The Conflict at Antientam: Sharpsburg and First Pennsylvania

Hill was now reinforced by about four thousand men, under R. H. Anderson, and the struggle was fierce for a while, the Confederates trying to seize a ridge on the national left for the purpose of turning that flank. This was frustrated by a quick and skilful movement by Colonel Cross with his "Fighting Fifth" New Hampshire. He and the Confederates had a race for the ridge along parallel lines, fighting as they ran. Cross won it, and, being reinforced by the Eighty-First Pennsylvania, the Confederates were driven back with a heavy loss in men, and the colors of the Fourth North Carolina. An effort to flank the right at the same time was checked by French, Brooks, and a part of Caldwell's force, and a charge of the Confederates directly on Richardson's front was quickly repulsed. The national line was steadily advanced until the foe was pushed back to Dr. Piper's house, near the Sharpsburg road, which formed a sort of citadel for them, and there they made an obstinate stand. Richardson's artillery was now brought up, and while that brave leader was directing the fire of Captain Graham's battery, he was felled by a ball that proved fatal. General W. S. Hancock succeeded him in command, when a charge was made that drove the Confederates from Piper's in the utmost confusion, and only the skilful show of strength by a few of his fresh troops prevented a fatal severance of Lee's line. The Nationals were deceived, and deceived, and did not profit by the advantage gained. Night soon closed the action on the right and centre, the Unionists holding the ground they had acquired. In the struggle near the centre, the gallant General Meagher was wounded and carried from the field, and his command developed on Colonel Burke, of the New York Sixty-Third.

During the severe conflicts of the day, until late in the afternoon, Porter's corps, with artillery, and Pleasonton's cavalry, had remained on the east side of the Antietam as a reserve, and in holding the road from Sharpsburg to Middletown and Boonsborough. Then McClellan sent two brigades to support the wearied right, and six battalions of Sykes's regulars were thrown across bridge No. 2, on the Sharpsburg road, to drive away the Confederate sharp-shooters, who were seriously interfering with Pleasonton's horse-batteries there. Warren's brigade was sent more to the left, on the right and rear of Burnside, who held the extreme left of the national line. This brings us to a notice of the operations of the day under the directions of Burnside.

The left was resting on the slopes opposite bridge No. 3, at Rohrback's farm, a little below Sharpsburg, which was held on the morning of the 17th by the brigade of Toombs (Second and Twentieth Georgia), supported by sharpshooters and batteries on Longstreet's right wing, commanded by D. R. Jones. Burnside was directed, at eight o'clock in the morning, to cross that bridge, attack the foe, carry the heights on the opposite bank of the Antietam, and advance along their crest upon Sharpsburg. It was a task of the greatest difficulty, for the approaches to the bridge were in the nature of a defile, exposed to a raking fire from the Confederate batteries and an enfilading one from their sharp-shooters. In several attempts to cross the bridge Burnside was repulsed. Finally, at about one o'clock in the afternoon, the Fifty-First New York and Fifty-First Pennsylvania charged across and drove the defenders to the heights. Gathering strength at the bridge by the crossing of the divisions of Sturgis, Wilcox, and Rodman, and Scammon's brigade, with the batteries of Durell, Clark, Cook, and Simmons, Burnside charged up the hill, and drove the Confederates almost to Sharpsburg, the Ninth New York capturing one of their batteries. Just then A. P. Hill's division, which had been hastening up from Harper's Ferry, came upon the ground, and under a heavy fire of artillery charged upon Burnside's extreme left, and after severe fighting, in which General Rodman was mortally wounded, drove him back almost to the bridge. In that charge General L. O'B. Branch, of North Carolina, was killed. The pursuit was checked by the national artillery on the eastern side of the stream, under whose fire the reserves led by Sturgis advanced, and the Confederates did not attempt to retake the bridge. Darkness closed the conflict here, as it did all along the line.

Hill came up just in time, apparently, to save Lee's army from capture or destruction. Experts say that if Burnside had accomplished the passage of the bridge and the advance movement an hour earlier, or had Porter been sent a few hours sooner to the support of the hard-struggling right, that result would doubtless have ensued. It is easy to conjecture what might have been. We have to do only with what occurred. Looking upon the event from that stand-point, we see darkness ending one of the most memorable days of the war because of its great and apparently useless carnage, for the result was only hurtful in the extreme to both parties. With the gloom of that night also ended the conflict known as the Battle of Antietam, in which McClellan said (erroneously as to the number of troops) "nearly two hundred thousand men and five hundred pieces of artillery were for fourteen hours engaged. Our soldiers slept that night," he said, "conquerors on a field won by their valor and covered by the dead and wounded of the enemy."