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| Jacob D Cox - Photo by Matthew Brady . |
Though starting from humble beginnings and unable to afford
an education, Jacob D. Cox became a major general for the Union Army, an
abolitionist, an educator, and a polarizing political figure in American
history. Born on October 27th of 1828 in Montreal, Canada to American parents,
Cox was raised and educated in New York State. After working odd jobs as a
legal clerk and banker, he moved to Ohio, enrolling at Oberlin College and graduating
in 1851. While there, he married Helen Finney, the daughter of Oberlin's
president, passed the bar examination in 1853, and began practicing law in
Warren, OH.
Cox was an abolitionist sympathizer, and the environment at
Oberlin and within his wife's family reinforced his beliefs. He was a supporter
of the antislavery Whigs and Free Soil Party, and served as a delegate to the
first Ohio Republican Party Convention in 1855. Elected to the Ohio State
Senate in 1858, he joined forces with Senators James A. Garfield and James
Monroe and together the three worked with governors of Ohio to promote
legislation friendly to the Union.
Though his political star was on the rise, when war broke
out in 1861, Cox entered the Union Army as a brigadier general of the Ohio
Volunteers on April 23rd, 1861, and served under General George McClellan in
the campaigns in western Virginia as they followed the rout of the Kanawha
River. Cox's troops - the Kanawha Division - moved frequently, first advancing
to Charleston in July of 1861, then rerouting to Gauley Bridge and battling
General Henry Wise at the Battle of Scary Creek in West Virginia. Though
technically a Confederate victory with heavy Union losses, Union troops were
later able to take and hold the valley. Cox remained in the Kanawha Valley,
fortifying it against repeated Confederate attacks during the winter of
1861-62.
After Confederate troops forces Cox's retreat out of the
Shenandoah Valley in the spring of 1862, he redirected his soldiers to
Washington D.C. to protect the capital, after which they fought at Monocacy
Bridge. Joining forces with John Pope's Army of Virginia, Cox and his men went
on to fight in the Maryland Campaign of 1862. Cox and his division were
instrumental in the Battle of South Mountain on September 14th, the opening
engagement of the Maryland Campaign. Cox, camped the closest to South Mountain,
brought his division up to protect Fox's Gap, sending 3,000 of his men against
the 1,000 Confederates stationed there. Though initially successful, Cox's men
were exhausted, running low on ammunition, and had suffered high casualties.
Reinforcements, however, failed to arrive, leaving the Kanawha Division to
battle alone through the night. That night the Confederates withdrew, allowing
Cox's men to seize Turner's Gap, a crucially important strategic point.
After Antietam, Cox returned to western Virginia,
eliminating any remaining rebels. 1863 was a relatively quiet year for Cox; he
was first assigned to command the District of Ohio, and then the District of
Michigan, while he remained on the move, clearing out pockets of remaining
Confederate resistance.
During the Atlanta Campaign of 1864, Cox commanded the 3rd
Division of the Twenty-third Corps, using his troops as the main attack force
at the Battle of Utoy Creek near Atlanta between August 4th and 7th, 1864. Cox
and his division also protected the Union retreat from Pulaski to Columbia,
engaged with Confederates at Spring Hill, and were at the center of the most
violent fighting at the Battle of Franklin. After this demonstration of his
ability to lead his troops well, Cox was appointed major general on December
7th, 1864. In 1865, Maj. Gen. Cox and his troops eliminated the threat of Fort
Anderson outside of Wilmington, North Carolina, forcing Confederate soldiers
out of the area and completing the Union blockade on ports used by the
Confederate States.
Cox was elected as governor of Ohio in 1865 and served from
1866-67. As another term approached, the issue of black suffrage damaged his
chances at reelection; Cox believed from his own observations during his time
in the war that blacks and whites could not live together as equals. These
views angered the constituents who had supported his previous policies, and he
was not reelected. Cox then served as Secretary of the Interior in 1869 when
Ulysses S. Grant was sworn in, though the two infamously did not agree on
policy. Due to this and the corruption Cox believed inherent in the political
system, he resigned in the fall of 1870. Cox was then elected to Congress in
18756, though his political career came to a close when he decided against
seeking reelection in 1878. Cox became the Dean of the Cincinnati Law School,
the president of the University of Cincinnati, and a trustee of Oberlin
College. He retired in 1897 and became a prolific writer, discussing all manner
of military topics concerned with the Civil War.
Cox died while on vacation in Massachusetts on August 4th,
1900. He is buried in Spring Grove Cemetery in Cincinnati.
[i]
The Battle Of
Antietam
By
Jacob D. Cox,
Major-General, U.S.V.
It was not
till some time past noon of the 15th of September that, the way being clear for
the Ninth Corps at South Mountain, we marched through Fox's gap to the
Boonsboro, and Sharpsburg turnpike, and along this road till we came up in rear
of Sumner's command. Hooker's corps, which was part of the right wing
(Burnside's), had been in the advance, and had moved off from the turnpike to
the right near Keedysville. I was with the Kanawha Division, assuming that my
temporary command of the corps ended with the battle on the mountain. When we
approached the line of hills bordering the Antietam, we received orders to turn
off the road to the left, and halted our battalions closed in mass. It was now
about 3 o'clock in the afternoon. McClellan, as it seemed, had just reached the
field, and was surrounded by a group of his principal officers, most of whom I
had never seen before. I rode up with General Burnside, dismounted, and was
very cordially greeted by General McClellan. He and Burnside were evidently on
terms of most intimate friendship and familiarity. He introduced me to the
officers I had not known before, referring pleasantly to my service with him in
Ohio and West Virginia, putting me upon an easy footing with them in a very
agreeable and genial way.
We walked up
the slope of the ridge before us, and looking westward from its crest the whole
field of the coming battle was before us. Immediately in front the Antietam
wound through the hollow, the hills rising gently on both sides. In the
background on our left was the village of Sharpsburg, with fields inclosed by
stone fences in front of it. At its right was a bit of wood (since known as the
West Wood), with the little Dunker Church standing out white and sharp against
it. Farther to the right and left the scene was closed in by wooded ridges with
open farm lands between, the whole making as pleasing and prosperous a
landscape as can easily be imagined. We made a large group as we stood upon the
hill, and it was not long before we attracted the enemy's attention. A puff of
white smoke from a knoll on the right of the Sharpsburg road was followed by
the screaming of a shell over our heads. McClellan directed that all but one or
two should retire behind the ridge, while he continued the reconnaissance,
walking slowly to the right. I noted with satisfaction the cool and
business-like air with which he made his examination under fire. The
Confederate artillery was answered by a battery, and a lively cannonade ensued
on both sides, though without any noticeable effect. The enemy's position was
revealed, and he was evidently in force on both sides of the turnpike in front
of Sharpsburg, covered by the undulations of the rolling ground which hid his
infantry from our sight.
The
examination of the enemy's position and the discussion of it continued till
near the close of the day. Orders were then given for the Ninth Corps to move
to the left, keeping off the road, which was occupied by other troops. We moved
through fields and farm lands, an hour's march in the dusk of the evening,
going into bivouac about a mile south of the Sharpsburg bridge, and in rear of
the hills bordering the Antietam.
On Tuesday,
September 16th, we confidently expected a battle, and I kept With my division.
In the afternoon I saw General Burnside, and learned from him that McClellan
had determined to let Hooker make a movement on our extreme right to turn Lee's
position. Burnside's manner in speaking of this implied that he thought it was
done at Hooker's solicitation and through his desire, openly evinced, to be
independent.
I urged
Burnside to assume the immediate command of the corps and allow me to lead only
my own division. He objected that as he had been announced as commander of the
right wing of the army composed of two corps (his own and Hooker's), he was
unwilling to waive his precedence or to assume that Hooker was detached for
anything more than a temporary purpose. I pointed out that Reno's staff had been
granted leave of absence to take the body of their chief to Washington, and
that my division staff was too small for corps duty; but he met this by saying
that he would use his staff for this purpose and help me in every way he could,
till the crisis of the campaign should be over.
The 16th
passed without serious fighting, though there was desultory cannonading and
picket firing. It was hard to restrain our men from showing themselves on the
crest of the long ridge in front Of us, and whenever they did so they drew the
fire from some of the enemy's batteries, to which ours would respond. In the
afternoon McClellan reconnoitered the line of the Antietam near us, Burnside
being with him. As the result of this we were ordered to change our positions at
nightfall, staff-officers being sent to guide each division to its new camp.
Rodman's division went half a mile to the left, where a country road led to a
ford in a great bend in the Antietam curving deeply into the enemy's side of
the stream.^ Sturgis's division was placed on the sides of the road leading to
the stone bridge, since known as Burnside's Bridge (below the Sharpsburg
bridge). Willcox's was put in reserve in rear of Sturgis. My own division was
divided, Scammon's brigade going with Rodman, and Crook's going With Sturgis.
Crook was ordered to take the advance in crossing the bridge, in case we should
be ordered to attack.
^ The information obtained from the neighborhood was that no
fords of the Antietam were passable at that time, except one about half-way
between the two upper bridges and another less than half a mile below
Burnside's Bridge. We, however, found during the engagement another ford a
short distance above Burnside's Bridge. The inquiry and reconnaissance for the
fords was made by engineer officers of the general staff, and our orders were
based on their reports.---J. D, C.
This selection
was made by Burnside himself, as a compliment to the division for the vigor of
its assault at South Mountain. While we were moving, we heard Hooker's guns far
off on the right and front, and the cannonade continued an hour or more after
it became dark.
The morning of
Wednesday, the 17th, broke fresh and fair. The men were astir at dawn, getting
breakfast and preparing for a day of battle. The artillery opened on both sides
as soon as it was fairly light, and the positions which had been assigned us in
the dusk of the evening were found to be exposed in some places to the direct
fire of the Confederate guns, Rodman's division suffering more than the others.
Fairchild's brigade alone reported thirty-six casualties before they could find
cover. It was not till 7 o'clock that orders came to advance toward the creek
as far as could be done without exposing the men to unnecessary loss. Rodman
was directed to acquaint himself with the situation of the ford in front of
him, and Sturgis to seek the best means of approach to the stone bridge. All
were then to remain in readiness to obey further orders.
When these
arrangements had been made, I rode to the position Burnside had selected for
himself, which was upon a high knoll north-east of the Burnside Bridge, near a
haystack which was a prominent landmark. Near by was Benjamin's battery of
20-pounder Parrotts, and a little farther still to the right, on the same
ridge, General Sturgis had sent in Durell's battery. These were exchanging
shots with the enemy's guns opposite, and had the advantage in range and weight
of metal.
Whatever the
reason, McClellan had adopted a plan of battle which practically reduced Sumner
and Burnside to the command of one corps each, while Hooker had been sent far off
on the right front, followed later by Mansfield, but without organizing the
right wing as a unit so that one commander could give his whole attention to
handling it with vigor. In his preliminary report, made before he was relieved
from command:
"The design was to make the main attack
upon the enemy's left ---at least to create a diversion in favor of the main
attack, with the hope of something more, by assailing the enemy's right--- and,
as soon as one or both of the flank movements were fully successful, to attack
their center with any reserve I might then have in hand." McClellan's
report covering his whole career in the war, dated August 4th, 1863 (and
published February, 1864, after warm controversies had arisen and he had become
a political character), modifies the above statement in some important
particulars. It says:
"My plan
for the impending general engagement was to attack the enemy's left with the
corps of Hooker and Mansfield, supported by Sumner's, and if necessary by Franklin's,
and as soon as matters looked favorably there to move the corps of Burnside
against the enemy's extreme right upon the ridge running to the south and rear
of Sharpsburg, and having carried their position, to press along the crest
toward our right, and whenever either of these flank movements should be
successful, to advance our center with all the forces then disposable."
The opinion I
got from Burnside as to the part the Ninth Corps was to take was fairly
consistent with the design first quoted, viz., that when the attack by Sumner,
Hooker, and Franklin should be progressing favorably, we were "to create a
diversion in favor of the main attack, with the hope of something more."
It would also appear probable that Hooker's movement was at first intended to
be made by his corps alone, taken up by Sumner's two corps as soon as he was
ready to attack, and shared in by Franklin if he reached the field in time,
thus making a simultaneous oblique attack from our right by the whole army
except Porter's corps, which was in reserve, and the Ninth Corps, which was to
create the "diversion" on our left and prevent the enemy from
stripping his right to reënforce his left. It is hardly disputable that this
would have been a better plan than the one actually carried out. Certainly the
assumption that the Ninth Corps could cross the Antietam alone at the only
place on the field where the Confederates had their line immediately upon the
stream which must be crossed under fire by two narrow heads of column, and could
then turn to the right along the high ground occupied by the hostile army
before that army had been broken or seriously shaken elsewhere, is one which
would hardly be made till time had dimmed the remembrance of the actual
positions of Lee's divisions upon the field.
The evidence
that the plan did not originally include the wide separation of two corps to
the right, to make the extended turning movement, is found in Hooker's
incomplete report, and in the wide interval in time between the marching of his
corps and that of Mansfield. Hooker was ordered to cross the Antietam at about
2 o'clock in the afternoon of the 16th by the bridge in front of Keedysville
and the ford below it. He says that after his troops were over and in march, he
rode back to McClellan, who told him that he might call for reënforcements and
that when they came they should be under his command. Somewhat later McClellan
rode forward with his staff to observe the progress making, and Hooker again
urged the necessity of reënforcements. Yet Sumner did not receive orders to
send Mansfield to support Hooker till evening, and the Twelfth Corps marched
only half an hour before midnight, reaching its bivouac, about a mile and a
half in rear of that of Hooker, at 2 A. M. of the 17th. Sumner was also ordered
to be in readiness to march with the Second Corps an hour before day, but his
orders to move did not reach him till nearly half-past 7 in the morning. By
this time, Hooker had fought his battle, had been repulsed, and later in the morning
was carried wounded from the field. Mansfield had fallen before his corps was
deployed, and General Alpheus S. Williams who succeeded him was fighting a
losing battle at all points but one --- where Greene's division held the East
Wood.
After crossing
the Antietam, Hooker had shaped his course to the westward, aiming to reach the
ridge upon which the Hagerstown turnpike runs, and which is the dominant
feature of the landscape. This ridge is some two miles distant from the
Antietam, and for the first mile of the way no resistance was met. However,
Hooker's progress had been observed by the enemy, and Hood's two brigades were
taken from the center and passed to the left of D. H. Hill. Here they occupied
an open wood (since known as the East Wood), north-east of the Dunker Church.
Hooker was now trying to approach the Confederate positions, Meade's division
of the Pennsylvania Reserves being in the advance, combat ensued and artillery
was also brought into action on both sides, the engagement continuing till
after dark. On our side Seymour's brigade had been chiefly engaged, and had
felt the enemy so vigorously that Hood supposed he had repulsed a serious
effort to take the wood. Hooker was, however, aiming to pass quite beyond the
flank, and kept his other divisions north of the hollow beyond the wood, and
upon the ridge which reaches the turnpike near the largest reëntrant bend of
the Potomac, which is here only half a mile distant. Here he bivouacked upon
the northern slopes of the ridge, Doubleday's division resting with its right
upon the turnpike, Ricketts's division upon the left of Doubleday, and Meade
covering the front of both with the skirmishers of Seymour's brigade. Between
Meade's skirmishers and the ridge were the farm-house and barn of J.
Poffenberger on the east of the road, where Hooker made his own quarters for
the night. Half a mile farther in front was the farm of D. R. Miller, the
dwelling on the east, and the barn surrounded by stacks on the west of the
road. ^^ Mansfield's corps, marching as it did late in the night, kept farther
to the right than Hooker's, but moved on a nearly parallel course and
bivouacked upon the farm of another J. Poffenberger near the road which,
branching from the Hagerstown turnpike at the Dunker Church, intersects the one
running from Keedysville through Smoketown to the same turnpike about a mile
north of Hooker's position.
On the
Confederate side, Hood's division had been so severely handled that it was
replaced by Jackson's (commanded by J. R. Jones), which, with Ewell's, had been
led to the field from Harper's Ferry by Jackson, reaching Sharpsburg in the
afternoon of the 16th. These divisions were formed on the left of D. H. Hill
and almost at right angles to his line, crossing the turnpike and facing
northward. Hood's division, on being relieved, was placed in reserve near the
Dunker Church, and spent part of the night in cooking rations, of which its
supply had been short for a day or two. The combatants on both sides slept upon
their arms, well knowing that the dawn would bring bloody work.
When day broke
on Wednesday morning, the 17th, Hooker, looking south from the Poffenberger
farm along the turnpike, saw a gently rolling landscape, of which the
commanding point was the Dunker Church, whose white brick walls appeared on the
west side of the road backed by the foliage of the West Wood, which came toward
him, filling a slight hollow which ran parallel to the turnpike, with a single
row of fields between. Beyond the Miller house and barns, the ground dipped
into a little depression. Beyond this was seen a large corn-field between the
East Wood and the turnpike, rising again
^^ Hooker's unfinished report says he slept in the barn of
D. R. Miller, but he places it on the east of the road, and the spot is fully
identified as Poffenberger's by General Gibbon, who commanded the right
brigade, and by Major Rufus R. Dawes (afterward Brevet Brigadier-General), both
of whom subsequently visited the field and determined the positions.---J. D. C.
to the higher level. There was, however, another small dip
beyond, which could not be seen from Hooker's position; and on the second
ridge, near the church, and extending across the turnpike eastward into the
East Wood, could be seen the Confederate line of gray, partly sheltered by
piles of rails taken from the fences. They seemed to Hooker to be at the
farther side of the corn-field and at the top of the first rise of ground
beyond Miller's. It was plain that the high ground about the little white church
was the key of the enemy's position, and if that could be carried Hooker's task
would be well done.
The
Confederates opened the engagement by a rapid fire from a battery near the East
Wood as soon as it was light, and Hooker answered the challenge by an immediate
order for his line to advance. Doubleday's division was in two lines, Gibbon's
and Phelps's brigades in front, supported by Patrick and Hofmann. Gibbon had
the right and guided upon the turnpike. Patrick held a small wood in his rear, which
is upon both sides of the road a little north of Miller's house. Some of
Meade's men were supposed to be in the northernmost extension of the West Wood,
and thus to cover Gibbon's right flank as he advanced. Part of Battery B, 4th
United States Artillery (Gibbon's own battery), was run forward to Miller's
barn and stack-yard on the right of the road, and fired over the heads of the
advancing regiments. Other batteries were similarly placed more to the left.
The line moved swiftly forward through Miller's orchard and kitchen garden,
breaking through a stout picket fence on the near side, down into the moist
ground of the hollow, and up through the corn, which was higher than their
heads, and shut out everything from view. At the southern side of the field
they came to a low fence, beyond which was an open field, at the farther side
of which was the enemy's line. But Gibbon's right, covered by the corn, had
outmarched the left, which had been exposed to a terrible fire, and the
direction taken little oblique, so that the right wing of the 6th Wisconsin,
the flanking regiment, had crossed the turnpike and was suddenly assailed by a
sharp fire from the West Wood on its flank. They swung back into the road,
lying down along the high, stout post-and-rail fence, keeping up their fire by
shooting between the rails. Leaving this little band to protect their right,
the main line, which had come up on the left, leaped the fence at the south
edge of the corn-field and charged across the open at the enemy in front. But
the concentrated fire of artillery and musketry was more than they could bear.
Men fell by scores and hundreds, and the thinned lines gave way and ran for the
shelter of the corn. They were rallied in the hollow on the north side of the
field. The enemy had rapidly extended his left under cover of the West Wood,
and now made a dash at the right flank and at Gibbon's exposed guns. His men on
the right faced by that flank and followed him bravely, though with little
order, in a dash at the Confederates, who were swarming out of the wood. The
gunners double-charged the cannon with canister, and under a terrible fire of
both artillery and rifles the enemy broke and sought shelter.
Patrick's
brigade had come up in support of Gibbon, and was sent across the turnpike into
the West Wood to cover that flank. They pushed forward, the enemy retiring,
until they were in advance of the principal line in the corn-field, upon which
the Confederates were now advancing. Patrick faced his men to the left,
parallel to the edge of the wood and to the turnpike, and poured his fire into
the flank of the enemy, following it by a charge through the field and up to
the fence along the road. Again the Confederates were driven back, but only to
push in again by way of these woods, forcing Patrick to resume his original
line of front and to retire to the cover of a ledge at right angles to the road
near Gibbon's guns.
Farther to the
left Phelps's and Hofmann's brigades had had similar experience, pushing to the
Confederate lines, and being driven back with great loss when they charged over
open ground against the enemy. Ricketts's division entered the edge of the East
Wood; but here, at the salient angle, where D. H. Hill and Lawton joined, the
enemy held the position stubbornly, and the repulse of Doubleday's division
made Ricketts glad to hold even the edge of the East Wood, as the right of the
line was driven back.
It was now
about 7 o'clock, and Mansfield's corps (the Twelfth) was approaching, for that
officer had called his men to arms at the first sound of Hooker's battle and
had marched to his support. The corps consisted of two divisions, Williams's
and Greene's. It contained a number of new and undrilled regiments, and in
hastening to the field in columns of battalions in mass, proper intervals for
deployment had not been preserved, and time was necessarily lost before the
troops could be put in line. General Mansfield fell mortally wounded before the
deployment was complete, and the command devolved on General Williams. Williams
had only time to take the most general directions from Hooker, when the latter
also was wounded. * The Twelfth Corps attack
* Of the early
morning fight in the corn-field, General Hooker says in his report: "We
had not proceeded far before I discovered that a heavy force of the enemy had
taken possession of a corn-field (I have since learned about a thirty-acre
field), in my immediate front, and from the sun's rays falling on their
bayonets projecting above the corn could see that the field was filled with the
enemy, with arms in their hands, standing apparently at 'support arms.'
Instructions were immediately given for the assemblage of all of my spare
batteries near at hand, of which I think there were five or six, to spring into
battery on the right of this field, and to open with canister at once. In the
time I am writing every stalk of corn in the northern and greater part of the
field was cut as closely as could have been done with a knife, and the slain
lay in rows precisely as they had stood in their ranks a few moments before.
"It was never
my fortune to witness a more bloody, dismal battle-field. Those that escaped
fled in the opposite direction from our advance, and sought refuge behind the
trees, fences, and stone ledges nearly in a line with the Dunker Church, etc.,
as there was no resisting this torrent of death-dealing missives.... The whole
morning bad been one of unusual animation to me and fraught with the grandest
events. The conduct of my troops was sublime, and the occasion almost lifted me
to the skies, and its memories will ever remain near me. My command followed
the fugitives closely until we had passed the corn-field a quarter of a mile or
more, when I was removed from my saddle in the act of falling out of it from
loss of blood, having previously been struck without my knowledge." ------
EDITORS.
seems to have been made obliquely to that of Hooker, and
facing more to the westward, for General William s speaks of the post-and- rail
fences along the turnpike being a great obstruction in their front. Greene's
division, on his left, moved along the ridge lead- ing to the East Wood, taking
as the guide for his extreme left the line of the burning house of Mumma, which
had been set on fire by D. H. Hill's men. Doubleday, in his report, notices
this change of direction of Williams's division, which had relieved him, and
says Williams's brigades were swept away by a fire from their left and front,
from behind rocky ledges they could not see.^^^^ Our officers were deceived in
part as to the extent and direction of the enemy's line by the fact that the
Confederate cavalry commander, Stuart, had occupied a commanding hill west of
the pike and beyond our right flank, and from this position, which, in fact,
was considerably detached from the Confederate line, he used his batteries with
such effect as to produce the belief that a continuous line extended from this
point to the Dunker Church.^^^ Our true lines of attack were convergent ones,
the right sweeping southward along the pike and through the narrow strip of the
West Wood, while the division
^^^^ Both in the West and East Wood and on the ground south
of the East Wood the Confederates were protected by outcroppings of rocks,
which served as natural breastworks.---EDITORS.
^^^ Stuart says he had batteries from all parts of Jackson's
command, and mentions Poague's, Pegram's, and Carrington's, besides Pelham's
which was attached to the cavalry. He also says he was supported part of the
time by Early's brigade; afterward by one regiment of it, the 13th Virginia.---
EDITORS.
which drove the enemy from the East Wood should move upon
the commanding ground around the church. This error of direction was repeated
With disastrous effect a little later, when Sumner came on the ground with
Sedgwick's corps.
When
Mansfield's corps came on the field, Meade, who succeeded Hooker, ^ withdrew
the First Corps to the ridge north of Poffenberger's, where it had bivouacked
the night before. It had suffered severely, having lost 2470 in killed and
wounded, but it was still further depleted by straggling, so that
^ The order assigning Meade to command is dated 1:25 P.
M.---EDITORS.
Meade reported less than 7000 men with the colors that
evening. Its organization was preserved, however, and the story that it was
utterly dispersed was a mistake.
Greene's division,
on the left of the Twelfth Corps, profited by the hard fighting of those who
had preceded it, and was able to drive the enemy quite out of the East Wood and
across the open fields between it and the Dunker Church. Greene even succeeded,
about the time of Sumner's advance, in getting a foothold about the Dunker
Church itself, which he held for some time. ^^ But the fighting of Hooker's and
Mansfield's men, though lacking unity of force and of purpose, had cost the
enemy dear. J.R. Jones, who commanded Jackson's division, had been wounded;
Starke, who succeeded Jones, was killed; Lawton, who followed Starke, was
wounded. Ewell's division, commanded by Early, had suffered hardly less. Hood
was sent back into the fight to relieve Lawton, and had been reënforced by the
brigades of Ripley, Colquitt, and McRae (Garland's), from D. H. Hill's
division. When Greene reached the Dunker Church, therefore, the Confederates on
that wing had suffered more fearfully than our own men. Nearly half their
numbers were killed and wounded, and Jackson's famous "Stonewall"
division was so completely disorganized that only a handful of men under
Colonels Grigsby and Stafford remained and attached themselves to Early's
command. Of the division under Early, his own brigade was all that retained
much strength, and this, posted among the rocks in the West Wood and vigorously
supported by Stuart's horse artillery on the flank, was all that covered the
left of Lee's army. Could Hooker and Mansfield have attacked together,---or,
still better, could Sumner's Second Corps have marched before day and united
With the first onset,---Lee's left must inevitably have been crushed long
before the Con- federate divisions of McLaws, Walker, and A. P. Hill could have
reached the field. It is this failure to carry out any intelligible plan which
the historian must regard as the unpardonable military fault on the National
side. To account for the hours between 4 and 8 on that morning, is the most
serious responsibility of the National commander.
Sumner's
Second Corps was now approaching the scene of action, or rather two divisions
of it--- Sedgwick's and French's --- Richardson's being still delayed^^^ till
his place could be filled by Porter's troops, the strange tardiness in sending
orders being noticeable in regard to every part of the army. Sumner met Hooker,
who was being carried from the field, and the few words he could exchange with
the wounded general were enough to make him feel the need of haste, but not
sufficient to give him any clear idea of the position.
Both Sedgwick
and French marched their divisions by the right flank, in three columns, a
brigade in each column, Sedgwick leading. They crossed the Antietam by Hooker's
route, but did not march as far to the north-west as Hooker had done. When the
center of the corps was opposite the Dunker Church, and nearly east of it, the
change of direction was given; the troops faced to their proper front and
advanced in line of battle in three lines, fully deployed, and 60 or 70 yards
apart, Sumner himself being in rear of Sedgwick's first line, and near its
left. When they approached the position held by Greene's division at Dunker
Church, French kept on so as to form on Greene's left, while Sedgwick, under
Sumner's immediate lead, diverged somewhat to the right, passing through the
East Wood, crossing the turnpike on the right of Greene and of the Dunker
Church, and plunged into the West Wood. At this point there were absolutely no
Confederate troops in front of them, Early was
^^ Until he was driven out, about 1:30, according to
Generals Williams and Greene.---EDITORS.
^^^ Sumner says Richardson came about an hour later. Howard,
who succeeded Sedgwick, says his division moved "about 7." French
says he followed "about 7:30." Hancock, who succeeded Richardson,
says that officer received his orders "about 9:30." ---EDITORS.
farther to the right, opposing Williams's division of the
Twelfth Corps, and now made haste under cover of the woods to pass around
Sedgwick's right and to get in front of him to oppose his progress. This led to
a lively skirmishing fight in which Early was making as great a demonstration
as possible, but with no chance of solid success. At this very moment, however,
McLaws's and Walker's divisions came upon the field, marching rapidly from
Harper's Ferry. Walker charged headlong upon the left flank of Sedgwick's
lines, which were soon thrown into confusion, and McLaws, passing by Walker's
left, also threw his division diagonally upon the already broken and retreating
lines of Sumner. Taken at such a disadvantage, these had never a chance; and in
spite of the heroic bravery of Sumner and Sedgwick, with most of their officers
(Sedgwick being severely wounded), the division was driven off to the north
with terrible losses, carrying along in the rout part of Williams's men of the
Twelfth Corps, who had been holding Early at bay. All these troops were rallied
at the ridge on the Poffenberger farm, where Hooker's corps had already taken
position. Here some thirty batteries of both corps were concentrated, and,
supported by the organized parts of all three of the corps which had fought
upon this part of the field, easily repulsed all efforts of Jackson and Stuart
to resume the aggressive or to pass between them and the Potomac. Sumner
himself did not accompany the routed troops to this position, but as soon as it
was plain that the division could not be rallied, he galloped off to put
himself in communication with French and with the headquarters of the army and
try to retrieve the misfortune. From the flag-station east of the East Wood he
signaled to McClellan: "Reënforcements are badly wanted. Our troops are
giving way." It was between 9 and 10 o'clock when Sumner entered the West
Wood, and in fifteen minutes, or a little more, the one-sided combat was over.
*
The enemy now
concentrated upon Greene at the Dunker Church, and after a stubborn resistance
he too was driven back across the turnpike and the open ground to the edge of
the East Wood. Here, by the aid of several batteries gallantly handled, he
defeated the subsequent effort to dislodge him. French had come up on his left,
and both his batteries and the numerous ones on the Poffenberger hill swept the
open ground and the corn-field over which Hooker had fought, and he was able to
make good his position. The enemy was content to regain the high ground near
the church, and French's attack upon D. H. Hill was now attracting their
attention.
The battle on
the extreme right was thus ended before 10 o'clock in the morning, and there
was no more serious fighting north of the Dunker Church. French advanced on
Greene's left, over the open farm lands, and after a fierce combat about the
Roulette and Clipp farm buildings, drove D. H. Hill's division from them.
Richardson's division came up on French's left soon after, and foot by foot,
field by field, from hill to hill and from fence to fence, the enemy was
pressed back, till after several hours of fighting the sunken road, since known
as "Bloody Lane, piled full of the Confederate dead who had defended it
with their lives. Richardson had been mortally wounded, and Hancock had been
sent from Franklin's corps to command the division. Barlow had been conspicuous
in the thickest of the fight, and after a series of brilliant actions was
carried off desperately wounded. On the Confederate side equal courage had been
shown and a magnificent tenacity exhibited. But it is not my purpose to
describe the battle in detail. I limit
* Sumner's principal attack was made, as I have already
indicated, at right angles to that of Hooker. He had thus crossed the line of
Hooker's movement both in the latter's advance and retreat. Greene's division
was the only part of the Twelfth Corps troops he saw, and he led Sedgwick's men
to the right of these. Ignorant, as he necessarily was, of what had occurred
before, he assumed that he formed on the extreme right of the Twelfth Corps,
and that he fronted in the same direction as Hooker had done. This
misconception of the situation led him into another error. He had seen only a
few stragglers and wounded men of Hooker's corps on the line of his own
advance, and hence concluded that the First Corps was completely dispersed and
its division and brigade organizations broken up. He not only gave this report
to McClellan at the time, but reiterated it later in his statement before the
Committee on the Conduct of the War. The truth was that he had marched westward
more than half a mile south of the Poffenberger hill, where Meade was with the
sadly diminished but still organized First Corps, and half that distance south
of the Miller farm buildings, near which Williams's division of the Twelfth
Corps held the ground along the turnpike till they were carried away in the
disordered retreat of Sedgwick's men toward the right. Sedgwick had gone in,
therefore, between Greene and Williams, of the Twelfth Corps, and the four
divisions of the two corps alternated in their order from left to right, thus:
French, Greene, Sedgwick, Williams.---J. D. C.
myself to such an outline as may make clear my
interpretation of the larger features of the engagement and its essential plan.
The head of
Franklin's corps (the Sixth) had arrived about 10 o'clock and taken the
position near the Sharpsburg Bridge which Sumner had occupied. Before noon
Smith's and Slocum's divisions were ordered to Sumner's assistance, and early
in the afternoon Irwin and Brooks, of Smith, advanced to the charge and
relieved Greene's division and part of French's' holding the line from Bloody
Lane by the Clipp, Roulette, and Mumma houses to the East Wood and the ridge in
front. Here Smith and Slocum remained till Lee retreated, Smith's division
repelling a sharp attack. French and Richard- son's battle may be considered as
ended at 1 or 2 o'clock.
It seems to me
very clear that about 10 o'clock in the morning was the great crisis in this
battle. The sudden and complete rout of Sedgwick's division was not easily
accounted for, and with McClellan's theory of the enormous superiority of Lee's
numbers, it looked as if the Confederate general had massed overwhelming forces
on our right. Sumner's notion that Hooker's corps was utterly dispersed was
naturally accepted, and McClellan limited his hopes to holding on at the East
Wood and the Poffenberger hill where Sedgwick's batteries were massed and
supported by the troops that had been rallied there. Franklin's corps as it
came on the field was detained to support the threatened right center, and
McClellan determined to help it further by a demonstration upon the extreme
left by the Ninth Corps. At this time, therefore (10 A. M.), he gave his order
to Burnside to try to cross the Antietam and attack the enemy, thus creating a
diversion in favor of our hard-pressed right.^^^ Facts within my own
recollection strongly sustain
^^^ Here, in regard to the time at which Sumner was ordered
to march to Hooker's support, is a disputed question of fact. In his official
report, McClellan says he ordered Burnside to make this attack at 8 o'clock,
and from the day that the latter relieved McClellan in command of the army, and
especially after the battle of Fredericksburg, a lot partisan effort was made
to hold Burnside responsible for the lack of complete success at Antietam as
well as for the repulse upon the Rappahannock. I think I understand the
limitations of Burnside's abilities as a general, but I have had, ever since
the battle itself, a profound conviction that the current criticisms upon him
in relation to the battle of Antietam were unjust. Burnside's official report
declares that he received the order to advance at 10 o'clock. This report was dated
on the 30th of September, within two weeks of the battle, and at a time when
public discussion of the incomplete results of the battle was animated. It was
made after he had in his lands my own report as his immediate subordinate, in
which I had given about 9 o'clock as my remembrance of the time. As I directed
the details of the action at the bridge in obedience tb this order, it would
have been easy for him to have accepted the hour named by me, for I should have
been answerable for any delay in execution after that time. But he believed he
knew the time at which the order came to him upon the hill-top overlooking the
field, and no officer in the whole army has a better established reputation for
candor and freedom from any wish to avoid full personal responsibility for his
acts. It was not till quite lately that I saw a copy of his re- port or learned
its contents, although I enjoyed his personal friendship down to the time of
his death. He was content to have stated the fact as he knew it, and did not
feel the need of debating it. Several circumstances have satisfied me that his
accuracy in giving the hour was greater than my own. McClellan's preliminary
report (date1862) explicitly states that the order to Burnside to attack was
" communicated to him at 10 o'clock A. M." This exact agreement with
General Burnside would ordinarily be conclusive in itself.---J. D. C.
this view that the hour was 10 A. M. I have mentioned the
hill above the Burnside Bridge where Burnside took his position, and to which I
went after the preliminary orders for the day had been issued. There I remained
until the order of attack came, anxiously watching what we could see at the
right, and noting the effect of the fire of the heavy guns of Benjamin's
battery. From that point we could see nothing that occurred beyond the Dunker
Church, for the East and West Woods, with farm-houses and orchards between,
made an impenetrable screen. But as the morning wore on we saw lines of troops
advancing from our right upon the other side of the Antietam, and engaging the
enemy between us and the East Wood. The Confederate lines facing them now rose
into view. From our position we looked, as it were, down between the opposing
lines as if they had been the sides of a street, and as the fire opened we saw
wounded men carried to the rear and stragglers making off. Our lines halted,
and we were tortured with anxiety as we speculated whether our men would charge
or retreat. The enemy occupied lines of fences and stone-walls, and their
batteries made gaps in the National ranks. Our long-range guns were immediately
turned in that direction, and we cheered every well-aimed shot. One of our
shells blew up a caisson close to the Confederate line. This contest was going
on, and it was yet uncertain which would succeed, when one of McClellan's staff
* rode up with an order to Burnside. The latter turned to me, saying we were
ordered to make our
* Colonel D. B. Sackett, who says he got the order from
McClellan about 9 o'clock.---EDITORS.
attack. I left the hill-top at once to give personal
supervision to the movement ordered, and did not return to it, and my knowledge
by actual vision of what occurred on the right ceased. The manner in which we
had waited, the free discussion of what was occurring under our eyes and of our
relation to it, the public receipt of the order by Burnside in the usual and
business-like form, all forbid the supposition that this was any reiteration of
a former order. It was immediately transmitted to me without delay or
discussion, further than to inform us that things were not going altogether
well on the right, and that it was hoped our attack would be of assistance to
that wing. If then we can determine whose troops we saw engaged, we shall know
something of the time of day; for there has been a general agreement reached as
to the hours of movement during the forenoon on the right. The official map
settles this. No lines of our troops were engaged in the direction of Bloody
Lane and the Roulette farm-house, and between the latter and our station on the
hill, till French's division made its attack. We saw them distinctly on the
hither side of the farm buildings, upon the open ground, considerably nearer to
us than the Dunker Church or the East Wood. In number we took them to be a corps.
The place, the circumstances, all fix it beyond controversy That they were
French's men, or French's and Richardson's. No others fought on that part of
the field until Franklin went to their assistance at noon or later. The
incident of their advance and the explosion of the caisson was illustrated by
the pencil of the artist, Forbes, on the spot [see p. 647], and placed by him
at the time Franklin's head of column was approaching from Rohrersville, which
was about 10 o'clock. |
McClellan
truly said, in his original report, that the task of carrying the bridge in
front of Burnside was a difficult one. The depth of the valley and the shape of
its curve made it impossible to reach the enemy's position at the bridge by the
hill-tops on our side. Not so from the enemy's position, for the curve of the
valley was such that it was perfectly enfiladed near the bridge by the
Confederate batteries at the position now occupied by the national cemetery.
[See map, p. 636.] The Confederate defense of the passage was intrusted to D.
R. Jones's division of four brigades, which was the one Longstreet himself had
disciplined and led till he was assigned to a larger command. Toombs's brigade
was placed in advance, occupying the defenses of the bridge itself and the wooded
slopes above, while the other brigades supported him, covered by the ridges
which looked down upon the valley. The division batteries were supplemented by
others from the reserve, and the valley, the bridge, and the ford below were
under the direct and powerful fire of shot and shell from the Confederate
cannon. Toombs speaks in his report in a characteristic way of his brigade
| It will not be wondered at, therefore, if to my mind the
story of the 8 o'clock order is an instance of the way in which an erroneous
memory is based upon the desire to make the facts accord with a theory. The
actual time must have been as much later than 9 o'clock as the period during
which, with absorbed attention, we had been watching the battle on the
right,---a period, it is safe to say, much longer than it seemed to us. The
judgment of the hour, 9 o'clock, which I gave in my report, was merely my
impression from passing events, for I hastened at once to my own duties without
thinking to look at my watch, while the cumulative evidence seems to prove
conclusively that the time stated by Burnside, and by McClellan himself in his
original report, is correct.---J. D. C.
holding back Burnside's corps; but his force, thus strongly
supported, was as large as could be disposed of at the head of the bridge, and
abundantly large for resistance to any that could be brought against it. Our
advance upon the bridge could only be made by a narrow column, showing a front
of eight men at most. But the front which Toombs deployed behind his defenses
was three or four hundred yards both above and below the bridge. He himself
says in his report:
"From the
nature of the ground on the other side, the enemy were compelled to approach
mainly by the road which led up the river for near three hundred paces parallel
with my line of battle and distant therefrom from fifty to a hundred and fifty
feet, thus exposing his flank to a destructive fire the most of that
distance."
Under such
circumstances, I do not hesitate to affirm that the Confederate position was
virtually impregnable to a direct attack over the bridge, for the column
approaching it was not only exposed at pistol-range to the perfectly covered
infantry of the enemy and to two batteries which were assigned to the special
duty of supporting Toombs, and which had the exact range of the little valley
with their shrapnel, but if it should succeed in reaching the bridge its charge
across it must be made under a fire plowing through its length, the head of the
column melting away as it advanced, so that' as every soldier knows, it could
show no front strong enough to make an impression upon the enemy's breastworks,
even if it should reach the other side. As a desperate sort of diversion in
favor of the right wing, it might be justifiable; but I believe that no officer
or man who knew the actual situation at that bridge thinks a serious attack
upon it was any part of McClellan's original plan. Yet, in his detailed
official report, instead of speaking of it as the difficult task the original
report had called it, he treats it as little different from a parade or march
across, which might have been done in half an hour.
If the matter
was that the front attack at the bridge was so difficult that the passage by
the ford below must be an important factor in the task; for if Rodman's
division should succeed in getting across there, at the bend in the Antietam,
he would come up in rear of Toombs, and either the whole of D. R. Jones's
division would have to advance to meet Rodman, or Toombs must abandon the
bridge. In this I certainly concurred, and Rodman was ordered to push rapidly
for the ford. It is important to remember, however, that Walker's Confederate
division had been posted during the earlier morning to hold that part of the Antietam
line, and it was probably from him that Rodman suffered the first casualties
which occurred in his ranks. But, as we have seen, Walker had been called away
by Lee only an hour before, and had made the hasty march by the rear of
Sharpsburg, to fall upon Sedgwick. If, therefore, Rodman had been sent to cross
at 8 o'clock, it is safe to say that his column fording the stream in the face
of Walker's deployed division would never have reached the farther bank,---a
contingency that McClellan did not consider when arguing long afterward the
favorable results that might have followed an earlier attack. As Rodman died
upon the field, no full report for his division was made, and we only know that
he met with some resistance from both infantry and artillery; that the winding
of the stream made his march longer than he anticipated, and that, in fact, he
only approached the rear of Toombs's position from that direction about the
time when our last and successful charge upon the bridge was made, between noon
and 1 o'clock.
The attacks at
Burnside's Bridge were made under my own eye. Sturgis's division occupied the
center of our line, with Crook's brigade of the Kanawha Division on his right
front, and Willcox's division in reserve, as I have already stated. Crook's
position was somewhat above the bridge, but it was thought that by advancing
part of Sturgis's men to the brow of the hill they could cover the advance of
Crook, and that the latter could make a straight dash down the hill to our end
of the bridge. The orders were accordingly given, and Crook advanced, covered
by the 11th Connecticut (of Rodman), under Colonel Kingsbury, deployed as
skirmishers. In passing over the spurs of the hills, Crook came out on the bank
of the stream above the bridge and found himself under a heavy fire. He faced
the enemy and returned the fire, getting such cover for his men as he could and
trying to drive off or silence his opponents. The engagement was one in which
the Antietam prevented the combatants from coming to close quarters, bhe less
vigorously continued with musketry fire. Crook reported that his hands were
full, and that he could not approach closer to the bridge. But later in the
contest, and about the time that the successful charge at the bridge was made,
he got five companies of the 28th Ohio over by a ford above. Sturgis ordered
forward an attacking column from Nagle's brigade, supported and covered by
Ferrero's brigade, which took position in a field of corn on one of the lower
slopes of the hill opposite the head of the bridge. The whole front was
carefully covered with skirmishers, and our batteries on the heights overhead
were ordered to keep down the fire of the enemy's artillery. Nagle's effort was
gallantly made, but it failed, and his men were forced to seek cover behind the
spur of the hill from which they had advanced. We were constantly hoping to
hear something from Rodman's advance by the ford, and would gladly have waited
for some more certain knowledge of his progress, but at this time McClellan's
sense of the necessity of relieving the right was such that he was sending
reiterated orders to push the assault. Not only were these forwarded to me, but
to give added weight to my instructions Burnside sent direct to Sturgis urgent
messages to carry the bridge at all hazards. I directed Sturgis to take two
regiments from Ferrero's brigade, which had not been engaged, and make a column
by moving them by the flank, the one left in front and the other right in
front, side by side, so that when they passed the bridge they could turn to
left and right, forming line as they advanced on the run. He chose the 51st New
York, Colonel Robert B. Potter, and the 51st Pennsylvania, Colonel John F.
Hartranft (both names afterward greatly distinguished), and both officers and
men were made to feel the necessity of success. At the same time Crook
succeeded in bringing a light howitzer of Simmonds's mixed battery down from
the hill-tops, and placed it where it had a point-blank fire on the farther end
of the bridge. The howitzer was one we had captured in West Virginia, and had
been added to the battery, which was partly made up of heavy rifled Parrott
guns. When everything was ready, a heavy skirmishing fire was opened all along
the bank, the howitzer threw in double charges of canister, the two regiments
charged up the road in column with fixed bayonets, and in scarcely more time
than it takes to tell it, the bridge was passed and Toombs's brigade fled
through the woods and over the top of the hill. The charging regiments were
advanced in line to the crest above the bridge as soon as they were deployed,
and the rest of Sturgis's division, with Crook's brigade, were immediately
brought over to strengthen the line. These were soon joined by Rodman's
division with Scammon's brigade, which had crossed at the ford, and whose
presence on that side of the stream had no doubt made the final struggle of
Toombs's men less obstinate than it would otherwise have been, the fear of
being taken in rear having always a strong moral effect upon even the best of
troops. It was now about 1 o'clock, and nearly three hours had been spent in a
bitter and bloody contest across the narrow stream. The successive efforts to
carry the bridge had been made as closely following each other as possible. Each
had been a fierce combat, in which the men, with wonderful courage, had not
easily accepted defeat, and even when not able to cross the bridge had made use
of the walls at the end, the fences, and every tree and stone as cover, while
they strove to reach with their fire their well-protected and nearly concealed
opponents. The lulls in the fighting had been short, and only to prepare new
efforts. The severity of the work was attested by our losses, which, before the
crossing was won, exceeded five hundred men and included some of our best
officers, such as Colonel Kingsbury, of the 11th Connecticut;
Lieutenant-Colonel Bell of the 51st Pennsylvania, and Lieutenant-Colonel
Coleman, of the 11th Ohio, two of them commanding regiments. The proportion of
casualties to the number engaged was much greater than common, for the nature
of the task required that comparatively few troops should be exposed at once,
the others remaining under cover.
Our first task
was to prepare to hold the height we had gained against the return assault of
the enemy which we expected, and to reply to the destructive fire from the
enemy's abundant artillery. The light batteries were brought over and
distributed in the line. The men were made to lie down behind the crest to save
them from the concentrated artillery fire which the enemy opened upon us as
soon as Toombs's regiments succeeded in reaching their main line. But
McClellan's anticipation of an overwhelming attack upon his right was so strong
that he determine our advance, and sent orders accordingly. The ammunition of
Sturgis's and Crook's men had been nearly exhausted, and it was imperative that
they should be freshly supplied before entering into another engagement.
Sturgis also reported his men so exhausted by their efforts as to be unfit for
an immediate advance. On this I sent to Burnside the request that Wilcox's
division be sent over, with an ammunition train, and that Sturgis's division be
replaced by the fresh troops, remaining, however, on the west side of the stream
as support to the others. This was done as rapidly as was practicable, where
everything had to pass down the steep hill road and through so narrow a defile
as the bridge. Still, it was 3 o'clock before these changes and further
preparations could be made. Burnside had personally striven to hasten them, and
had come over to the west bank to consult and to hurry matters, and took his
share of personal peril, for he came at a time when the ammunition wagons were
delivering cartridges, and the road where they were, at the end of the bridge,
was in the range of the enemy's constant and accurate fire. It is proper to
mention this because it has been said that he did not cross the stream. The
criticisms made by McClellan as to the time occupied in these changes and
movements will not seem forcible, if one will compare them with any similar
movements on the field; such as Mansfield's to support Hooker, or Sumner's or
Franklin's to reach the scene of action. About this, however, there is fair
room for difference of opinion; what I personally know is that it would have
been folly to advance again before Willcox had relieved Sturgis, and that as
soon as the fresh troops reported and could be put in line, the order to
advance was given. McClellan is in accord with all other witnesses in declaring
that when the movement began, the conduct of the troops was gallant beyond
criticism.
Willcox's
division formed the right, Christ's brigade being north and Welsh's brigade
south of the road leading from the bridge to Sharpsburg. Crook's brigade of the
Kanawha Division supported Willcox. Rodman's division formed on the left,
Harland's brigade having the position on the flank, and Fairchild's uniting
with Willcox at the center. Scammon's brigade of the Kanawha Division was the
reserve for Rodman on the extreme left. Sturgis's division remained and held
the crest of the hill above the bridge. About half the batteries of the
divisions accompanied the movement, the rest being in position on the hill-tops
east of the Antietam, The advance necessarily followed the high ground toward
Sharpsburg, and as the enemy made strongest resistance toward our right, the
movement curved in that direction, the six brigades of D. R. Jones's
Confederate division being deployed diagonally across our front, holding the
stone fences and crests of the cross ridges and aided by abundant artillery, in
which arm the enemy was particularly strong. The battle was a fierce one from
the moment Willcox's men showed themselves on the open ground. Christ's brigade,
taking advantage of all the cover the trees and inequalities of surface gave
them, pushed on along the depression in which the road ran, a section of
artillery keeping pace with them in the road. The direction of movement brought
all the brigades of the first line in échelon, but Welsh soon fought his way up
beside Christ, and they, together, drove the enemy successively from the fields
and farm-yards till they reached the edge of the village. Upon the elevation on
the right of the road was an orchard in which the shattered and diminished
force of Jones made a final stand, but Willcox concentrated his artillery fire
upon it, and his infantry was able to push forward and occupy it. They now
partly occupied the town of Sharpsburg, and held the high ground commanding it
on the south-east, where the national cemetery now is. The struggle had been
long and bloody. It was half-past 4 in the afternoon, and ammunition had again
run low, for the wagons had not been able to accompany the movement. Willcox
paused for his men to take breath again, and to fetch up some cartridges ; but
meanwhile affairs were taking a serious turn on the left.
As Rodman's
division went forward, he found the enemy before him seemingly detached from
Willcox's opponents, and occupying ridges upon his left front, so that he was
not able to keep his own connection with Willcox in the swinging moveStill, he
made good progress in the face of stubborn resistance, though finding the enemy
constantly developing more to his left, and the interval between him and
Willcox widening. In fact his movement became practically by column of
brigades. The view of the field to the south was now obstructed by fields of
tall indian corn, and under this cover Confederate troops approached the flank
in line of battle. Scammon's officers in the reserve saw them as soon as
Rodman's brigades écheloned, as these were toward the front and right. This
hostile force proved to be A. P. Hill's division of six brigades, the last of
Jackson's force to leave Harper's Ferry, and which had reached Sharpsburg since
noon. Those first seen by Scammon's men were dressed in the National blue
uniforms which they had captured at Harper's Ferry, and it was assumed that
they were part of our own forces till they began to fire. Scammon quickly
changed front to the left, drove back the enemy before him, and occupied a line
of stone fences, which he held until he was withdrawn from it. Harland's
brigade was partly moving in the corn-fields. One of his regiments was new,
having been organized only three weeks, and the brigade had somewhat lost its
order and connection when the sudden attack came. Rodman directed Colonel
Harland to lead the right of the brigade, while he himself attempted to bring
the left into position.
In performing
this duty he fell mortally wounded, and the brigade broke in confusion after a
brief effort of its right wing to hold on. Fairchild, also, now received the
fire on his left, and was forced to fall back and change front.
Being at the
center when this break occurred on the left, I saw that it would be impossible
to continue the movement to the right, and sent instant orders to Willcox and
Crook to retire the left of their line, and to Sturgis to come forward into the
gap made in Rodman's. The troops on the right swung back in perfect order;
Scammon's brigade hung on at its stone-wall With unflinching tenacity till
Sturgis had formed on the curving hill in rear of them, and Rodman's had found
refuge behind. Willcox's left, then united with Sturgis and Scammon, was
withdrawn to a new position on the left flank of the whole line. That these
manoeuvres on the field were really performed in good order is demonstrated by
the fact that, although the break in Rodman's line was a bad one, the enemy was
not able to capture many prisoners, the whole number of missing, out of the
2340 casualties which the Ninth Corps suffered in the battle, being 115, which
includes wounded men unable to leave the field. The enemy were not lacking in
bold efforts to take advantage of the check we had received, but were repulsed
with severe punishment, and as the day declined were content to entrench
themselves along the line of the road leading from Sharpsburg to the Potomac at
the mouth of the Antietam, half a mile in our front. The men of the Ninth Corps
lay that night upon their arms, the line being one which rested With both
flanks near the Antietam, and curved outward upon the rolling hill-tops which
covered the bridge and commanded the plateau between us and the enemy. With my
staff I lay upon the ground behind the troops, holding our horses by the
bridles as we rested, for our orderlies were so exhausted that we could not
deny them the same chance for a little broken slumber.
The conduct of
the battle given rise to several criticisms, among which the most prominent has
been that Porter's corps, which lay in reserve, was not put in at the same time
With the Ninth Corps. (1)
(1) General Thomas
M. Anderson, in 1886 Lieutenant-Colonel of the 9th infantry, U. S. A., wrote to
the editors in that year:
"At the
battle of Antietam I commanded one of the battalions of Sykes's division of
regulars, held in reserve on the north of Antietam creek near the stone bridge.
Three of our battalions were on the south side of the creek, deployed as
skirmishers in front of Sharpsburg. At the time A. P. Hill began to force
Burnside back upon the left, I was talking with Colonel Buchanan, our brigade
commander. when an orderly brought him a note from Captain (now Colonel) Blunt,
who was the senior officer with the battalions of our brigade beyond the creek.
The note, as I remember, stated in effect that Captain Dryer, commanding the
4th Infantry, had rid- den into the enemy's lines, and upon returning had
reported that there were but one Confederate battery and two regiments in front
of Sharpsburg, connecting the wings of Lee's army. Dryer was one of the coolest
and bravest officers in our service, and on his report Blunt asked
instructions. We learned afterward that Dryer proposed that he, Blunt, and
Brown, commanding the 4th, 12th, and 14th infantries, should charge the enemy
in Sharpsburg instanter. But Blunt preferred asking for orders Colonel Buchanan
sent the note to Sykes, who was at the time talking with General McClellan and
Fitz John Porter, about a hundred and fifty yards from us. They were sitting on
their homes between Taft's and Weed's batteries a little to our left. I saw the
note passed from one to the other in the group, but could not, of course, hear
what was said.
We received no
orders to advance, however, although the advance of a single brigade at the
time (sunset) would have cut Lee's army in two.
"After the
war, I asked General Sykes why our reserves did not advance upon receiving
Dryer's report. He answered that he remembered the circumstance very well and
that he thought McClellan was inclined to order in the Fifth Corps, but that
when he spoke or doing so said: 'Remember, General! I command the last reserve
of the last Army of the Republic."
General Fitz John
Porter writes to say that no such note as "Captain Dryer's report"
was seen by him, and that no such discussion as to the opportunity for using
the "reserve" took place between him and General McClellan. General
Porter says that nearly all of his Fifth Corps (accord- ing to McClellan's
report. 12,900 strong), instead of being idle at that critical hour, had been
sent to reenforce the right and left wings, leaving of the Fifth Corps to
defend the center a force "not then four thousand strong," according
to General Porter's report.--- EDITORS.
McClellan answered this by saying that he did not think it
prudent to divest the center of all reserve troops. (2) No doubt a single
strong division marching beyond the left flank of the Ninth Corps would have so
occupied A. P. Hill's division that our movement into Sharpsburg could not have
been checked, and, assisted by the advance of Sumner and Franklin on the right,
apparently would have made certain the complete rout of Lee. As troops are put
in reserve, not to diminish the army, but to be used in a pinch, I am deeply
convinced that McClellan's refusal to use them on the left was the result of
his continued conviction through all the day after Sedgwick's defeat, that Lee
was overwhelmingly superior in force, and was preparing to return a crushing
blow upon our right flank. He was keeping something in hand to cover a retreat,
if that Wing should be driven back. Except in this way, also, I am at a loss to
account for the inaction of our right during the whole of our engagement on the
left. Looking at our part of the battle as only a strong diversion to prevent
or delay Lee's following up his success against Hooker and the rest, it is
intelligible. I certainly so understood it at the time, as my report Witnesses,
and McClellan's preliminary report supports this view. If he had been impatient
to have our attack delivered earlier, he had reason for double impatience that
Franklin's fresh troops should assail Lee's left simultaneously with ours,
unless he regarded action there as hopeless, and looked upon our movement as a
sort of forlorn-hope to keep Lee from following up his advantages.
But even these
are not all the troublesome questions requiring an answer. Couch's division had
been left north-east of Maryland Heights to observe Jackson's command, supposed
still to be in Harper's Ferry. Why could it not have come up on our left as
well as A. P. Hill's division, which was the last of the Confederate troops to
leave the Ferry, there being nothing to observe after it was gone? Couch's
division, coming with equal pace with Hill's on the other side of the river,
would have answered our needs as well as one from Porter's corps. Hill came,
but Couch did not. Yet even then, a regiment of horse watching that flank and
scouring the country as we swung it forward would have developed Hill's
presence and enabled the commanding general either to stop our movement or to
take the available means to support it; but the cavalry was put to no such use;
it occupied the center of the whole line, only its artillery being engaged
during the day. It would have been invaluable to Hooker in the morning as it
would have been to us in the afternoon. McClellan had marched from Frederick
City with the information that Lee's army was divided, Jackson being detached
with a large force to take Harper's Ferry, He had put Lee's strength at 120,000
men. Assuming that there was still danger that Jackson might come upon our left
with a large force, and that Lee had proven strong enough without Jackson to
repulse three corps on our right and right center, McClellan might have
regarded his own army as divided also for the purpose of meeting both
opponents, and his cavalry would have been upon the flank of the part with
which he was attacking Lee; Porter would have been in position to help either
part in an extremity, or to cover a retreat, and Burnside would have been the
only subordinate available to check Lee's apparent success. Will any other
hypothesis intelligibly account for McClellan's dispositions and orders? The
error in the above assumption would be that McClellan estimated Lee's troops at
nearly double their actual numbers, and that what was taken for proof of Lee's
superiority in force on the field was a series of partial reverses which
resulted directly from the piecemeal and disjointed way in which McClellan's
morning attacks had been made.
(2) At this time Sykes and Griffin, of Porter's corps, had
been advanced, and part of their troops were actively engaged. ---EDITORS.
The same explanation is the most
satisfactory one that he inaction of Thursday, the 18th of September. Could
McClellan have known the desperate condition of most of Lee's brigades he would
have known that his own were in much better case, badly as they had suffered. I
do not doubt that most of his subordinates discouraged the resumption of the
attack, for the rooted belief in Lee's preponderance of numbers had been
chronic in the army during the whole year. That belief was based upon the
inconceivably mistaken reports of the secret service organization, accepted at
headquarters, given to the War Department at Washington as a reason for
incessant demands of reënforcements, and permeating downward through the whole
organization till the error was accepted as truth by officers and men, and
became a factor in their morale which can hardly be over-estimated. The result
was that Lee retreated unmolested on the night of the 18th, and that what might
have been a real and decisive success was a drawn battle in which our chief
claim to victory was the possession of the field.
The Ninth
Corps occupied its position on the heights west of the Antietam without further
molestation, except an irritating picket firing, till the Confederate army
retreated. But the position was one in which no shelter from the weather could
be had; nor could any cooking be done; and the troops were short of rations.
Late in the afternoon of Thursday, Morell's division of Porter's corps was
ordered to report to Burnside to relieve the picket line and some of the
regiments in the most exposed position. One brigade was sent over the Antietam
for this purpose, and a few of the Ninth Corps regiments were enabled to
withdraw far enough to cook some rations of which they had been in need for
twenty-four hours. Harland's brigade of Rodman's division had been taken to the
east side of the stream on the evening of the 17th to be reorganized. (3)
Porter in his report
says that Morell took the place of the whole Ninth Corps. In this he is entirely
mistaken, as the reports from Morell's division show.---J. D. C.
[ii]
[i] Civil
War Preservation Trust https://www.civilwar.org/learn/biographies/jacob-d-cox
[ii] [ii]
Battles and Leaders of the Civil War Vol II https://ehistory.osu.edu/books/battles
