This map shows the respective Union and Confederate front lines early in the day at Sharpsburg and the line to which the Confederates fell back in the afternoon Battle Details 1 Union commander McClellan planned to attack both Confederate flanks at once Union forces launched a dawn attack from the north on the Confederate left flank and there was fierce fighting in the North East and West Woods and around the Dunker Church 2 The battle shifted south to the center of the Confederate line At the sunken road later called Bloody Lane Confederates held off repeated Union attacks for nearly 4 hours They were forced to retreat at about 1 00 P M 3 Ordered to attack the Confederate right flank at 8 00 A M Union commander Burnside crossed the creek and started his attack at 3 00 P M pushing the Confederates back toward Sharpsburg The arrival of Confederate reinforcements forced the Union troops to retreat and ended the battle in a bloody draw 10 Battles and Campaigns
2,500 men killed or wounded in 20 minutes including General John Sedgwick the division commander Falling back nearly a mile the Union troops took up defensive positions The fighting for the West Woods was at a stalemate Bloody Lane Meanwhile another of Sumner’s divisions lost its way and marched toward the Confederate center At 9 30 A M it attacked brigades holding the sunken road that ran between the Boonsboro and Hagerstown Pikes later called Bloody Lane Fighting continued here for nearly four hours as first one Union division and then a second made repeated charges At about the same time on the right of the Union line IX Corps under Ambrose E Burnside began attacking across the creek at the Rohrbach Bridge later renamed Burnside Bridge Burnside sent in brigade after brigade but was held off by a Confederate force of just 400 Georgians They held the bridge until 1 00 P M when one of Burnside’s division commanders had the good sense to use a nearby ford and flank the Confederate position By early afternoon the Confederate line was on the verge of collapse Reinforcements had been arriving from Harpers Ferry all day But Lee only had one division in reserve and by noon he had committed most of that to help defend the sunken road At 1 00 P M the sunken road fell to the Union and the Confederates fell back toward Sharpsburg By now most of Burnside’s forces had crossed Antietam Creek At 3 00 P M they started to advance McClellan hesitates McClellan still had two army corps in reserve If he had sent them forward he would have won the battle but instead he hesitated His timidity cost the Union what Stalemate A deadlock in which neither side can gain an advantage Curriculum Context Burnside was one of the more significant Union commanders of the war Curriculum Context McClellan was often criticized for being too cautious eventually his caution cost him his job Antietam Sharpsburg Battle of 11
President Abraham Lincoln with General George B McClellan sixth from left and other Union officers at Antietam Curriculum Context Students assessing the most significant battles of the war should include Antietam Sharpsburg because it stopped the invasion of the North and allowed Lincoln to issue the Emancipation Proclamation 12 Battles and Campaigns would have been a great victory As Burnside’s men advanced a sudden attack struck their left flank Confederates who had marched from Harpers Ferry arrived at that moment to stop Burnside’s attack and force it back toward the creek At nightfall the battle ended in a standoff among the dead and dying Both armies had suffered terrible casualties McClellan had lost 12,400 dead wounded or missing while Lee had suffered more than 10,000 casualties September 17 1862 was the bloodiest day of the entire war Although the battle was a draw in tactical terms it was a strategic victory for the Union because the Confederate invasion of the North had been halted Lee considered counterattacking but his officers argued against the idea Both sides held their positions the next day On the 19th Lee led his army back across the Potomac President Lincoln interpreted the battle as a Union victory in order to issue his preliminary Emancipation Proclamation three days later
Appomattox Campaign The first days of April 1865 witnessed the last major campaign of the Civil War and the final defeat of Robert E Lee’s Confederate Army of Northern Virginia Lee surrendered his army to Union General Ulysses S Grant on April 9 By spring 1865 Union armies were in complete ascendancy in the eastern theater In the Carolinas Union General William T Sherman’s March to the Sea had taken Charleston and the last Confederate port of Wilmington His only opposition was the Army of Tennessee under the command of Joseph E Johnston Johnston’s force was a shadow of its former size with just 15,000 foot soldiers plus a few thousand cavalry facing almost 90,000 in Sherman’s army Meanwhile in Virginia Union forces under Ulysses S Grant had been besieging Petersburg since June 1864 Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia was defeated by Grant outside Petersburg at Five Forks on April 1 Grant attacked the Petersburg defenses the following day The Confederates began to retreat from Petersburg and their capital of Richmond on April 2 and 3 The Confederate situation was desperate Race to the west Lee’s weakened army raced west in an attempt to outpace the Union troops and meet with Johnston at Danville planning to make a combined stand Lee lost a day waiting for supplies for his hungry and tired men at Amelia Court House on the Richmond and Danville Railroad The desperately needed supplies never arrived and the soldiers searched in vain for food in the ravaged countryside nearby On April 5 skirmishes broke out as Union cavalry and infantry harassed the Confederates in the area around Amelia Court House and Tabernacle Creek Meanwhile Union cavalry under March to the Sea You can read about Sherman’s controversial campaign on pages 63 66 Petersburg The siege is described on page 75 Curriculum Context You might be asked to describe how shortages of supplies impacted the Confederate armies later in the war Appomattox Campaign 13
