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Show &HETAM"or"SHARPSBnHG" 1 1 !n f PtlUd Pcat!l,, fr 3000 American I 0 SCOTT WATSON :heyincaUtht fname is given the ;rtnwas fought in September 17, WW, j "death" for some ericans, from both band the South. eld where it was ,ing along Antietam deluding the little Sharpsburg, has :m in history as the the bloodiest single ihting and that 17th ?as the day of "carnage during the -nrs oftheAmer- THE FIGHT AT BURNSIDE'S BRIDGE. Jir. Into that bat-Robert bat-Robert E. Lee led nately 55,000 men in 3 came out of it with nearly 12,000 killed :nded. But in doing inflicted upon Gen. "free them from oppression." Neither recruits in any large number num-ber nor supplies were forthcoming. forthcom-ing. Moreover, his caen began to straggle because many of them were reluctant to fight outside of Virginia. Then Lee decided upon a bold plan and a necessary one if he were to carry the war into Pennsylvania. Penn-sylvania. Against the advice of some of his generals, he divided his forces and ordered "Stonewall" "Stone-wall" Jackson to strike for Harper's Har-per's Ferry and capture the Union supplies stored there and guarded by a comparatively small force. Several copies of the orders for this maneuver were made and one of these copies came into the hands of a staff officer whose iden- in the center and made immortal two spots "Bloody Lane," a sunken sunk-en road, washed out by rains, which made a natural rifle pit for the Confederates, and a stone bridge over Antietam creek, to be known later as Burnside's bridge. In the sunken road lay the men of two (Rode's and Anderson's) of the five brigades commanded by Gen. D. H. Hill. When the Union general, French, advanced to attack, at-tack, his men were met with a withering fire as they pushed up the hill beyond Antietam creek. But they dug in and held on for a little while. Then in one of the most desperate parts of the whole battle they surged over the rail fence, from behind which the Confederates Con-federates had been pouring in might have been much more decisive." de-cisive." But McClellan had missed his chance for a smashing victory when he did not throw Fitz-John Porter into the fray and when he did not support Burnside's attack as strongly as he might have done. Darkness ended the fighting fight-ing on Antietam's bloody field and that night Union and Confederate soldiers rested on their arms. At dawn the Union artillery opened op-ened fire again. General Couch's division arrived, giving McClellan 25,000 fresh men, but he made no ! attempt to push the fight. He now had 80,000 men and more were on the way. Believing that Lee had at least 100,000 (although there were never more than 55,000 men in gray) the Union commander decided to wait, even though he Q j tity has never been established. This officer wrapped up three cigars ci-gars in the paper and carelessly stuffed it in his pocket. And here is where one of those queer quirks of fate came in. An Important "Find." The officer lost the cigars with their highly important wrapping out of his pocket and they were picked up by a Union soldier. Within a short time Lee's "Special "Spe-cial Order No. 191" was in the hands of Gen. George B. McClellan. McClel-lan. At first, the Union commander com-mander could scarcely believe that it was authentic. Then realizing real-izing the golden opportunity that lay within his grasp that of striking strik-ing Lee's divided force he set his army of 75,000 in swift motion toward Frederick. By this time Lee had reached Hagerstown. No word had yet been received from the force sent to capture Harper's Ferry and the Confederate commander began to be concerned. His alarm deepened deep-ened when Jeb Stuart brought ORCE B. McCLELLAN B. McClellan and his 80,000 men in blue a nore than 11,600. I out that "this tremen-sult tremen-sult of carnage was en-mpassed en-mpassed in the brief hi dawn to four o'clock tcrnoon," one of the gen-io gen-io took part in it (Gen. ongstreet of the Conf ed-rrny ed-rrny in his memoirs, . Manassas to Appomat-rs: Appomat-rs: "Gettysburg was. the battle of the war, but it three days, and its total Hies on either side, ter-twas, ter-twas, should be one-third their destructive fire, and overwhelmed over-whelmed the gray defenders of the sunken road. When this part of the battle was over the road was filled with dead and dying. Thus "Bloody Lane" got its name. At this point McClellan had another an-other opportunity to smash Lee and threw it away I He had in reserve re-serve Fitz-John Porter's corps of 11,000 men, who had not yet been engaged. Military experts believe that had he immediately thrown this force into the fight to follow up French's success, he could have split Lee's army in two and won the battle then and there. Toombs' Heroic Defense. But for some strange reason he failed to do so. Instead he was sending repeated orders to General Gen-eral Burnside to attack the stone bridge over the Antietam. This bridge was defended by Gen. Robert Rob-ert Toombs, once a member of Jefferson Davis' cabinet but now commander of a small force of two Georgia regiments and sev- J eral fragments of other companies, com-panies, The bridge was a key to the Confederate rear. If the Union forces captured it, they would block one of the routes of retreat. So in the face of overwhelming odds, Toombs and his small force held on grimly against repeated attacks by Burnside. Considering the heroic quality of that defense, it would seem fitting that that bridge should bear the name of Toombs. Instead, In-stead, that honor goes to the general gen-eral whose forces captured it, for to this day it is known as Burnside's Burn-side's bridge. Considering, too, the amount of blood that was shed in capturing the bridge it seems ironical enough that few of Burn- side's men, after driving off Toombs' forces, used it to cross the Sream. Instead, the majority of them waded across the Antietam Antie-tam just below or above it! . Early in the afternoon Burnside .Jf. Zi to rpoort to McClellan f make the average per pal to the losses at Ii'g. Viewed by the measles, meas-les, Antietam was the sttle of the war, Spot-trod the Wilderness, as Gettysburg, exceeding it er of killed and wounded, li of these dragged its 'hough several days." w, three-quarters of a jater, thousands of Ameri-f Ameri-f gathering on that blood-Md blood-Md to celebrate the sev-h sev-h anniversary of the bat- it re-enacted by 5,000 'Guard troops from three rd to hear again the story i'oic deeds of the men who there. President Roose-wen Roose-wen invited to attend the t:on and the governors of j-B, GEN. ROBERT E. LEE knew there was a chance that Lee would escape across the Potomac. Finally the Confederates sent a white flag, asking for an armistice to gather up the wounded between the two armies, and it was granted. Neither army resumed the attack at-tack during the day and that night the Union pickets heard the rumbling rum-bling of wheels. The next morning morn-ing revealed what they had suspected. sus-pected. Lee had retreated in safety safe-ty across the Potomac. Immediately Immedi-ately McClellan gave orders for an advance. Porter's corps the very troops which he had held back during the battle-forded the river, formed on the Virginia shore and started to advance. But the men in gray had a strong position posi-tion now. They threw back the Union advance with heavy casualties, casual-ties, thereby adding to the losses which McClellan had suffered, lives that had been given in vain. Back in Washington, a tall gaunt man awaited news of the battle He had written a procla- in - Ji'Jr- h ;. Northern and Southern, wpng the spectators when w of history is rolled the guns of war echo "e rolling hills of Mary-cemore. Mary-cemore. 1 e 'ory of Antietam is the JSreat battle which just a decisive engage-ecause engage-ecause 0f several queer . 'late. It came at a time 15 h0i'C3 of the Confeder-, Confeder-, Access were mounting fad whipped Pope at J battle of Bull Run, or !.,' ?nd decided that the 4 "Pe to carry the war enemy instead of 0,1 me defensive. 5 at the peple f ?JW rally to the Stars ,sjine led a strong force i Kin and there was also that thi3 that ; ""ngton would release GEN. ROBERT TOOMBS word of McClellan's advance. Lee knew "Little Mac" as a skillful but over-cautious commander and could not understand why he should be moving with such sure-ness sure-ness toward his objective. He knew nothing of the loss of the copy of "Special Order No. 191 oufhe suspected that McOeDan had guessed his situation and was marching to take advantage of it. Then word came from Jackson that he had captured Harper's Ferry and asked for further orders or-ders Lee at once sent word for On the afternoon of September 16 Lee drew up his troops on the west banl of Antietam creek and . nncsible in an effort to staii uu Sat by a brilliant charge of the Fiftv-first Pennsylvania Volun-feers Volun-feers S hard-fought-for bridge had been carried. After occupy-te occupy-te other bank, Burnside Salted until 3 o'clock when per-emptory per-emptory orders came from the SSSSder to push forward and carry the heights to which the 2y had retired. Held up for a S by a Confederate battery on Zleft of the line, Burns.de final-W final-W succeeded in reaching the Whts and some of his troops Sven advanced to the outskirts of Sharpsburg. A. P. Hu Arrives. At this juncture reinforcements HI Lee "had been praying for which Lee naa d sh.rtedi arrived. Genera I nil red-bearded A. benmJrTTTed on .the Harpers erry, t ESiji?:, ,,V: i, tr. !,, ?:? ;;!J!;! .' - '-1a-"1kMtMto'''"k"'' c on Kichmond with-the with-the capital of the tluale was what he he could con" Wo Pennsylvania and e Northerners a taste medicine of invasion. Jna, My Maryland." ;iSStuart vomen of ail g'Ve? that dashin ,'1 of gold spurs) lead- i with bands blar-!mS blar-!mS !inginS "Mary-ijlandl" "Mary-ijlandl" Lee crossed 2C 0n September 11. ,ibu !nced his neigh-!t neigh-!t .n found People ' Pathetic to his offer to der Jackson. A. P. Hill and mc-Laws mc-Laws should arrive. Hooker Opens the Affair, lathe afternoon McClellan sent tL Hooker to cross the An- chS5 he h,ad Ses were drawn up op-the op-the two armies ivver posite each other ra miles long. At aaw again attacked and 1 soon tie was raging all fons The fiercest fighting took place Tired as his men were, they field- -iprliately hurled against we" elZyS in blue were ?n back to the eek and there prepared to make their partment, y th(J heights been secured ies might from whifh our oai rf have enfiladed the sre rftheMd re Our victory their right and rear. GEN. A. E. BURNSIDE mation freeing the slaves. He would follow up the first great Union victory with this proclama-lS proclama-lS as a blow against southern resistance. Then the news of the bloody struggle at Antietam came bear-Sg bear-Sg with it the story of McClel-Ws McClel-Ws tragic failure and Abraham . radiv faced a future in wSre' med little hope. e. Western Newspaper Union. |
