Battle of Sharpsburg (or the Battle of Antietam)

Now onto what happened during the bloodiest battle of the Civil War. September 15, 1862 marked the day General Lee retreated from South Mountain to the valley of Antietam Creek. Lee only had 18,000 men at the time and since Jackson was a day away, McClellan had nearly 60,000 men (and would eventually rise to 87,000 men when the battle started), and was following Lee. The Southern General put his men in defensive positions that was established east/west of the Antietam Creek. McClellan's Federal army was established across the creek looking at their enemies. General McClellan could've attacked then and easily won the battle since he had superior numbers, but as usual, McClellan was a great organizer of the Northern Army but seemed very timid in attacking until he made sure he wouldn't make a mistake. This day he decided not to attack, which was September 16th, General Jackson finally arrived with thousands of men, just fresh off a victory at Harpers Ferry and heading towards the Battle of Sharpsburg, as it became known later by the South. This gave Lee time to put Jackson's men on the left flank of the confederate army. There were other generals that day that arrived and lee put them in places that were deemed weak.

The 1862 battle officialy began at 5:30 am, September 17th, when a Southern gun near the cornfield (left flank of the confederates) sounded and the Union returned fire. Union General Joseph Hooker's artillery returned fire upon Jackson's men who were in the cornfield and killed hundreds of them. Appearently, the confederates held their ground for nearly an hour until the shell and canister were to much and they retreated from the cornfield. Hooker's men followed the retreating foe.

When around 7:30 am, Jackson was reinforced by Hood's Texans. The men from Hood's division just arrived and were promised a hot breakfast and when found out that they couldn't have any because Jackson's men needed reinforced right away, they became very mad. They charged out against the pressing enemy and drove them back the cornfield, only to be stopped by Union cannon. The cornfield changed hands more than ten times during the battle.

Continue Reading the Next Phase of the Battle: Bloody Lane