Antietam: Animated Battle Map

following a string of some victories most recently at second Manassas in early September 1862 Confederate General Robert Ely six to maintain his hard-earned initiative it is the first time Lee's Confederates have set foot on Union soil Lee's march into Maryland is a bold gamble he hopes to bring the Union Army to battle and deliver another crushing defeat on the US Capitol doorstep but Lee's fortunes take a turn he must divide his army to deal with the strong Union force at Harpers Ferry to make matters worse his opponent General George B McClellan moves with unusual speed and pursuit his confidence boost it with an intercepted copy of Lee's operational plan McClellan pushes these thin ranks in the gaps of South Mountain though the southerners fall back the fight here buys Lee time to find a battleground of his choosing robert e lee selects a strong defensive position amidst the tidy rolling german farm fields bordering a swiftly flowing Creek the Antietam but Lee is bluffing his line on September 15th is a mirage designed to buy time to gather his forces Stonewall Jackson has taken Harpers Ferry and is marching to join him McClellan pauses for two days in order to better understand Lee's position he is convinced that Lee heavenly outnumbers him yet Lee's Bluff comes with heavy risk if he is forced to retreat there's only one escape route across the Potomac back to Virginia on the afternoon of September 16th McClellan decides to attack he'll first hit leaves left then is right before finishing things in the city after forwarding troops across Antietam Creek McClellan's first attack begins early Wednesday morning September 17th as the soldiers of Joe hookers first court march south aiming for the dunker Church but Confederates occupy the high ground rounded and unleashed destructive artillery fire on hookers men to their front and right while Stonewall Jackson's infantry it engages them near Miller's cornfield cooker responds with his own guns some call it artillery in the battle here quickly escalates into some of the most savage fighting of the Civil War to the West John Gibbons iron Brigade fares better marching it through and around the cornfield they enter the West woods where they withstand vicious Confederate counter-attacks by 7:00 a.m. hooker is making progress in the cornfield and Jackson's line Lee's left flank is under a very real threat of collapse but just then momentum shifts John Bell hoods hard fighting division counter-attacks through the cornfield and drives back hooker though at a frightful loss the per calls for support from Major General Joseph Mansfield's 12th Corps Mansfield advances his divisions and a formation that makes them an easy target for Confederate artillery and Mansfield is mortally wounded within minutes of entering the front lines yet one division of the 12th Corps manages to break through the Confederate line and breaches the dunker Church before he can follow up on this initial success the general hooker gets shot in the foot and leaves the fight lacking a leader to unite the 1st and 12th Corps there is no rapid follow-through of the Union success at dunker Church with little sense of the rebel positions around 9:00 a.m. General Edwin Sumner leads his 2nd Corps into the fight though his Corps three divisions strong is nearly half the size of Lee's entire army Sumner's columns are strung out and the attacks with but one division Sumner intends to turn the Confederate left flank but it's his own that's vulnerable Sumner's largest division that of John Sedgwick moves into the West woods and is overwhelmed by a powerful Confederate counter-attack Sedgwick falls back with barely half of his men Li's left flank had been battered and bruised but not broken although occasional fighting still occurs in the vicinity by mid-morning the battle shifts for the south toward an old sunken farm road of the 10 regiments of William French's division of Sumner 2nd corps only three had ever been in a battle awaiting them are two of D H Hill's brigades Rhodes Alabamians and Anderson's North Carolinians men that had seen plenty of combat they had taken control of an old wagon shortcut a portion of it something by frequent use phil's veterans inflicted 1,700 casualties of French's division at 10:30 reinforcements pour in on both sides Lee commits the last of his reserves in the vicinity to extend Hills right while Richardson's division arrives to reinforce French an Alabama off so ordered to realign his regiment mistakenly shouts about-face amid the battles rule all along the sunken Road it looks as if a general retreat has been ordered five regiments of Confederates begin to fall back towards Sharpsburg least Center is now in grave danger of collapse Richardson's advance is blunted by artillery from General James Longstreet at Piper farm and further assaulted by small but ferocious counter-attacks organized by D H Hill once again Lee adeptly moves smaller units to stop McClellan's large blue tide General Richardson is fatally wounded and without his initiative the Union advance grinds to yet another halt though 12,000 fresh men of the 6th Corps have just arrived at the front general McClellan uses it to boast to his shattered right flank and at the sunken road misses an opportunity to crack Lee's line wide open by 1:30 when the fighting ebbs here 5,600 men lay dead wounded in an area that becomes known as the bloody lane and Tatum's battle toll is 17,500 and climbing Lee's right flank is arguably his most critical it's a closest to his escape route home yet by mid-morning he has only 3000 to defendant across the creek Ambrose Burnside's 9th corps Waits he has been told to launch a diversionary attack on the Confederate right to draw attention away from hookers assault the Burnside has been commanded to hold until given explicit orders to attack orders that do not reach him until 10:00 a.m. this two-hour delay gives me time to shift usual artillery act to escape Burnside ops to divide his force he sends one division under Isaac Rodman 3/4 of a mile downstream to cross its neighbor Lee's Ford his other divisions will be funneled across a 12-foot wide bridge 100 feet above its dead 400 Georgians backed by 12 cannon Burnside's men will cross the bridge at point-blank range crooks Union Brigade leads the first charge that emerges 350 yards upstream and never makes the assault at 11 a.m. novels Brigade tries again but is blasted into retreat before even reaching the bridge at 1:00 p.m. another charge is made this time by Ferrero's twin 51st they wind the bridge at last around the same time Rodman's division gets across Antietam Creek fearing they are about to be flight the Georgians finally fall back and for the third time today Lee's Army of Northern Virginia is on the verge of a resounding defeat Lia's low unreserved troops and Union artillery has begun to bombard the escape route through Sharpsburg but Lee is once more spared by circumstance Burnside takes two hours to get his 10000 through the bottleneck at the bridge over Antietam Creek he finally begins his march toward Lee's right flank at 3:00 leaving two full brigades in reserve he intends to cut off Lee's retreat his 1 mile wide attack is initially successful with one division pushing toward the Harpers Ferry Road while elements of two other brigades come to blows with dr.jones Confederates only Robert - 700 men Brigade is left to defend Lee's right flank many Confederates panic and run wild through the streets of Sharpsburg but at 4:00 p.m. AP Hill's light division arrives after a forced march from Harpers Ferry despite the 17-mile March that day Hill's exhausted men immediately strike Burnside's expose left flank made up largely of new and inexperienced recruits these green troops stand and high corn and barely see what hits them AP Hill's timely arrival saves Lee's army 12 hours of savage bloodshed has withered Lee's army to 30,000 though the fighting has ended he remains on the field till the next day ready for battle McClellan considers an attack but once again pauses and allows Lee to slip back into Virginia to fight again so who won the battle at Antietam McClellan's army control the field and arguably saved the nation by driving lead from the US capitols doorstep but many believe he missed a true opportunity to inflict a fatal blow on the Army of Northern Virginia for failing to actively pursue Lee President Lincoln permanently relieves McClellan of his command two months later in one day more than 3,600 men were killed 19,000 were wounded and captured more American dead than Pearl Harbor d-day or shocking portraits taken by Alexander Gardner are displayed in the North exposing the grim realities of the war to all who see them President Lincoln uses the victory to announce the Emancipation Proclamation turning the conflict into a war destined to change the very nature of American society by freeing the slaves Lincoln also signaled the intent to use African Americans as soldiers before the end of the war almost a hundred and eighty thousand which serve their country September 17th 1862 remains the bloodiest single-day in American history

Channel: American Battlefield Trust

Views: 466,443

Rating: 4.9196138 out of 5

Keywords: American Battlefield Trust, Civil War Trust, Battle of Antietam, Antietam Preservation, Antietam troop movements, Sunken Road Antietam, Dunker Church Antietam, Burnside Bridge Antietam

Id: _8ybkoGmHww

Length: 15min 31sec (931 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 27 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/salmon10]

What an astonishing video, amazing storytelling and a animations!