Bloody Lane at Antietam | Animated Battle Map

welcome everyone to half history all travel I am your host Wilder historian this week the patrons had a choice between the bloody lane or Miller's cornfield at the Battle of Antietam to be turned into an animated battle map they chose the infamous bloody Lane and if you want to vote for the next battle to be animated simply go to the patreon page in the description below and joins our tiers as low as $1 and that is enough to cast your vote robert e lee had just been put in command of the Army of Northern Virginia in the summer of 1862 and after battering George McClellan's army of the potomac down the peninsula and away from the gates of richmond he turned his attention north his offensive took him to the old Manassas battlefield where he defeated a Union Army in August and with momentum on his side he pushed on into Maryland and started his first invasion of the north the two massive armies met along Antietam Creek near the town of Sharpsburg Maryland and the result was the bloodiest single-day in American history the engagement began on the Confederate left around the dunker Church Miller's cornfield in the West woods at about 5:15 a.m. as that fight began to phase out the Union were concentrating their forces on the Confederate center held by division commander Daniel Harvey Hill however Hill had sent two of his brigades to reinforce the Confederate left during the mornings fight that under Alfred Colquitt and Duncan McCrae both had been bloodied in the fight for the cornfield for the moment that left Hill with only the brigades of Robert Rhodes and George B Anderson to guard the sunken road the road itself was lower than the surrounding area because of the heavy use and erosion which made it a great defensive location Brigadier General Robert Rhodes rounded up the survivors of McCrae and Colquitt brigades and placed them on his left to extend his line lastly he made contact with Brigadier General Hal Cobb a McLaws division who had strayed too far to the right during the morning assaults and extended his line further to the left using Cobb the quick-thinking Rhodes made the correct preparations because Hills single division was going to encounter two divisions of the union's second corps the commander of that Corps Major General Edwin Sumner route his men forward to push back the Confederate left he sent two divisions one under general Sedgwick and one under general French to attack but Sedgwick did not wait for French and attack with no support on his left once those attack stalled out it was French's division that would attack the sunken Road held by Hill first he arrayed his brigades with Max Weber in front white Morrises men behind him and Nathan Kimball last as Weber's men crested the ridge about 70 yards of funded Confederates roads and Henderson's men stood in unison fired a deadly volley into three regiments the Union troops fell back in a northerly direction but made another attempt they ended the same way it was repulsed Morse's men were on their way to try their hand at dislodging the rebels Morse's Brigade moved up the 14th Connecticut had never been under fire instead of moving past the 1st Delaware shot from behind them catching the first Bella we're in a nasty crossfire forcing them to move around this time Weber would be wounded attempting to rally the 5th Maryland end in his military career as a low began to emerge Rhodes ordered his entire line to advance against the enemy however Colquitt barely moved exposing the Alabamians to musketry on their left additionally the six Alabama moved out late which allowed the Union to pour lead into the 5th Alabama's right flank the whole attack faltered and Rhodes placed them back in the sunken Road Sumner ordered French to keep up the pressure so French st. Kimball's Brigade into the fray to attack the Confederates as they made their way to the front they noticed the other two brigades lying down just below the low-lying Ridge Kimball's men fixed bayonets topped the ridge and immediately came under heavy fire from the Alabamians north carolinians forcing them behind the ridge now French's Division deployed a different tactic the Union troops were instructed to load line down crawl to the crest of the ridge fire and then move back down to reload the tactic had a horrible effect on Anderson and Rhodes as men the rebels began piling more fence rails and even dead bodies of comrades to block the unceasing fire each side began to get reinforcements around this time and final division of summoners core under Israel Richardson made its way to the front to keep up the pressure for the Confederates Major General Richard H Anderson division arrived for a night march from Harpers Ferry and almost immediately got deployed to the center unfortunately for Anderson he would be wounded upon taking the field given the command of his division to the little experience prior instead of sending his men in all at one time he sent them in piecemeal with rot being the first one deployed his brigade of Georgians took up position on George Anderson's right but Wright himself as well as his second-in-command but both fall wounded the lack of officers made the battle more chaotic as no one knew who was in charge the Georgians were ordered to advance from their defensive positions but only the third Georgia moved and they were repulsed by the 7th Virginia Richardson ordered his Irish Brigade under Thomas meager to attack with Caldwell on metres left metres four regiments deployed but when ordered to attack only though regiments on the outside moved doing the attack Caldwell got word that he needed to relieve meager which prompted him to move his Brigade in that direction on the Confederate left Rhodes saw the desperation of the situation and found prior and reported that the raht needed reinforced immediately the Confederate brigades that were held back now plunged into the sunken road however a combination of exhaustion and a lack of officers led to a chaotic situation in the road at the same time the Union were forming for another attack Colonel Barlow of the combined 61st and 64th New York in a stroke of initiative moved around to the Confederate right and when the attack launched the pressure became too great for the rebels who began to give way Rhodes see in the Confederate line faltering ordered the sixth Alabama to refuse the rats lake to hopefully hold on as long as he could however the Colonel that regiment ordered his men to about-face and forward march when the fifth commander asked him if that order was for the whole brigade and it was confirmed yes Alabamians began to make for the rear along with the rest of the Confederate center in the disorganized rebel ranks however four regiments for four different rogue aides reformed to hold off a portion of the Union attack but they quickly got pushed off the field thank you so much for watching I hope this animated battle map made the battle more clear especially this fight for that Confederate Center if you want to vote for the animated battle map please check out the patreon page how to really appreciate the support be on the lookout for more videos next week also we got a special video coming up for this weekend thank you all and have a great day

Channel: Have History Will Travel

Views: 30,480

Rating: 4.9576516 out of 5

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Id: LUE3ye6SGTE

Length: 7min 32sec (452 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 05 2020