Lincoln and Lee at Antietam: The Cost of Freedom

miny Bettinger Shepherdstown September 17th 1862 it seems to me now that the roar of that day began with the light and all through its long and dragging hours its under under background to our pain and terror there was no sitting at the windows now counting discharges of guns are watching the curling smoke we went about our work with pale faces and trembling hands trying to appear composed for the sake of our patients who are much excited we could hear the incessant explosions of artillery the shrieking whistles of the shells and the sharper deadlier more thrilling roll of musketry well every now and then echo love some charging cheer would come borne by the wind and as the human voice pierced that demoniacal clang er catch our breath this II try not to solve and turn back to the forlorn hospitals to the suffering at our feet and before our lives imagination fainted at thought of those other scenes hidden from us beyond the Potomac an ever-present sense of anguish dream pity and my fear hatred these are my recollections of Antietam September 17 1862 stands still today as the single bloodiest day in all of American history nearly twice as many Americans died in a single day at Sharpsburg Maryland has had fallen the American Revolution the war of 1812 the Mexican War and the spanish-american war combined by comparison American losses on the bloodiest day of World War two d-day or a quarter of those at Antietam this was a period in which many officers in the Union Army were saying that the rebels had won the war they had proved their their worthiness of Independence that their own men had not fought well and that they might as well confess that they had lost the war a Lincoln administration now for the very first time the war is desperate it must have a victory the enemy has now invaded the north we cannot fail there cannot be another loss among the men about one in four of the Union soldiers here are green have not been in combat many of them are only a few weeks from home many of them are loading their weapons for the first time as they're going into battle for Lincoln the victory Dan tetum was more than just an item on a plate schedule it had become a matter of almost religious commitment for him to link Antietam with the Emancipation Proclamation it has been called the battle that McClellan could not lose and Lee could not win as Union forces engaged numbered almost twice that of the Confederates when the killing and movement of the troops finally halted at the end of this one-day battle the lines of entrenchment were little changed from where they originated that same morning although this bloodiest day of fighting produced no decisive victor the battles impact on the course of the American Civil War and the very reasons for fighting it would be changed forever the second summer of the civil war in 1862 was proving much bloodier than the first in early June the Union Army after reaching the gates of Richmond was in humiliating retreat late in June in a series of battles which would come to be called the seven days a 55 year old Confederate general in command less than 30 days further harassed and confounded the Federals in early July while the Union Army reeled back down the Virginia Peninsula in Washington Thomas T Eckert chief of the war departments telegraph office began to have a frequent visitor he spent most days simply with his head in his hands as reports poured in from the front finally one morning he asked for some paper as he wanted to write something special he would look out the window a while and put his pen to paper but he did not write much at once he would read over each day all the matter he had previously written and revise it studying carefully each sentence I became impressed with the idea that he was engaged upon something of great importance but did not know what it was until he had finished the document he told me that he'd been writing an order giving freedom to the slaves in the south for the purpose of hastening the end of the war he said that he had been able to work at my desk more quietly and command his thoughts better than at the White House where he was frequently interrupted Thomas Eggert Abraham Lincoln working quietly in the corner of the war departments telegraph office had just completed the first draft of what would become the Emancipation Proclamation on July 22nd 1862 he presented the draft to a startled cabinet the idea of the Emancipation Proclamation was entirely Lincoln's own it was his own first of all because as he said to a newspaper journalist and in fact many others during his career I have always hated slavery and there's no reason to doubt that in Lincoln's life the other reason we see that Lincoln is the author the proclamation is that in July of 1862 when he comes into the cabinet to present this he tells them I have not submitted this document to ask whether we should do this we are going to do this but he does ask them for input about wording and about strategy at that point Secretary of State William Seward suggests that he pigeonhole the proclamation temporarily until there has been a major Union victory because Seward argued it would not look like anything except a council of despair if the proclamation was issued while the Union armies were still reeling from defeat after defeat so the table then does get set for the proclamation to be linked to a major Union victory and Lincoln does agree to wait dramatically foreshadowing even more desperate times ahead the final summer clash in Virginia of the two armies occurred September 1st at Chantilly during a violent thunderstorm the booming thunder claps and intense lightning mixed with the musketry and cannon fire created a surreal scene from hell in a heroic rearguard action to prevent Stonewall Jackson from cutting off the Union Army's retreat towards Washington general Philip Kearney riding the confused lines rode straight into Confederate forces refusing to surrender he was instantly killed Confederate General AP Hill who was nearby ran up to the body and exclaimed you killed Phil Kearney he deserved a better fate than to die in the mud the mental and material condition of the Army of the Potomac and other Union armies in the late summer of 1862 was not good physically many of them were exhausted from the Peninsula Campaign and from the transfer of the Army of the Potomac from the peninsula to Alexandria and to Northern Virginia to reinforce John Pope's army of Virginia which was confronting the Confederates as they were moving north toward Washington so I think the degree of demoralization in the Union Army in those early days of September 1862 was unprecedented in the whole war and perhaps unparalleled at any later time in the war this was a period in which many officers in the Union Army were saying that the rebels had won the war they had proved there their worthiness of Independence that their own men had not fought well and that they might as well confess that they had lost the war the men are sick of war they fight without an aim and without enthusiasm they have no confidence in their leaders Washington Roebling future builder of the Brooklyn Bridge Washington Roebling perhaps had overlooked one commander who still inspired the beleaguered Union troops that commander was General George Brinton McClellan known as Little Mac to his men and little Napoleon to the War Department graduating second in his class at West Point it was sad he could win every battle he ever fought if it was waged on paper his arrogance towards fellow commanders was legendary Lincoln believed McClellan doomed Union General John Pope's forces to defeat at second Manassas by deliberately not sending timely reinforcements General George B McClellan was the most popular commander in all of the Union armies in 1862 it's sometimes hard to understand why that is the case because while he had trained a superb Army in the Army of the Potomac he had created this fighting machine he seemed to be afraid to commit it to battle for fear that he would break this finely tuned machine so he was forever yielding the initiative to his opponent Robert Ely and fighting on the defensive against him that had been the principal reason why he had failed in his Peninsula Campaign in the spring and summer of 1862 to capture Richmond and one of the reasons that Lincoln had decided to withdraw him from the peninsula to use him to reinforce General John Pope's army of Virginia for a campaign directly south from Washington against the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia McClellan was resentful of this he considered himself a much better general than Pope he was sulking about being about being withdrawn from the peninsula he was very slow to reinforce Pope as he was confronting Lee in fact he even sent a dispatch to general Halleck the general in chief and to Lincoln himself saying that it might be the best course to leave Pope to get up if he scraped himself and to rally all of McCollum's troops to defend Washington after the expected defeat of Pope there was a design a purpose in breaking down Pope without regard to the consequences to the country it is shocking to see and know this ironically rumors were rampant in Washington that Abraham Lincoln had been contemplating replacing McClellan with none other than general Philip Carney despite Lincoln's own feelings towards McClellan now there appeared little other choice Ambrose Burnside who would later serve as McClellan's scapegoat at Antietam had already turned the position down twice on September 2nd the day after Carney's death Lincoln called on McClellan to take command of Pope's army of Virginia in addition to McClellan zone Army of the Potomac McClellan has the army with him and we must use the tools we have there is no man who can lick these troops into shape half as well as he if he can't fight himself he excels in making others ready to fight Lincoln did this against the advice of a majority of his cabinet against the support of most of his own party the Republican Party but I think Lincoln was absolutely right that only McClellan could restore the morale of the Army of the Potomac and that was proved when McGowan rode out to take command of those troops on September 2nd and when the word spent spread through that the army that little Mack was back into command they let out a cheer they tossed their hats in the air and an observer said there was no accounting for the affection that the troops had for little Mack but it was a fact and it was a fact that Lincoln had to take into account the day after McClellan was given command of the merged armies his southern opponent forwarded a letter to Confederate President Jefferson Davis September 3rd 1862 mr. president the present seems a most propitious time since the commencement of the wall for the Confederate Army to enter memory the two grand armies of the United States that have been operating in Virginia though now United are much weakened and demoralized still we cannot afford to be idle and the weaker than our opponents in men and military equipments must endeavor to harass if we cannot destroy them robert e lee robert e lee v child born to Revolutionary War Commander Henry Light Horse Harry Lee graduated second in his class at West Point in 1829 exactly the same class rank in seventeen years earlier than George McClellan respected on both sides of the conflict robert e lee was the only man offered both the command of the Union forces in April 1861 and subsequent command of a Confederate Army loyalty to Virginia came first and that same April of 1861 upon Virginia secession he resigned his commission to the United States Army General Scott since my interview with you on the 18th incident I have felt that I ought not longer retain my Commission in the Army are therefore tender my resignation which our request that you will recommend for acceptance I shall carry with me to the grave the most grateful recollections of your kind consideration and your name and fame will always be dear to me save in the defense of my native state I never again desire to draw my sword as a result of General Joseph E Johnston's wounding at the Battle of Fair Oaks Lee assumed command of the Army of Northern Virginia on June 1 1862 after learning that Lee had been appointed by Davis to command McClellan forwarded a letter to President Lincoln I prefer lead to Johnston the former is too cautious and weak under grave responsibility a personally brave and energetic to a fault yet his wanting and moral firmness when pressed by heavy responsibilities and is likely to be timid and irresolute in action perhaps no commander in the entire Civil War had misjudged his opponent so thoroughly Lee a brilliant and bold military strategist set out from Maryland without delay on September 4th the day after Lee sent his letter to Davis the Army of Northern Virginia crossed the Potomac 40 miles north of Washington at whites Ford the invasion of the North had begun upon entering Frederick I was nearly overwhelmed and pulled to pieces I was seldom more affected than by the scenes I saw yesterday and the reception I met with men women children crowded around us weeping shouting and praying General George McClellan while George McClellan and the Union Army were gaining renewed strength from Maryland's outpouring of support Lee's weary troops worn down from ten weeks of marching in battle fatigue did not inspire the same affection their arrival was vividly described by a resident of Frederick to a Baltimore newspaper I smelled the Confederate Army long before I saw it I have never seen a mass of such filthy strong smelling men they were the roughest of creatures I ever saw there Beecher's hair and clothing matted with dirt and filth and the scratching they kept up gave warrant of vermin in abundance with the unexpected cool reception to his advancing troops robert e lee on September 8th hoping diplomacy would calm fears and encourage Marylanders to rise up against the Federals issued his Maryland proclamation to the people of Maryland it is right that you should know the purpose that brought the army under my command within the limits of your state so far as that purpose concerns yourselves the people of the Confederate States have long watched with the deepest sympathy the wrongs and outrages that have been inflicted upon the citizens of a Commonwealth allied to the states of the south our army has come among you and is prepared to assist you with the power of its arms in regaining the rights of which you have been despoiled we know no enemies among you and will protect all of every opinion robert e lee general commanding September 13 1862 dawned beautiful and warm at Frederick Maryland summer was slowly slipping into fall and three soldiers of the 27th Indiana who had sought shade near a grassy slope we're about to hand George McClellan the military opportunity of his lifetime corporal Mitchell noticed a yellowish paper package lying on the grass as was passed over to me three cigars fell out the we quickly passed round rolled around these cigars was a folded two-page document which I began to read as I read each line became more and more interesting I soon forgot those cigars Sergeant John Blas 27th Indiana three days earlier robert e lee while still at Frederick had dictated special order number 191 and of the eight copies distributed the one sent by Lee to general D H Hill never reached him how this lost order fell into Union hands remains one of the most enduring mysteries of a civil war what the men of the 27th Indiana discovered was Lee's Maryland battle plan ordering his army of Northern Virginia to split into two task forces the total of five elements one force under Stonewall Jackson would converge on Harpers Ferry from three directions and lay siege hoping to capture the garrison a second force led by General James Longstreet accompanied by Lee would march behind Jackson and concentrated Boonesboro Jackson would later rejoined Lee at Hagerstown and await the Federals once Lee's lost order was verified as authentic McClellan declared to subordinates nearby here is a paper with which if I cannot whip Bobby Lee I will be willing to go home McLellan received a copy of Lee's lost orders number 191 early in the morning of September 13th 1862 in his headquarters at Frederick Maryland and he was able he thought to verify the authenticity of those orders by noon of September 13th and we know that because he sent a dispatch to Lincoln timed at noon saying I have the plans of my rebels and I'm going to catch them in their own trap he was pretty certain that he knew where the scattered Confederate units were but the next delay of from six o'clock that evening until 6 o'clock the next morning is really inexplicable except with reference to McClellan's caution and his habitual slowness Lincoln complained that McClellan has the slows and here is a good example of it instead of ordering Franklin and Burnside to make a night march to get into position to attack at first light in the morning he waited until the next morning to give Burnside his orders and he did not when he sent the orders to Franklin at 6 o'clock on the evening of the 13th give him any reason for urgency and so Franklin not taking any initiative himself waited until next morning to march too cramped ins gap and didn't get into a position to attack until after the middle of the day and I think that's just another illustration of McLaws slowness his caution his deliberation which really cost him this time because by the time those units were in position to attack the South Mountain gaps Lee had been warned that McClellan was on his way to attack those gaps and was able to bring reinforcements to help hold them delays or not the first combat of the Maryland campaign was about to erupt on September 14 with forward Union forces of the 1st 6th and 9th corps at a place called South Mountain while Stonewall Jackson was poised to capture the Arsenal at Harpers Ferry Lee's forces at foxes and Turner's Gap badly outnumbered in fierce fighting in the 14th lost nearly 1/4 their men with waves of federal forces coming the situation was so grave that Lee unaware of Jackson's coming victory at Harpers Ferry considered and forwarded in order at 8 p.m. to Commander Lafayette McLaws for retreat back across the Potomac the day has done against us and this army will go by shops Berg and cross the river nestled on the side of the Antietam Creek Sharpsburg Maryland population 1,300 now had 100,000 men from two opposing armies bearing down on it from every point of the compass when the Confederates invade Maryland they come with tremendous momentum they've had victory after victory after victory during the summer of 1862 in fact it represents Lee's turnaround of the army and Confederate fortunes from May and June of 1862 to now September of 1862 represents one of the most extraordinary turnarounds in military history in the world from almost certain defeat at the hands of the enemy to now taking the war to the enemy and making them uncertain of their victory so the Confederate forces that come splashing across the Potomac River have this enormous momentum enormous energy with them they are full of anticipation that this indeed is the campaign that will bring the south independence that will bring the South ultimate victory unfortunately the southern soldiers are not in the best physical condition to accomplish this great laudable goal of theirs they are hungry they are poorly clothed they are terribly fatigued and even more importantly many of them were without good leaders their Colonels their lieutenant Colonel's their majors their captains many of these men have been slaughtered in battles prior to the invasion of Maryland and generally and not had time to replace the leadership of the army and so although there was this anticipation in this eagerness and there's almost certain as' that victory was going to come to the south there was also the question of was this army physically capable of giving the Confederacy the final victory and impetus that it needs now on the northern side on the other hand you can really describe the northern army which is hunkered down behind the defenses of Washington when the invasion begins it is demoralized it is disorganized and it is it is depressed the the Northern Army has had a series of terrible defeats its men almost believe that they can't stand up to these Confederates that almost any time they come onto the battlefield they're going to be conquered so there's a mindset of we may not be able to beat these people anymore we have kind of an inferiority complex but in addition to that was this disorganization there were almost 150,000 Union soldiers in the environment of Washington without good order they didn't even have a leader they didn't even know who their general was going to be once the invasion began and then there's issue of desperation the Lincoln administration now for the very first time the war is desperate it must have a victory the enemy has now invaded the north we cannot fail there cannot be another loss so there's this there's a sense of desperation not only with the administration but with all the men in the ranks yet because of that desperation federal forces now have a determination they have now gotten new vigor and new strength and new energy and they are determined that they are going to defeat the foe that they will meet the enemy in Maryland or in Pennsylvania regardless of where it is the north they will meet them and they will beat them and that determination is going to give the Union soldier a discipline he has not shown before a drive that he is not presented before and a defiant defiant attitude how dare you come across the Potomac River and enter my territory in the coming dawn just hours away the men of these two great armies would hurl everything in their arsenal against each other the toughest battle yet to be fought by either side would become a 14-hour epic brawl death and destruction that remains unequaled in the annals of American military history in the early hours of September 17 the overcast sky erupted with screaming projectiles as one soldier from the 124th Pennsylvania put it the ball had begun screams moans rent the air on both sides as the searing iron gouged tremendous holes and the unsuspecting ranks with no specific orders on record from McClellan and with the artillery duel raging Major General Joseph Hooker commander of the 1st Corps prepared his divisions to attack fighting Joe would later command all of the Army of the Potomac and preside over the Union Army collapse at Chancellorsville in June 1863 he would be unceremoniously booted from command just three days before the Battle of Gettysburg on this September day however in 1862 hooker in fine fighting form had his sights on a small plane whitewashed brick building one mile to his south this building was the dunker Church owned by a German peace-loving sect it was on the edge of the West woods surrounded by Confederate batteries midway between the dunker Church and hookers position at the Puffin burger farm was a 30 acre piece of ground owned by David R Miller this ground would become the hallowed killing field known to both sides and to history simply as the cornfield so many men would fall here in attacks and counter-attacks that soldiers on both sides commented afterward that a man could walk across it without ever touching the ground in the battles first three hours there would be nearly 8,000 Union and Confederate casualties within a 700 yard radius of the center of the cornfield here at this battle you have a very determined bunch of people on both sides the technology has gotten ahead of the tactics you have one in four who on the Union side who are green in combat many of them load their weapons the first time with real ammunition going into this battle and there are only a few weeks from home on a Confederate side the vast majority of the men are veterans the flower of Lee's Army is here and they are Victor's in two or three major battles before they get here the morale sky-high at 6 a.m. with the artillery roaring hookers three divisions of 80 600 men stepped off to meet Jackson's two divisions of 7700 strong among that Union force was a tough fighting Western Brigade which McClellan himself would christen the iron Brigade for their performance in this battle leading the charge of these men of iron was a young major Rufus Dawes Dawes whose son Charles would later go on to win the Nobel Peace Prize journaled most of his wartime experiences amazingly major Dawes was never wounded leading men into battle in over 62 days under fire major Rufus Dawes six Wisconsin at the front edge of the cornfield was a lo Virginia rail fence before the corn were open fields beyond which a strip of woods surrounding a little church the dunker Church Isaac Brad will 31st Georgia a grand sight met our eyes the number of regimental standards floating in the morning air indicated the immense numbers of the advancing enemy it was a wonderful sign as we appeared at the edge of the corn a long line of men and butternut and gray rose up from the ground simultaneously the hostile battle lines opened a tremendous fire upon each other Colonel Douglas had run from regiment regiment exhorting the men not to fire until the enemy reached the fence and began to get over to shoot low and make every bullet count men were knocked out of the ranks by dozens but we jumped over the fence and pushed on loading firing and shouting as we advanced wide gaps were torn in the blue lines but they continued to come on and get over the fence in great disorder our volley made them stagger and hesitate the second line came up and despite the fire of guns and artillery that came over and advanced slowly step by step there was great hysterical excitement eagerness to go forward and a reckless disregard of life of everything but victory everybody tears cartridges loads passes guns or shoots men are falling in their places or running back to the corn their ranks reforming or beating into shape for a new effort then the blue line comes into the open field again with their cos øz there's only a man in for ten feet or more to resist this last and greatest effort of the enemy the soldier who was shooting is furious in his energy the soldier who was shot looks around for help with an imploring agony of death on his face heavy federal reinforcements come forward in such numbers that our few numbers defending the position beaten back step by step to the reserved line isaac Bradwell 31st georgia the confederates however shortly launched an effective and brutal counter-offensive in the cornfield at 7 a.m. Stonewall Jackson called up his third division in reserve which he had allowed to retire and cook breakfast this division was commanded by 31 year-old stone-faced General John Bell hood his hungry division of 2,300 men hadn't eaten in three days just as we began to cook our rations near daylight we were shelled and ordered into formation I have never seen a more disgusted bunch of boys and mad as Hornets hoods angry starving men formed a battle line nearly a half a mile wide and charged into the corn it would be the most successful but costly Confederate counter-attack morning hoods 7 regiments were shot to pieces suffering 64% casualties when asked later that day where his command was hood simply responded dead on the field the fighting in 30 acre corn field next to the Hagerstown Pike on the Confederate Left was some of the bloodiest fighting of any 30 acres in the entire Civil War hooker first attacked along the eastern the western edge of those of that cornfield later on general Mansfield's 12th Corps attacked through another part of that cornfield the Confederates counter-attack and for two or three hours on the morning of September 17th there were constant attacks and counter-attacks through that cornfield until as one observer said after the battle it was so littered with dead and wounded men that one could have walked over the entire cornfield without ever stepping on the ground hoods counter-attack resulted in the collapse and withdrawal of hookers 1st Corps support was called in from the Union 12th Corps led by 59 year-old General Joseph Mansfield and command all of two days in the confusion while leading his men into battle he came upon the 10th Maine whom he mistakenly thought were firing upon their own men Mansfield rode the line imploring them to hold their fire the men of the 10th Maine loudly disagreed and pointed at Confederates rising out of the East woods Mansfield seeing this yelled out yes yes you are right at that moment as an easy target a rebel bullet caught him square in the chest Mansfield the highest-ranking general diet antietam would join 12,000 other Souls and the casualty lists in only the first four hours of fighting that morning from his headquarters at the pry house general McClellan directed Union forces and fits and starts refusing to send reinforcements true to his conservative nature his strategy could best be described as a highly defensive offense with a stream of conflicting dispatches coming from the front McClellan thought it much too risky to press the attack with his reserves in contrast to McClellan's style Lee was everywhere on the battlefield everywhere north-south-east-west now he was never right on the front line you don't want the commanding general to be where a bullet might find him very quickly but he was all over the line for the Confederates and he had to be he had to be General Lee was in a position where he was plugging holes and there were a lot of holes in his dam every place the Federals attacked Lee had to be able to find troops to be able to push into that position to plug that hole in his line so we really was fighting this battle as a tactician as a masterful tactician he was placing his troops at every danger point at every pressure point and he was very successful as an example when the fighting became very intense on the northern end of the field up in the vicinity of the West woods General Lee pulled troops from the southern end of the field down in the vicinity of the Burnside Bridge where it was still fairly quiet and he moved those troops to the north and they engage in the westwards arrived just in the nick of time to help fork the Union advance that's just but one example lead to this time and time again that day and he did it as a man who was in great pain both of his hands had been badly injured in a fall still they had taken from a horse both of his hands were splinted and he couldn't even write he couldn't even hold on to the reins of traveller very well and so as he's moving across the battlefield trying to go from one position to another very quickly rapidly and forced to ride it was difficult it was painful and he would get off his horse he would sin he would give traveller to an aide and from one position to another he would investigate the situation make very prompt quick decisions and bring reinforcements in as they were arriving from Harpers Ferry General Lee also had his head cocked that day from one direction to another because he constantly had one eye on the enemy but his other eye was on Harpers Ferry he knew that much of his army wasn't on the battlefield when the battle began early that morning so as more and more true for coming up from the north marching up rapidly from Harpers Ferry Lee was looking for them and he always seemed to know where to place him at the right position the right time and just in the nick of time to stop each of these federal advances it was a incredible tactical effort by General Lee and many historians would claim and I agree that it probably Gate probably was his most masterful tactical effort of the war just after 9:00 a.m. McClellan finally engaged General Bull Sumner's 2nd Corps which crossed the corpse strewn cornfield and attacked rebels in the West woods with no direct orders to a Sumner's divisions oblique to the south into a gently sloping wide-open pasture this second battlefront which provided absolutely no cover at all for the advancing Union troops was the center of General Lee's line it was commanded by Confederate General James Longstreet Lee's old warhorse would eventually direct all his staff officers into this engagement while calmly holding the reins of their horses inspiring his men with his confident demeanor longstreet revealed the desperation of a situation in a battlefield dispatch I'm sending you the guns dear general Pryor this is a hard fight and we had best all dive and lose it EP alexander the ordnance officer on general longstreet staff wrote after the war that the end of the confederacy was a sight it was that desperate of a moment general Longstreet has some of his staff officers dismount falling on abandoned artillery piece and start firing he's holding their horses giving directions so you've got a senior general doing the job of an artillery sergeant a bunch of majors doing the work of artillery privates general Hill picks up the musket off the field rallies 150 men and counter-attacks a division commander doing the job of a company commander on the battle over all the Union has about 300 cannon the Confederacy about 250 the Union guns not only are there more of them they're also bigger better longer range more accurate more rifled pieces but the Confederates make up for this by a better tactical organization and by more aggressive use of what they have available a New York officer writing home to his wife after the battle said to understand the noise of the battle visualize all the buildings and Broadway falling into the street at one time 5,600 men would fall at his second Battlefront and an appalling and costly standoff this soon-to-be blood-stained field was intersected by an old wagon road this sunken Road would forever after be christened bloody Lane Colonel John B Gordon sixth Alabama the date was cleared beautiful with scarcely a cloud in the sky the men in blue formed in my front and salting column four lads indeed the front lines came to a charge bayonets the other lines to arrive shoulder [ __ ] the brave Union commander superbly mounted placed himself in front while his band in rear shared them with martial music as we stood looking upon that brilliant pageant I thought if I did not say what a pity to spoil with bullets such a scene of martial beauty sergeant Thomas Galloway at the Ohio infantry the ground on which we are charged and has no depression no shelter of any kind there is nothing to do but to advance or break into a rout we know there is no support behind us on this side of the creek so we go forward on the run heads downward as if under a pelting rain I determined to hold my fire the advancing Federals were honest upon my lads and then turned loose a sheet of flame and led into their faces I did not believe that any troops on earth with empty guns in their hands could withstand so sudden a shock and withering of fire come John be gone Colonel Gordon in his post-war memoir eloquently describes the ferocious action at Antietam especially at the sunken Road where he was stationed in fact he really epitomizes the ferocity of that battle there were literally thousands and thousands of leaden missiles being fired between the two ranks at very close range there at the bloody lane and Gordon commanding the 6th Alabama was right in the center of the Confederate line so much of the Union focus was was against his position Gordon will be wounded not once not twice but unbelievably five times during the course of the action at the sunken Road first will be shot in his right calf and then a little bit later he'll get another wound in the same leg but higher still he's able to maneuver he's losing blood but he's still able to maneuver on the battlefield and give command and have a sense of command a little bit later another bullet finds its mark and strikes him in his left arm and then another bullet smashes into his shoulder four bullets now have gone through his flesh but still somehow although wavering and losing blood and losing strength he's managing to maintain his composure on the battlefield a true specimen of strength finally a Yankee missile lands right in his face and it drops him to the ground and as he falls he literally has his hat fall off his head and he collapses into his hat and the blood begins to run from his face into his hat and Gordon will write in his post-war memoirs but the only thing that saved his life was not the fact that he would survive five bullets but that some Yankee earlier in the day had put a bullet hole through the top of his hat and the blood had literally run out of his hat so that he would not suffocate in his own blood about fifty yards on this side of the enemy's improvised trench in the sunken road as a slight elevation here we hugged the ground is covered with a soft turf speckled with white clover this Ridge is a cornfield and just back of it we can see the tops of the trees of an orchard line after line of the enemy's troops are advancing along the ridge through the corn they come up opposite us and sink out of sight in the sunken Lane it is a mystery that so many men could crowd into so smaller space the stillness was literally oppressed as in close order with the federal command is still riding in front this column of Union infantry move majestically in the charge in a few minutes they were with an easy range of our rifles and some of my impatient man asked permission to fire not yet I replied wait for the order for would we go over fences and through an apple orchard now we are close to the enemy they rise up in the sunken Lane now the front rank was within a few rods and where I stood it would not do to wait another second with all my long power I shouted our men are falling fast the fight goes on with unabated fury the air is alive with a concussion of all sorts of explosions General Kimball passes muttering god save my poor boys the din is frightful alas no words can defeat the horrors of a great battle as they appear to men on a custom to them what we see now looks to us like systematic killing sergeant Thomas Galloway eighth bill hiyo infantry with overwhelming numbers of federal troops advancing down the slope the center of the Confederate line weakened and the Federals broke through from his headquarters at the pry house George McClellan witnessed the break in leaves line he was overheard to say it is the most beautiful field I ever saw and the grandest battle if we whip them today it will wipeout Bull Run forever there was a prolonged attack first by French's division of the second Corps and then Richardson's division division of the second Corps against the Confederate ready-made trenches along several hundred yards of a sunken road which became known as bloody Lane French's attack failed although the Union forces gained a position close to the sunken road where they could keep up a steady fire then the Irish Brigade of Richardson's Brigade at Richardson's division attacked they were pushed back after heavy losses but maintained a foothold fairly close and then as a consequence of misunderstood order from one of the Confederate brigade commanders in the sunken road one Alabama Regiment and then another turned around and started moving to the rear and as a consequence all of the rest of the Confederates in the sunken Road thought that they hadn't heard an order to retreat and they started pulling out by that time though they had been so badly worn down by two or three hours of fighting from about o'clock in the morning until 1:00 o'clock in the afternoon that Union forces were about to break through anyhow so about one o'clock the Confederates in that sector of the battlefield the sector several hundred yards wide had been either decimated or forced to retreat and there was a big hole in the Confederate defenses which presumably would have given McClellan an opportunity to send in his reserves to exploit that potential breakthrough but because McClellan feared that Lee was holding back his own reserves reserves that Lee of course did not have he did not commit McClellan did not commit his own reserves by noon the medical situation on both sides was desperate overwhelmed harried surgeons short on medical supplies addressed soldiers wounds with corn husks for a union surgeon dr. James Dunn the unexpected but welcomed arrival of six wagon loads of bandages and other supplies at this very moment was the work of divine providence in my feeble estimation general McClellan with all his laurels sinks into insignificance beside the true heroine of the age the Angel of the battlefield his Battle of Antietam Clara Barton followed the artery into action she was in the northern part of the field in the 1st and 12th Corps area she is not a nurse she does not administer a hospital but rather in modern terms she is a medical logisticians she brings about 6 wagonloads of supplies bandages candles lanterns something so the doctors can keep operating at night otherwise they've got patients that are going to die on because for the lack of attention she brings stimulants which means wine in this case and that's packed not in sawdust but in cornmeal so she can make soft Hospital gruel for to feed the wound it is a very efficient operation and the medical teams here are desperate they are run out of bandages or using corn husks they're running out of light they're looking at they're going to have people Dyan and she solves the problem about 1:00 p.m. an eerie silence fell over the battlefield as exhausted commands on both sides paused to regain their strength during this time General Lee surveyed the lines encouraging on his worn-out men during the battle one of the principal artillery units at Sharpsburg was the Rockbridge artillery and robert e lee ii Robley was serving as a cannoneer in that battery fact he was number one he usually was the man who was actually ramming the charge down the throat of the cannon barrel well they had had a terrible morning an tiem was known as artillery hell and the Union artillery had created tremendous havoc for the Confederates as they were fighting in the vicinity of the West was in the dunker Church they had lost the Rockbridge artillery had lost three of its guns many of its horses had been killed many of its men either killed or badly wounded Rob Lee still surviving with portions of the rest of the Artillery Company would move to the rear to refit as they were moving to the rear they came upon General Lee and members of his staff on a knoll near the West woods and so not knowing what to do the captain of the artillery came over to Lee and asked where should we be assigned and Rob walked over with them so while they were discussing the assignment Rob looked at his father looked him in the eyes Lee didn't recognize him he didn't recognize his own son he was big rhymed in dirt and filth covered with the smudges of blackened artillery covered with sweat and blood and the general didn't know his own son finally generally recognizes that it's his son and he and young Rob began to exchange pleasantries basically the general saying I'm so glad you're still here you're still alive congratulations for surviving this Holocaust and at that point the captain who has been given orders by Lee comes back and young Rob says to his other general are you going to put us back in again and generally responds yes my son we all must do what we can to drive these people back during this break in the fighting at 1:20 p.m. George McClellan ever cautious but colorful reported the status of the battle back to Washington we are in the midst of the most terrible battle of the war perhaps of history thus far it looks well but I have great odds against me our loss has been terrific but I have gained much ground McClellan had gained ground but the battle was only half over and the toll in human life was almost incomprehensible in the previous seven hours of battle 18500 men from both north and south were dead wounded or missing on the field nearly one in three of the 60,000 engaged in the cornfield West in East woods and the sunken road were casualties in the waning hours of that grim September afternoon five thousand more men would fall in seven more hours of combat that's one man getting hit every five seconds we have a scene in the director's cut of Gods and Generals which the world hasn't seen yet where it's it's the evening of of the Battle of Antietam and like everything else in Gods and Generals it's an event that really happened one of Jackson's aides dr. Hunter McGuire who had been very busy trying to heal the wounded amputating people just covered with blood comes up to Jackson is seated momentarily seated just an exhaustion the the battle is over the fighting is over and he brings Jackson some peaches that had been given to dr. McGuire by a local resident for Jackson and as we know Jackson loved his a fruit his citrus fruit and fruit in general and there he is just he finally has a moment to enjoy this peach surrounded by the death and destruction around him during the opening moments of the struggle at the sunken road George McClellan collared one of his couriers with a message for the commanding general of the 9th Corps stationed in the woods on the western edge of Antietam Creek McClellan ordered at any risk a new front be opened south of Sharpsburg to distract Lee from throwing his concealed thousands into a massive counter stroke elsewhere on the field McClellan said Burnside if it costs 10,000 men you must go on now that message arrived at General Ambrose Burnside's headquarters at 10:00 a.m. Burnside judged by history's perhaps the most ill-fated commander in the entire Army of the Potomac would survive Antietam to preside over the Union Army disaster three months later at Fredericksburg the following month in January 1863 he would bog the Union Army down in his infamous mud March he ended his illustrious Civil War career at Petersburg shouldering most of the blame for the Union debacle during the Battle of the crater here however at Antietam in arguably his finest hour he chiseled his legacy into a limestone bridge that separated his 12,000 men from 450 Georgia sharpshooters that bridge and the blood that would spill to cross it would forever baptize it as Burnside's bridge one of the greatest myths of the Battle of Antietam is that Ambrose Burnside failed that he didn't accomplish his objectives in fact Jordan McClellan would actually blame Burnside for his McClellan's failure to destroy the enemy army Burnside had the most success on the battlefield against the most difficult circumstances he faced the worst terrain of any Union commander on the field yet he would not only succeed in driving his forces across the Antietam Creek and up the bluffs where the enemy was but he would do it with least number of casualties Burnside at the creek at the bridge would drive across the bridge suffering the fewest casualties of the day on any sector of the battlefield so he is not this bungling idiot that's going to hurl force after force regiment after regiment burgade after Brigade against this position that is like a fortress a castle wall but instead he's very very smart about how he attacks that position he's going to send one entire division flanking the Confederates were holding that position in the meantime he sends a brigade above the bridge to to take their attention away and when he finally does make the assault the flanking column is actually to the rear of the Confederates not only to a point of distracting them but to the point of dislodging them so when the final assault is made Confederate resistance although still there will become lighter and lighter and lighter and Burnside will carry that bridge with again the fewest casualties of the day of any Union force on the field suddenly a stir beginning far up on the right and running like a wave along the line brought the regiment to its feet a silence fell on everyone at once for each felt that the ominous now had come the truth is when bullets are whacking against tree trunks and solid shot are cracking skulls like eggshells the consuming passion in the breasts of the average man is to get out of the way between the physical fear of going forward and the moral fear of going back there is a predicament of exceptional awkwardness from which a hidden pole in the ground would be a wonderfully welcomed outlet private David Thompson 9th New York infantry after three hard-fought hours it was Brigadier General Edward Ferraro's turn to advance and cross the bridge he decided on a two regiment front the 51st New York and the 51st Pennsylvania fell in line the 51st Pennsylvania a hardcase outfit which had their whiskey rations taken away days earlier for misconduct was seeking some incentive corporal Lewis Patterson of the 51st Pennsylvania himself a teetotaler called out if we take the bridge can we get our whiskey back ferraro replied yes by God you shall have as much as you want general leave had earlier pulled most of his infantry away from this area to reinforce other units the 251st regiments had crossed 300 yards of open ground under heavy fire when they noticed the musketry slacken and the Confederate defenders peeling away acting quickly to exploit the situation they rushed the bridge wave of voices rose up behind them cheering them on as they sprinted over the bodies of their wounded and dying comrades and crossed the bridge Burnside's men had done it but not without great sacrifice to further emphasize the victory of Burnside he was the only Union commander on the field that day who was ordered to take a specific position ie the bridge and to achieve that position to take it other Union forces attacked positions but never succeeded in clearing out the rebels completely of any position that they were ordered to assault Burnside took the position succeeded admirably and was the only Union General to follow to the letter McClellan's orders and recalling later said that he would have won a more decisive victory than Tetum had been signed not been so slow some historians think that Burnside in fact acted as promptly as he could they had deployed his troops in the successful way and had gotten across the stream after one o'clock he brought up he brought everybody else across the stream he had four divisions in his rather large ninth quart got them deployed and attacked starting about three o'clock in the afternoon against the Confederate defenses in that part of the battlefield and again there appeared to be an opportunity to exploit the success that about four o'clock or 4:30 in the afternoon Burnside's attack was having but once again McClellan held back because he feared those phantom reserves that Lee had and feared that if he committed his own reserves Lee would commit his in a counter-attack that might sweep Burnside and McClellan's reserves before him so for the second time that day McClellan neglected refused to send in his reserves despite Burnside's plea for reserves and B and despite McClellan's earlier promise that he would commit support to reinforce Burnside's attack Burnside's superior numbers forced the Confederates back against the town of Sharpsburg the general was aiming to capture the road south of town a Harpers Ferry Road which was Lee's only escape route remaining to retreat across the Potomac Lee's Army of Northern Virginia literally had its back up against the wall surrounded on almost all sides by federal forces robert e lee after nearly ten hours of fighting was facing certain capture and the complete destruction of his army the arduous service in which our troops had been engaged they're great privations of rest and food the long marches without shoes or the mountain roads had greatly reduced our ranks before the action began this great battle was fought by less than forty thousand men on our side all of whom had undergone the greatest labors and hardships in the field and on the March nothing could surpass the determined valor with which they met the large army of the enemy robert e lee lee survived to write those words in his after-action report on the Maryland campaign because of one man's stubborn determination as Lee stood on the crest of that Hill in Sharpsburg watching the walls closing around him an aide spied a rising dust cloud and Confederate and Virginia battle flags off in the distance Lee paused then turned to the aide and calmly said it's ap Hill from Harpers Ferry general Ambrose Powell hill Lee's redshirted feisty commander had forced marched his light division sometimes at the point of the sword 17 miles in seven hours to join the fight riding ahead of his 3,000 men Hill was met with an embrace by Lee perhaps the only time that ever occurred on the battlefield up came hill 17 miles in seven hours one of the great achievements in military history of course ap Hill wanted to get to Sharpsburg in order to save the army of North Virginia and robert e lee but believing that there were three personal reasons why AP he wanted to get there as quick as possible one of those personal reasons was Stonewall Jackson it seems Stonewall Jackson had put ap Hill under arrest at Harpers Ferry because at one point during the campaign AP Hill's light division was moving a little bit too fast for Jackson and so he basically told the light division to halt so instead of going through channels of going directly to AP Hill to halt the division he did it himself and AP hill protested by basically going up to Jackson and saying if you plan on issuing orders to my division without my command then take my sword well he did take his sword he basically sent us to the back of the column and so he was placed under arrest but then finally he was put back and commanded a light division at this point in time but another reason why ep he wanted to get there as quick as possible the army the Potomac was being commanded by George McClellan ap Hill and George McClellan would both room at what point and they were very good friends throughout their army careers basically and at one point they were both courting the same woman her name was Ellen Marcy she ended up marrying George McClellan but before that she was engaged to ap Hill but then as I said she ended up marrying George McClellan so deep down inside Hill wanted to prove to Ellen Marcy who was the better man and that other personal reason this goes to Ambrose Burnside Bern southern hill were also very good friends at West Point and the regular army they were very good friends matter of fact Burnside borrowed $8,000 from ap Hill 10 the Civil War began and he never paid him back so that was another personal reason why ap Hill wanted to get to Shaw's Berg and make Burnside pay that eight thousand dollar loan after 12 cataclysmic hours the battle was over robert e lee had said never forgot the man who saved his army of northern virginia from absolute destruction legend has it Lee called out from his deathbed in 1870 till ap Hill he must come up shortly after the battle was over Burnside in the Union 9th corps was transferred much closer to the Potomac River principally to serve as guards against other Confederate incursions back into Maryland Burnside made his headquarters in what was known as the Raleigh Schulman house a very nice estate home located less than a half a mile from the mouth of the Antietam Creek at the Potomac River and here in early October the president United States who had come to visit with general McClellan not only to thank the army but also to encourage McClellan to move forward and commence a new campaign against the defeated rebels the president would come here to meet with Burnside as well to hear Burnside's impressions of the battle and also to learn about what Burnside thought should be the future of the army and so that meeting occurred here in this house and it occurred on October the 2nd 1862 here in the Raleigh Schulman home the victory at Antietam which forced Lee to retreat to Virginia without his objectives achieved in Maryland followed three weeks later by a victory in Kentucky at the banner Battle of Perryville which forced Braxton Bragg to retreat Tennessee turned the war around at least for the time being militarily and really I think frustrated the Confederacy's supreme military effort to conquer a piece by winning victories on Union soil secondly the northern congressional elections were scheduled for the fall of 1862 and one of Lee's objectives in invading Maryland was to influence those elections to encourage the peace Democrats they so-called copperheads who argued that the Union could never be cobbled to get together again by force that there should be some kind of peace negotiations to bring this war to an end which of course would have favored Confederate independence because it would have been peace negotiations between two nations a Confederate nation and the Union nation two nations to being treated as equals and if I'm convinced that if Lee's invasion of Maryland had been successful if he had wanted Antietam or somewhere else if a battle had taken place elsewhere that the Democrats would have gained control of the House of Representatives in those fall elections of 1862 and that that would have so discredit to the Lincoln administration's war policies that Lincoln might well have been forced by political necessity to carry forward some kind of negotiations with the Confederacy but Lee's retreat to Virginia made it possible for the north to claim victory and the Republicans did maintain a reduced but nevertheless comfortable majority in the House of Representatives and those congressional elections third the British and French were on the verge of offering to mediate an end to this conflict on the basis of confederate independence and if Lee's invasion had succeeded they would have made such an offer the north the Lincoln administration probably would have turned them down if that had happened the British and the French and they were sure to be followed by other European nations would have recognized the Confederacy would have offered diplomatic recognition of the Confederacy as an independent nation and the moral impact of that might have been huge but when Lee was forced to retreat to Virginia the British government backed off Prime Minister Palmerston said situation had changed and the British and whole Dauphin's longer and see what what should develop in the future course of the war in retrospect that turned out to be the Confederacy's best chance to win foreign diplomatic recognition and all of the possibilities that might have followed from that never again did the Confederacy come so close to European diplomatic recognition and possibly support as they had done before the Battle of Antietam in September 1862 few souls left standing peering out upon the misery of the blood-stained battlefield of Antietam could have imagined that the very course of the American Civil War had been altered no longer would it remain just a war to reform a union that former nation had ceased to exist now the war would take on a greater some would say nobler purpose it would become a struggle to set men free the victory at Antietam was critically linked to the Emancipation Proclamation and in two ways one is that the victory at Antietam although it was not the most perfect victory the Union Army has ever won in the Civil War was still enough to fulfill secretary Seward's recommendation to Lincoln that he wait on the proclamation to issue it until there had been a victory that really looked like Lincoln would be dealing from strength with emancipation but there's another thing which is much more private that is connected to Antietam and that is Lincoln's vow Lincoln explained many months afterwards that before the Battle of Antietam he had made what he called a vow or a covenant with God that if Lee was driven back across the river if the Union armies were victorious he would crown the result by issuing the proclamation of freedom he explains this to his cabinet when he calls them into session the Monday after the battle and for a man of such comparatively low modest religious profile it's so astounding that his secretary of the Treasury Sam and chase actually asks him to repeat that comment about a vow to God he wasn't even sure that he'd heard it right from Lincoln and Lincoln not only repeats it but adds the emphasis I made a promise to my maker I made a promise a vow to God and I am going to keep it so Antietam is a trigger for Lincoln not only in terms of fulfilling the scheduling secretary Seward had in mind it's also bound up with Lincoln's own personal covenant god as a blood-red sun signaled the end of America's most horrific day of carnage in the Twilight fields and meadows of Sharpsburg Maryland lay countless wounded and dying men these soldiers from both sides found little comfort in their last moments as the roar of battle had given way to the echoing cries of thousands of fellow wounded and dying men for most their Civil War journey had reached its end many more would join their ranks in the terrible battles to come Fredericksburg Gettysburg Petersburg but for survivors they would remain a single September day in 1862 in the very landscape turned red and many would recall even in their most vivid nightmares there was never a horror as terrifying as Antietam one month after the battle at the corner of Broadway and 10th a simple placard appeared on the door of Mathew Brady's New York gallery it read the dead of Antietam for the very first time Americans would view images of death on the battlefield as hundreds of gallery visitors silently shuffled past the photographs a writer for The New York Times eloquently spoke of the emptiness left behind New York Times October 20th 1862 the living that throng Broadway Kerr little perhaps for the dead at Antietam but we fancy they would jostle less carelessly down the great thoroughfare saunter less at their ease were a few dripping bodies fresh from the field laid along the pavement the dead of the battlefield come up to us very rarely even in dreams we see the lists in the morning paper at breakfast but dismiss its recollection with the coffee mr. Brady has done something to bring home to us the terrible reality and earnestness of war if he has not brought bodies and laid them in our door yards and along streets he has done something very like it Holmes had been a desolate and the light of life and thousands of hearts has been quenched forever all of this desolation imagination must paint for broken hearts cannot be photographed people now understood the meaning of the vacant chair they now saw that the war was not endless statistics it was not meaning his name's that appeared in the newspapers but now the war was human those photographs did more to personalize the American Civil War than anything had prior to that and anything that would come after that as a historian I've done hundreds and hundreds of tours at Antietam for over a 30-year period and for years I would tell people about the horrendous number of casualties and how horrific the battle was there and how intense the combat was and I would even use the analogy to d-day that there were four times more casualties at Sharpsburg in 12 hours of fighting then American forces suffered against the Germans when we hit the beaches in Normandy on June the 6th 1944 but still it just didn't have the impact even on me I just couldn't comprehend 23,000 casualties it was impossible for me to visualize and then came the luminaries and the first year they did the luminaries and I wasn't there as a guest how was this there as a tourist about 11:30 that night I drove through the battlefield with my lights dimmed and I saw candle after candle after candle dozens of them and then hundreds of them and then thousands of them and more thousands of them and that night I didn't sleep because for the first time in my career I understood Antietam each candle represents person it's a father son a brother and uncle a cousin a nephew they're people each one of those little lights is a heart flickering in the darkness and Antietam snuffed the light of those people you

Channel: Janson Media

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Keywords: antietam, antietam documentary, battle of antietam, civil war documentary, lincoln and lee at antietam - the cost of freedom, american civil war movies full length, american civil war documentary, the battle of antietam, Abraham Lincoln (US President), Robert E. Lee (Military Commander), Civil War (Literature Subject), War (Quotation Subject), War Film (Film Genre), Lincoln and Lee at Antietam: The Cost of Freedom, Lincoln and Lee, Antietam: The Cost of Freedom

Id: RwHxAWXvAZw

Length: 88min 18sec (5298 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 14 2012