... GENERAL ROBERT E. LEE'S first invasion of the North culminated with the
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