Take An Audio Of Tour The Antietam Battlefield

T he twelve hour Battle of         opened the attack on the           Antietam, the bloodiest day     Confederate right. His first task  of the Civil War began at       would be to capture the bridge     dawn on September 17, 1862. For       that would later bear his name. A  the next seven hours there were       small Confederate force,           three major Union attacks on the      positioned on higher ground, was   Confederate left, moving from         able to delay Burnside for three   north to south. Gen. Joseph           hours. After taking the bridge at  Hooker’s command led the first        about 1:00 p.m., Burnside          Union assault. Then Gen. Joseph       reorganized for two hours before   Mansfield’s soldiers attacked,        moving forward across the arduous  followed by Gen. Edwin Sumner’s       terrain—a critical delay. Finally  men as McClellan’s plan broke         the advance started only to be     down into a series of                 turned back by Confederate         uncoordinated Union advances.         General A.P. Hill’s                Savage, incomparable combat raged     reinforcements that arrived in     across the Cornfield, East Woods,     the late afternoon from Harpers    West Woods and the Sunken Road as     Ferry.                             Lee shifted his men to withstand                                         each of the Union thrusts. After      Neither flank of the Confederate   clashing for over eight hours,        army collapsed far enough for      the Confederates were pushed back     McClellan to advance his center    but not broken, however over          attack, leaving a sizable Union    15,000 soldiers were killed or        force that never entered the       wounded.                              battle. Despite over 23,000                                              casualties of the nearly 100,000   While the Union assaults were         engaged, both armies stubbornly    being made on the Sunken Road, a      held their ground as the sun set   mile-and-a-half farther south         on the devastated landscape. The   Union Gen. Ambrose Burnside           next day, September 18, the        opposing armies gathered their                                           wounded and buried their dead.        Dunker Church - This was the       That night Lee’s army withdrew        focal point of repeated clashes    back across the Potomac to            as both armies sought to occupy    Virginia, ending Lee’s first          and hold the high ground around    invasion into the North. Lee’s        it. Leveled by a storm in 1921,    retreat to Virginia provided          the church was rebuilt in 1962.    President Lincoln the opportunity                                        he had been waiting for to issue      North Woods - General Hooker       the preliminary Emancipation          launched the initial Union attack  Proclamation. Now the war had a       from this point. It was stopped    dual purpose of preserving the        by Jackson’s troops in The         Union and ending slavery.             Cornfield, 1/2 mile south.                                                                                  You can now relive the battle of      East Woods - Union Gen. Joseph     Antietam (in Sharpsburg,              Mansfield was fatally wounded      Maryland), the bloodiest day of       here ashe led his XII Corps into   the Civil War with a driving tour     battle.                            of the significant places of the                                         battlefield. Stop by the Antietam     The Cornfield - More fighting      Visitors Center before you start      took place here in the Miller      on this 8.5 mile driving tour to      cornfield than anywhere else at    pick up a copy of the companion       Antietam. The battle lines swept   audio CD to highlight the             back and forth across the field    significant events at every stop      for three hours.                   on the tour.                                                                                                   West Woods - Union Gen. John       This tour will cover the              Sedgwick’s division lost more      following key historic points at      than 2,200 men in less than half   Antietam.                             an hour in ill-fated charge into   these woods-against Jackson’s and     after the Union general whose      Longstreet’s troops.                  troops were held off most of the                                         day by a few hundred Georgia       Mumma Farm - Burned by the            riflemen, it is the battlefield’s  Confederates to prevent their use     best-known landmark.               by Union sharpshooters, the Mumma                                        farm buildings were the only          The Final Attack - After taking    civilian property purposely           the Lower Bridge and reforming     destroyed during the battle.          his corps, Burnside marched his                                          men across these hills toward      Roulette Farm - Union troops          Sharpsburg, threatening to cut     under French and Richardson           off Lee’s line of retreat. Just    crossed these fields on their way     as the Federals reached this       to meet the Confederates posted       area, A. P. Hill’s Confederate     in the Sunken Road.                   division arrived from Harpers                                            Ferry and drove them back.         Sunken Road (Bloody Lane) - For                                          nearly 4 hours, Union and             Antietam National Cemetery - The   Confederate infantry contested        remains of 4,776 Federal           this sunken country road,             soldiers, including 1,836          resulting in over 5,000               unknowns, are buried in this       casualties—thus the name “Bloody      hilltop cemetery near town. Most   Lane.”                                of the Confederate dead are                                              buried in Hagerstown and           Lower Bridge (Burnside Bridge) -      Frederick, Md., Shepherdstown, W.  The fighting here was a key           Va., and in local church and       factor in McClellan’s failure at      family cemeteries.                 Antietam. Called Burnside Bridge       About the Author: The Historical Archive - http://www.thehistoricalarchive.com offers a large, robust library of DVD and CD based products covering a wide range of significant and interesting historical events and cultural moments through film, photos, audios, maps and other documents. Published At: www.Isnare.com