Where is sharpsburg va in civil war

He had 43 years of experience in the Army, including several tours of duty in the West and distinguished service in the Mexican War. He had led the II Corps in the Peninsula campaign, where he was wounded twice.

But instead the iron dice of war were thrown, and luck was with the Confederates. Sumner led his 2nd Division to destruction in the so-called West Woods Massacre. His command was the largest on the field, with more than 15, men.

Major General Israel Richardson led the 1st Division. His veteran units, such as the Irish Brigade, made possible the Union breakthrough at the Sunken Road. He was actively seeking additional troops and artillery to follow up on the breakthrough when an artillery shell mortally wounded him. The 3rd Division was commanded by Brig. French, whose experience was as a brigade commander. Incredibly, this division had been put together on the march only 16 hours before the battle.

Nine out of its 10 regiments had not seen any major combat. Fitz John Porter, the V Corps commander, had great potential from the start.

The New Englander ranked eighth in his West Point class of and won several brevets for gallantry in the Mexican War. Upon the withdrawal of the Army of the Potomac from the Peninsula, Porter and his corps were attached to the Army of Virginia just in time for the disastrous Second Manassas campaign. There, he was blamed by Pope for failure to provide proper support and brought up on court-martial charges. Initially relieved of command, he was reinstated through the personal intercession of McClellan with President Lincoln.

A third division, under Brig. Andrew Humphreys, was on the march to reinforce Porter, but arrived the day after the battle. Its combat effectiveness was dubious, since the entire division was made up of nine-month regiments. William Franklin was also up on court-martial charges for disobedience at Second Manassas.

Franklin had been trained at West Point as an engineer and graduated first in the class of As the VI Corps commander, he lacked the aggression needed for combat operations. Conversely, at Antietam he would unsuccessfully seek permission from McClellan to launch an attack against the Confederate left in the afternoon.

Most of his men would not be engaged in the battle. This unit returned to Virginia for Second Manassas and was augmented with Brig.

Jesse Reno in charge of the latter command. This rankled Burnside, and some historians believe it caused him to move sluggishly in his effort to take the stone bridge that now bears his name.

The IX Corps contained many combat-seasoned units, but it also had its share of green troops. Accordingly, one of these regiments, the 16th Connecticut, wilted when Confederate Maj. Ranking second in the West Point class of , he spent his early military career constructing defenses of the Southern coast. In the Mexican War he won several brevets for gallantry and occasionally led troops in combat.

When the fighting broke out, he spent most of his time on garrison duty. This would be one of the few times he would ever lead men in battle, and the corps was the largest combat entity he had ever commanded. Mansfield did not survive his first large command. He was one of six general officers, three from each side, killed or mortally wounded at Antietam. The XII Corps contained the largest component of nine-month regiments, five of them concentrated mostly in the 1st Brigade of the 1st Division.

It was also the smallest corps in the army, fielding less than 8, men. These apparent deficiencies were offset by the presence of Brig. George S. Greene and his division — a seasoned command led by an experienced commander. With around 1, men, Greene held a pocket in the Confederate lines near the Dunker Church for more than two hours. Unsupported and low on ammunition, he ultimately was forced to abandon his position. As opposed to the patchwork quality of the Army of the Potomac, the Army of Northern Virginia was a lean fighting machine.

This was an army of combat veterans. Twenty-two units had been in five battles. Only around 21 percent of the regiments had fought in just one battle.

Their commanders were hardened veterans too. James Longstreet and Thomas J. That would require legislation from the Confederate Congress. The South Carolina—born Longstreet had a long military career that included combat in Mexico and against the Indians in Texas. At Sharpsburg his command held the Confederate center and right.

Here was Maj. John Bell Hood, a Texan via Kentucky, who was a virtual pit bull in battle. His aggressive leadership played a prominent role in preventing the collapse of the Confederate left on the morning of September Another audacious commander in the campaign, Maj. This son of the western Virginia mountain region had earned his combat spurs early at First Manassas. His brilliant Valley campaign in the spring of further solidified his greatness. It is believed that Lee had no more than 40, men at Sharpsburg.

The months of campaigning and fighting had taken its toll. The average Confederate regiment numbered men. Some had less. The 8th Georgia carried 85 officers and men into battle, while the 8th Virginia had 34 men and the 1st Louisiana Battalion numbered an amazing 17 combatants.

The average Union soldier at Antietam would have been clothed in the standard dark-blue four-button blouse with light-blue trousers. But within this sea of blue could be found a smattering of other hues and styles. McClellan took great pains to see that his army was reequipped following months of campaigning. This took place at the camps at Rockville and through the establishment of supply depots at Frederick and Hagerstown, Md. Between September 12 and October 25, , the army received more than , pairs of shoes and boots, 93, pairs of trousers, 10, blankets and numerous other supplies.

This influx of supplies was not a mere luxury or crass display of Yankee abundance. They were sorely needed after all the hard campaigning that summer. For example, a few weeks after Antietam, the quartermaster of the I Corps was seeking more than 5, shoes for the unshod soldiers of that command.

Numerous civilian eyewitness accounts bear this out. Their coats were made out of almost anything that you could imagine, butternut color predominating. Their hats looked worse than those worn by the darkies. Many were barefooted; some with toes sticking out of their shoes and others in their stocking feet. Their blankets were every kind of description, consisting of drugget, rugs, bedclothes, in fact anything they could get, put up in a long roll and tied at the ends, which with their cooking utensils, were slung over their shoulders.

On the eve of the battle, Snyder fled with his mother to a nearby farm. Upon entering his home, he found the place a wreck, with doors and windows open, and drawers and closets ransacked. Heaps of ragged uniforms were on the floor, apparently exchanged for the cleaner clothes of the Snyder family.

In one bedroom James found a naked Confederate soldier lying on the bed, his dirty, tattered uniform piled on the floor. In the late summer of , many Confederate regiments were still operating under the so-called commutation system of clothing supply. This system gave responsibility to each company commander for clothing his troops.

The officer was to then seek reimbursement from the government. Individual Confederate states also undertook various measures to clothe their men, while private citizens got in on the act by raising money for uniforms.

Meanwhile, the Confederate government was in the process of establishing quartermaster depots. However, it was not until late and early , too late for Antietam, that Confederate authorities committed themselves to clothe their troops by direct government issue. Accordingly, a hodgepodge of uniforms was very much evident on the fields around Sharpsburg. Yet despite civilian accounts, the sparse photographic evidence that exists, mainly post-battle images of Confederate dead taken by Alexander Gardner, shows Confederates with short jackets, trousers and blanket rolls or knapsacks.

Most of the men in these grim photos have shoes. Most of these men got nowhere near the captured supplies there, however, since they were rushed to Sharpsburg for the battle. A rare image of Confederates in formation on the march taken by a local photographer in Frederick reveals what appear to be well-equipped soldiers wearing a wide variety of headgear. Another interesting but inconclusive observation of Confederate uniforms was made by Union surgeon James L.

Dunn in a letter to his wife after Antietam. I have yet to find a Rebel even meanly clad or shod. They are as well shod as our own men.

They are dressed in gray. Those shoes you made for me ripped all to pieces…. Our regiment used everything we had. I have no blanket nor any clothes but what I got. I have got the suit on that you sent me.

They came in a good time. I like them very well. If I had a pair of shoes I would be the best clothed man in the regiment. Throughout the war, the Union infantrymen were usually better armed than their Rebel opponents. Antietam was no exception.

The most common shoulder arm of the Yankee foot soldier was the Springfield rifle. This does not mean that there was not some degree of diversity of arms in the Union ranks. For example, some units such as the 7th West Virginia were armed with the British-made Enfield rifled musket. The 20th New York carried the U. Model Mississippi rifle with saber bayonet. Perhaps the Battle of Antietam is not over for some restless spirits. Both are reported to be haunted- stories ranging from footsteps heard on the stairs to apparitions of a woman thought to be the wife of one of the generals who died in the house.

The St. Paul Episcopal Church in Sharpsburg was used as a Confederate hospital after the battle. Reports tell of the screams of injured and dying still coming from the building. Others report seeing flickering lights from the church's tower. The wounded were taken into nearby Sharpsburg to the church and into people's homes to be cared for and many of them died there after surviving the horrendous battle.

There is a house west of the town of Mt. Airy where some of the wounded were taken. Legend has it that the floorboards in the house are still stained with blood and cannot be removed even with sanding. The afternoon of the same day, after fierce fighting, the Federals crossed the Antietam at the Lower or Burnside Bridge and at Snavely's Ford. North of Sharpsburg, the Confederate line of defense spread out along the Hagerstown Pike where early morning fighting of September 17th centered around the Poffenberger farm, the Miller farm especially in the Miller cornfield , the West Woods, the East Woods, the North Woods, and the Dunker Church.

Midday the battle moved southeast to the areas of the Piper, Mumma, and Roulette farms, and centered in the area of the Sunken Road, known to history as Bloody Lane. In the afternoon the fighting moved south of the Boonsboro-Sharpsburg Road first to the area around the Lower or Burnside Bridge, then up the heights across the Antietam through the Sherrick and Otto farms, until in the evening, the battle ended with the Federals almost at the edge of Sharpsburg at the present Hawkins Zouaves Monument near the Harpers Ferry-Sharpsburg Road.

McClellan, commander of the Union Arm of the Potomac, had his headquarters. The area of the battlefield also includes the Antietam National Cemetery at the eastern edge of Sharpsburg on the Boonsboro Road where 4, Federal soldiers are buried. The battlefield remains generally as it was in September of , occupied by farms and farmland which is still cultivated. The historic farmhouses with their surrounding outbuildings are spread out across the battlefield.

Architecturally, the farmhouses vary from 18th century clapboard houses to two-story fieldstone houses of the Greek Revival period.