ANTIETAM: PRELIMINARY MOVEMENTS
Lee's plan of invasion--Changed by McClellan's advance--The position
at Sharpsburg--Our routes of march--At the Antietam--McClellan
reconnoitring--Lee striving to concentrate--Our delays--Tuesday's
quiet--Hooker's evening march--The Ninth Corps command--Changing our
positions--McClellan's plan of battle--Hooker's evening
skirmish--Mansfield goes to support Hooker--Confederate
positions--Jackson arrives--McLaws and Walker reach the field--Their
places.
Before morning on the 15th of September it became evident that Lee
had used the night in withdrawing his army. An advance of the
pickets at daybreak confirmed this, and Pleasonton's cavalry was
pushed forward to Boonsboro, where they had a brisk skirmish with
the enemy's rear-guard. At Boonsboro a turnpike to Sharpsburg leaves
the National road, and the retreat of the Confederate cavalry, as
well as other indications, pointed out the Sharpsburg road as the
line of Lee's retreat. He had abandoned his plan of moving further
northward, and had chosen a line bringing him into surer
communication with Jackson. His movements before the battle of South
Mountain revealed a purpose of invasion identical with that which he
tried to carry out in 1863 in the Gettysburg campaign. Longstreet,
with two divisions and a brigade (D. R. Jones, Hood, and Evans), had
advanced to Hagerstown, and it seems that a large part of the
Confederate trains reached there also. D. H. Hill's division held
Boonsboro and the passes of South Mountain at Turner's and Fox's
Gaps. McLaws invested our fortifications on Maryland Heights,
supported by R. H. Anderson's division. Jackson, with four divisions
(A. P. Hill, Ewell, and Starke of his own corps, with Walker
temporarily reporting to him), was besieging Harper's Ferry.
On Saturday, the 13th, Lee determined to draw back Longstreet from
his advanced position, in view of the fact that Jackson had not yet
reduced Harper's Ferry and that McClellan was marching to its
relief. Longstreet's divisions therefore approached Boonsboro so as
to support D. H. Hill, and thus it happened that they took part in
the battle of South Mountain. Hill again occupied the summit where
we found him on the 14th. From all this it is very plain that if
McClellan had hastened his advance on the 13th, the passes of South
Mountain at Turner's and Fox's gaps would not have been occupied in
force by the enemy, and the condition of things would have been what
he believed it was on the morning of the 14th, when a single brigade
had been thought enough to support Pleasonton's reconnoissance.
Twenty-four hours had changed all that.
The turnpike from Boonsboro to Sharpsburg continues southward a
couple of miles, crossing the Potomac to Shepherdstown, which lies
on the Virginia side of the river. A bridge which formerly carried
the road over the stream had been burned; but not far below the
ruined piers was a ford, which was a pretty good one in the present
stage of water. Shepherdstown was the natural place of junction for
Lee and Jackson; but for Lee to have marched there at once would
have exposed Jackson to attack from the northern side of the
Potomac. The precious stores and supplies captured at Harper's Ferry
must be got to a place of safety, and this was likely to delay
Jackson a day or two. Lee therefore ordered McLaws to obstruct
Franklin's movement as much as he could, whilst he himself
concentrated the rest of Longstreet's corps at Sharpsburg, behind
the Antietam. If McClellan's force should prove overwhelming, the
past experience of the Confederate general encouraged him to believe
that our advance would not be so enterprising that he could not make
a safe retreat into Virginia. He resolved therefore to halt at
Sharpsburg, which offered an excellent field for a defensive battle,
leaving himself free to resume his aggressive campaign or to retreat
into Virginia according to the result.
McClellan had ordered Richardson's division of the Second Corps to
support the cavalry in the advance, and Hooker's corps followed
Richardson. [Footnote: Hooker's Report, Official Records, vol. xix.
pt. i. p. 216.] It would seem most natural that the whole of
Sumner's wing should take the advance on the 15th, though the
breaking up of organizations was so much a habit with McClellan that
perhaps it should not be surprising that one of Sumner's divisions
was thus separated from the rest, and that Burnside's right wing was
also divided. [Footnote: We must not forget the fact, however, that
the order dividing the army into wings was suspended on that
morning, and that this gives to the incident the air of an
intentional reduction of the wing commanders to the control of a
single corps. Official Records, vol. xix. pt. ii. p. 297.] The Ninth
Corps was ordered to follow the old Sharpsburg road through Fox's
Gap, our line of march being thus parallel to the others till we
should reach the road from Boonsboro to Sharpsburg.
But we were not put in motion early in the day. We were ordered
first to bury the dead, and to send the wounded and prisoners to
Middletown It was nearly noon when we got orders to march, and when
the head of column filed into the road, the way was blocked by
Porter's corps, which was moving to the front by the same road. As
soon as the way was clear, we followed, leaving a small detachment
to complete the other tasks which had been assigned us. In the
wooded slope of the mountain west of the gap, a good many of the
Confederate dead still lay where they had fallen in the fierce
combats for the possession of the crest near Wise's house. Our road
led through a little hamlet called Springvale, and thence to
another, Porterstown, near the left bank of the Antietam, where it
runs into the Boonsboro and Sharpsburg turnpike. Sumner's two corps
had taken temporary position on either side of the turnpike, behind
the line of hills which there borders the stream. Porter's corps was
massed in rear of Sumner, and Hooker's had been moved off to the
right, around Keedysville. I was with the Kanawha division, assuming
that my temporary command of the corps ended with the battle on the
mountain. As we came up in rear of the troops already assembled, we
received orders to turn off the road to the left, and halted our
battalions closed in mass. It was now about three 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 enclosed 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.
[Illustration: Map]
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
reconnoissance, walking slowly to the right. I think Fitz-John
Porter was the only general officer who was retained as a companion
in this walk. I noted with satisfaction the cool and business-like
air with which McClellan made his examination under fire. The
Confederate artillery was answered by a battery of ours, 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 evening, going into bivouac about a mile
south of the Sharpsburg bridge, and in rear of the hills bordering
the Antietam.
The village of Sharpsburg is in the midst of a plateau which is
almost enclosed by the Potomac River and the Antietam. The Potomac
bounds it on the south and west, and the Antietam on the east. The
plateau in general outline may be considered a parallelogram, four
miles in length from north to south, and two and a half miles in
width inside the bends of the river. The northern side of this
terrain appears the narrowest, for here the river curves sharply
away to the west, nearly doubling the width of the field above and
below the bend. From the village the ground descends in all
directions, though a continuous ridge runs northward, on which is
the Hagerstown turnpike. The Boonsboro turnpike enters the village
from the northeast, crossing the Antietam on a stone bridge, and
continuing through Sharpsburg to the southwest, reaches
Shepherdstown by the ford of the Potomac already mentioned. The
Hagerstown turnpike enters the town from the north, passing the
Dunker Church a mile out, and goes nearly due south, crossing the
Antietam at its mouth, and continuing down the Potomac toward
Harper's Ferry.
The Antietam is a deep creek, with few fords at an ordinary stage of
water, and the principal roads cross it upon stone bridges. Of these
there were three within the field of battle; the upper one in front
of Keedysville, the middle one upon the Boonsboro turnpike, and the
lower one on the Sharpsburg and Rohrersville road, since known as
Burnside's bridge. McClellan's staff was better supplied with
officers of engineers than the staff of most of our separate armies,
and Captain Duane, his chief engineer, systematized the work of
gathering topographical information. This was communicated to the
general officers in connection with the orders which were given
them. In this way we were instructed that the only fords of the
Antietam passable at that time were one between the two upper
bridges named, and another about half a mile below Burnside's
bridge, in a deep bend of the stream. We found, however, during the
engagement of the 17th, another practicable crossing for infantry a
short distance above the bridge. This was not a ford in common use,
but in the low stage of water at the time it was made available for
a small force.
It was about noon of the 15th of September that Lee placed the
forces which he had in hand across the turnpike in front of
Sharpsburg. D. H. Hill's division was on the north of the road, and
on the south of it Longstreet's own old division (now under General
D. R. Jones), Hood's division, and Evans's independent brigade.
Stuart's cavalry and the reserve artillery were also present. The
rest of the army was with Jackson at Harper's Ferry, or co-operating
with him in the neighborhood of Maryland Heights. Out of forty-four
brigades, Lee could put but fourteen or fifteen in line that day to
oppose McClellan. He was very strong in artillery, however, and his
cannon looked grimly over the hill-crests behind which his infantry
were lying. Cutts's and Jones's battalions of the reserve artillery
were ordered to report to Hill for the protection of the left of the
Confederate line, and gave him in all the sixty or seventy guns
which he speaks of in his report, and which have puzzled several
writers who have described the battle. Whenever our troops showed
themselves as they marched into position, they were saluted from
shotted cannon, and the numerous batteries that were developed on
the long line of hills before us no doubt did much to impress
McClellan with the belief that he had the great bulk of Lee's army
before him.
The value of time was one of the things McClellan never understood.
He should have been among the first in the saddle at every step in
the campaign after he was in possession of Lee's order of the 9th,
and should have infused energy into every unit in his army. Instead
of making his reconnoissance at three in the afternoon of Monday, it
might have been made at ten in the morning, and the battle could
have been fought before night, if, indeed, Lee had not promptly
retreated when support from Jackson would thus have become
impossible. Or if McClellan had pushed boldly for the bridge at the
mouth of the Antietam, nothing but a precipitate retreat by Lee
could have prevented the interposition of the whole National army
between the separated wings of the Confederates. The opportunity was
still supremely favorable for McClellan, but prompt decision was not
easy for him. Nothing but reconnoitring was done on Monday afternoon
or on Tuesday, whilst Lee was straining every nerve to concentrate
his forces and to correct what would have proven a fatal blunder in
scattering them, had his opponent acted with vigor. The strongest
defence the eulogists of the Confederate general have made for him
is that he perfectly understood McClellan's caution and calculated
with confidence upon it; that he would have been at liberty to
perfect his combinations still more at leisure, but for the accident
by which the copy of his plan had fallen into our hands at Frederick
City.
During the 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 in command. I urged Burnside to assume the immediate
command of the corps and allow me to lead my own division. He
objected that as he had been announced as commander of the right
wing of the army, composed of the two corps, 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. Sympathizing with his very natural
feeling, I ceased objecting, and accepted with as good grace as I
could the unsatisfactory position of nominal commander of the corps
to which I was a comparative stranger, and which, under the
circumstances, naturally looked to him as its accustomed and real
commander. Burnside's intentions in respect to myself were
thoroughly friendly, as he afterward proved, and I had no ground for
complaint on this score; but the position of second in command is
always an awkward and anomalous one, and such I felt it.
The 16th passed without serious fighting, though we had 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. McClellan reconnoitred the
line of the Antietam near us, and the country immediately on our
left, down the valley. 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. The selected positions were
marked by McClellan's engineers, who then took members of Burnside's
staff to identify the locations, and these in turn conducted our
divisions. There was far more routine of this sort in that army than
I ever saw elsewhere. Corps and division commanders should have the
responsibility of protecting their own flanks and in choosing
ordinary camps. To depend upon the general staff for this is to take
away the vigor and spontaneity of the subordinate and make him
perform his duty in a mechanical way. He should be told what is
known of the enemy and his movements so as to be put upon his guard,
and should then have freedom of judgment as to details. The changes
made were as follows: Rodman's division went half a mile further to
the left, where a country road led to the Antietam ford, half a mile
below the Burnside bridge. Sturgis's division was placed on the
sides of the road leading to the stone bridge just mentioned.
Willcox's was put in reserve in rear of Sturgis. My own 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. 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.
What, then, was the plan of battle of which the first step was this
movement of Hooker's? McClellan's dispositions on the 15th were made
whilst Franklin's corps was still absent, and, under the orders he
received, was likely to be so for a day at least. [Footnote:
Official Records, vol. xix. pt. i. p. 29.] Sumner's two corps had
been treated as the centre of the army in hand, Burnside's had been
divided by putting Hooker on the extreme right and the Ninth Corps
on the extreme left, and Porter's corps was in reserve. This looked
as if a general attack in front with this organization of the army
were intended. But the more McClellan examined the enemy's position
the less inclined he was to attack the centre. He could cross the
bridge there and on the right, and deploy; but the gentle slopes
rising toward Sharpsburg were swept by formidable batteries and
offered no cover to advancing troops. The enemy's infantry was
behind stone fences and in sunken roads, whilst ours must advance
over the open. Lee's right rested upon the wooded bluffs above the
Burnside bridge, where it could only be approached by a small head
of column charging along the narrow roadway under a concentrated
fire of cannon and small arms. No point of attack on the whole field
was so unpromising as this. Then, as Jackson was still at Harper's
Ferry, there was the contingency of an attack in rear if anything
less than the mass of our army were pushed beyond Lee's right.
On our right, in front of Hooker, it was easy to turn the
Confederate line. The road from Keedysville through Smoketown to the
Hagerstown turnpike crossed the Antietam in a hollow, out of the
line of fire, and a march around Lee's left flank could be made
almost wholly under cover. The topography of the field therefore
suggested a flank attack from our right, if the National commander
rejected the better strategy of interposing his army between Lee and
Jackson as too daring a movement. This flank attack McClellan
determined to make, and some time after noon of the 16th issued his
orders accordingly. In his preliminary report of the battle, made
before he was relieved from command, McClellan says:--
"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 centre with any reserve I might then have in hand."
[Footnote: O R., vol. xix. pt. i. p. 30.]
His report covering his whole career in the war, dated August 4,
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 centre with all the forces then
disposable." [Footnote: Official Records, vol. xix, pt. i, p. 55.]
The opinion I got from Burnside at the time, as to the part the
Ninth Corps was to take, was fairly consistent with the design first
quoted, namely, 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 is
also probable that Hooker's movement was at first intended to be
made by his corps alone, the attack to be taken up by Sumner's two
corps as soon as Hooker began, and to be 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 reinforce
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 position of Lee's
divisions upon the field. It is also noticeable that the plan as
given in the final report leaves no "centre" with which to "advance"
when either of the flank movements should be successful, Porter's
corps in reserve being the only one not included in the movement as
described.
Further 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 two
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 reinforcements, 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 reinforcements. [Footnote: Official Records,
vol. xix. pt. i. p. 217.] Yet Sumner did not receive orders to send
Mansfield's corps to his support till evening, and it marched only
half an hour before midnight, [Footnote: _Id_., p. 275.] reaching
its bivouac, about a mile and a half in rear of that of Hooker, at 2
A.M. of the 17th. [Footnote: _Id_., p. 475.]
After crossing the Antietam, Hooker had shaped his course to the
westward, aiming to reach the ridge on which the Hagerstown turnpike
runs, and which is the dominant feature in the landscape. This ridge
is about two miles distant from the Antietam, and for the first mile
of the way no resistance was met. However, his progress had been
observed by the enemy, and Hood's two brigades were taken from the
centre and passed to the left of D. H. Hill. Here they occupied an
open wood (since known as the East Wood) northeast of the Dunker
Church. Hooker was now trying to approach the Confederate positions,
Meade's division of the Pennsylvania Reserves being in the advance.
A sharp skirmishing combat ensued, and artillery was brought into
action on both sides. I have mentioned our hearing the noise of this
engagement from the other extremity of the field in the fading light
of evening. 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 re-entrant bend of the
Potomac, which is only half a mile distant. Here he bivouacked upon
the 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 farmhouse and barn of J. Poffenberger, on the east side of the
road, where Hooker made his own quarters for the night. Half a mile
further 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.
[Footnote: 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 Lieutenant-Colonel Rufus R.
Dawes, Sixth Wisconsin (afterward Brevet Brigadier-General), both of
whom subsequently visited the field and determined the positions.]
Mansfield's corps (the Twelfth), marching as it did late in the
night, kept further to the right than Hooker's, but moved on a
nearly parallel course, and bivouacked on the farm of another J.
Poffenberger, [Footnote: Official Records, vol. xix. pt. i. pp. 275,
475.] 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. [Footnote: See map, p. 299.]
On the Confederate side, Hood's division had been so roughly handled
that it was replaced by two brigades of Ewell's division (commanded
by Lawton), which with Jackson's own (commanded by J. R. Jones) 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 in continuation of his line along the
turnpike, but with a brigade advanced to the East Wood, which was
held as a salient. 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. [Footnote: Official Records, vol. xix. pt. i. p. 923.] The
combatants on both sides slept upon their arms, well knowing that
the dawn would bring bloody work.
During the evening McClellan issued orders looking toward the
joining of a general engagement at daybreak. McLaws's Confederate
division, which had been opposing Franklin, crossed the Potomac at
Maryland Heights, and marched by way of Shepherdstown, reaching
Sharpsburg on the morning of the 17th. [Footnote: _Id_., pp. 855,
856.] Walker's division, which had come from Harper's Ferry on the
16th, extended Lee's right down the Antietam, covering the ford at
which Rodman, on our side, was expected to cross. [Footnote: _Id_.,
p. 914.] A. P. Hill's division was the only force of the enemy
completing the work at Harper's Ferry, and Franklin was ordered to
leave Couch's division to observe Hill's movements from our side of
the Potomac, and to bring the remainder of his corps on the field
early in the morning. [Footnote: _Id_., p. 376.] In the respite
given him since Sunday, Lee had therefore concentrated all his army
but one division, and was better ready for the battle than
McClellan, for Franklin's corps could come upon the field only after
a considerable march, and he did not, in fact, reach it till ten
o'clock or later. Sumner was ordered to have the Second Corps ready
to march an hour before day, but he had no authority to move till
explicit orders to that effect should reach him. I have said that
Hooker claims in his report that the promise was made him that
Mansfield's corps, when it came to reinforce him, should be under
his orders. If this were so, it would unite all the troops now
present which had fought in Pope's Army of Virginia. I find no
trace, however, in the reports of the battle, that Hooker exercised
any such command. He seems to have confined his work to the
independent action of his own corps until Mansfield's death, and was
himself disabled almost immediately afterward. As there were
commanders of wings of the army duly designated, and two corps were
now separated by a long interval from the rest in an independent
turning movement, it can hardly be debated that that was the place
of all others where one of them should have been, unless McClellan
were there in person. Had Burnside's two corps been kept together as
the right wing, the right attack could have been made a unit. If
Sumner had then been directed to keep in communication with
Burnside, and to advance when the latter did, nobody will doubt that
Sumner would have been prompt in sustaining his comrades. But both
Sumner and Burnside were made to feel that they were reduced from
their proper rank, and however conscientious they might be in
carrying out such orders as reached them, it was not in human nature
that they should volunteer suggestions or anticipate commands.
McClellan had thus thrown away the advantages, if there were any, in
holding only two or three men directly responsible for the
co-ordination of his movements, and had assumed the full personal
responsibility of watching each phase of the battle and suiting the
proper orders to each conjuncture as it should arise.