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mies fought to stalemate each time one side or the other appeared poised to make a breakthrough reinforcements arrived and re established the equilibrium grant suffered more casualties than lee but unlike previous yankee generals he did not give up but stayed on the field if the battle was a tactical confederate victory strategically it was a draw or worse spotsylvania awaited posted by el jefe maximo at 3 12 pm no comments tuesday september 17 2013 battle of sharpsburg antietam 17 september 1862 i ve blogged on this subject before and this post appeared slightly differently a couple of years ago but the battle of sharpsburg is both on my mind and part of my current reading so the post seems as timely to me now as then headquarters alexandria leesburg road near dranesville september 3 1862 mr president the present seems to be the most propitious time since the commencement of the war for the confederate army to enter maryland the two grand armies of the united states that have been operating in virginia though now united are much weakened and demoralized their new levies of which i understand sixty thousand men have already been posted in washington are not yet organized and will take some time to prepare for the field the army is not properly equipped for an invasion of an enemy s territory it lacks much of the material of war is feeble in transportation the animals being much reduced and the men are poorly provided with clothes and in thousands of instances are destitute of shoes still we cannot afford to be idle and though weaker than our opponents in men and in military equipments must endeavor to harass if we cannot destroy them i am aware the movement is attended with much risk if the quartermaster department can furnish any shoes it would be the greatest relief we have entered upon september and the nights are becoming cool r e lee genl general robert e lee to president jefferson davis 3 september 1862 from dowdey manarin the wartime papers of robert e lee da capo 1961 p 294 headquarters near fredricktown maryland september 8 1862 mr president the present posture of affairs in my opinion places it in the power of the government of the confederate states to propose with propriety to that of the united states the recognition of our independence r e lee genl comdg lee to davis papers at p 301 today is the 151st anniversary of the battle of sharpsburg known in the north as antietam the bloodiest day of battle on the north american continent no american armies ever assembled contended for such high stakes as their brothers who fought and died this day near the maryland town of sharpsburg hard by antietam creek on this day so many years ago overshadowed in the popular imagination by gettysburg sharpsburg a tactical draw but strategically a defeat for the south deprived the fledgling confederate states of its best possibility of military victory after sharpsburg foreign diplomatic recognition and help for the south s struggle for independence was exceedingly unlikely southern morale was sky high in the summer of 1862 at least in the east after a series of disasters following first manassas in the winter of 1861 62 the confederacy found itself some generals robert e lee saved the confederacy s capital at richmond virginia from a much larger us force under the talented but slow george b mcclellan meanwhile in the shenandoah valley the tiny valley army under thomas j stonewall jackson beat the yankees again and again and briefly threatened washington or so the hard pressed lincoln administration thought following mcclellan s reverses near richmond confederate armies passed to the offensive all across the south lee moved from the richmond area back towards washington from 28 30 august 1862 lee s army of northern virginia won its greatest victory at second manassas meanwhile in the west braxton bragg s hard luck army of tennessee moved into kentucky threatening to make the bluegrass state s nominal status as a confederate state a reality defeat at the very gates of washington and bragg s invasion of kentucky shocked and embarrassed the lincoln administration the federal government s policy of forcing the southern states at gunpoint back into the union they wanted to leave teetered on the brink of ruin in britain william gladstone chancellor of the exchequer told a newcastle audience that southerners had made a nation in paris the confederacy s strongest foreign friend emperor napoléon iii told his foreign ministry to open quiet talks with england on joint diplomatic recognition of the confederacy for once both diplomatic and military momentum seemed to be moving in favor of the south under these circumstances lee s decision to move north was a no brainer particularly given the general s knowledge which jumps out of his papers and correspondence of the south s dismal long term military prospects lee fully recognized the superiority of his enemies in numbers resources and all the means and appliances for carrying on the war and warned his president that we have no right to look for exemptions from the military consequences of a vigorous use of these advantages moving north and beating the enemy on his own soil raised the odds of foreign support boosted southern morale while damaging the enemy s relieving the southern home front from the pressure of invading enemy armies and giving northern civilians a small taste of what their armies dished out all over the south still the campaign was as lee and his president knew a giant gamble during the first days of september as the tough confederate infantry moved down the roads of northern virginia across the potomac and into us territory problems were readily apparent southern industry was simply not up to properly equipping the army lee s force was in part shoeless clad in rags with only coincidental resemblance to uniforms largely armed and equipped with enemy weapons and supplies scavenged from the victorious battlefields of that summer lee s correspondence during this period shows a preoccupation with guarding the site of the manassas victory and hauling away the huge quantities of abandoned yankee supplies and arms also the army was organizationally cumbersome no formal corps structure yet existed its over large divisions informally divided into two wings too large for the wing commanders longstreet and jackson to really handle still in the annals of american war finer troops never bore arms and in lee longstreet jackson jeb stuart the hills hood early and legions of others the confederates had a splendid band of commanders the amazing run of victories that summer produced another problem continuously marching and fighting since march the army was completely exhausted and in need of a spell in camp to rest re equip and absorb replacements replacements that is such as there were unlike its bigger richer foe the confederate states was already scraping the bottom of its manpower barrel which further explains lee s determination to try to end the war quickly but general lee was pushing his force to its physical limit the long marches think of barefoot or ill shod troops and horses on the macadam and gravel roads found north of the potomac combined with utter exhaustion and poor supplies produced rampant straggling lee s army already seriously under strength numbered no more that 55 000 and he could not assemble more than 45 000 for the battle of sharpsburg the campaign began well enough with the main northern armies camped around washington lee moved into central maryland around frederick a glance at the maps and lee s dispatches indicates that his plan seems to have been much the same as he used in the gettysburg campaign the next year a move into pennsylvania so as to draw the us army round washington after him and then defeat it in detail as it came up somewhere between harrisburg and gettysburg however the yankees left a huge garrison at harper s ferry virginia isolated and vulnerable and lee sent stonewall jackson to pounce on it the us garrison there surrendered on 15 september almost 12 000 troops going into southern captivity this was the largest mass surrender of a us army until 1942 to close the trap around harper s ferry lee had to divide his already outnumbered army under pressure from politicians and newspapers the us army of the potomac moved out of washington in typical slow mcclellan fashion after lee the weak point of the confederate military machine was administration and this now came into play in a field near frederick maryland former campground of a cs infantry division private barton w mitchell 27th indiana volunteer infantry found a piece of paper wrapped around some cigars the paper a confederate military dispatch special orders no 191 gave mcclellan his opportunity i now know all the plans of the rebels mcclellan complacently telegraphed washington the lost order one of the most consequential pieces of paper in american history told mcclellan exactly where all of lee s units were spelled out their composition and gave hints as to future operations best of all for the north lee was completely ignorant of the fact that his enemies now knew his plans mcclellan told a subordinate here is a paper with which if i cannot whip bobby lee i will be willing to go home and indeed napoléon probably could have won the whole war on the strength of that information lee had only 19 000 men immediately available to set against mcclellan s 87 000 because stonewall jackson was still finishing with harper s ferry fortunately for the confederates mcclellan as usual beguiled by other false intelligence giving lee three times his actual strength moved slowly however mcclellan was able to force lee to battle in front of the town of sharpsburg along antietam creek on unfavorable ground his back against the potomac river and with his army incompletely concentrated mcclellan s dithering delayed the battle for a full day giving jackson time to arrive with most of his troops from harper s ferry still when the battle began at dawn on the morning of 17 september lee who had managed to assemble about 35 000 troops was outnumbered by over two to one sharpsburg was really several separate battles because mcclellan was unable to get his army to make one all out coordinated attack had he been able to do so lee s army would most probably have been completely destroyed instead the different corps of the union army attacked more or less in sequence separately from the north end of the field to the south mcclellan never engaged more than two of his six corps at a time and some of his units never got into action at all the confederates better commanded used all of their troops the slaughter defies description 8 000 men were killed or wounded in the initial dawn attack alone with rivers on both flanks of the battlefield sharpsburg was fought out as a series of bloody frontal assaults at places called the cornfield bloody lane burnside s bridge the west woods fighting was hand to hand at many places the cornfield changed hands fifteen times that day several times the union troops were on the verge of breaking through the confederate lines but each time were repulsed short of their objectives with horrific casualties on both sides where is your division john bell hood was asked dead in the cornfield his reply lee s army was ruined the confederate artilleryman e porter alexander later wrote and the end of the confederacy was in sight but somehow the embattled outnumbered confederates held on even counterattacking in places however by midday the confederates were on the ropes exhausted last reserves expended generals and division staffs taking their places in the firing line mcclellan fatally hesitated refraining from committing his last reserves which would have shattered lee s stricken center to the soldiers it seemed as if night would never come the battle ended in the early evening about 5 30 p m with a last us effort to turn the confederate right flank at burnside s bridge for the only time during this long battle observers noted lee showing signs of real anxiety anxiously looking southwest towards harpers ferry for his last division a p hill s en route from that place fortunately for the southerners hill s troops arrived in the nick of time the armies eyed each other warily all during the next day but fighting did not resume and the battle of sharpsburg ended although the battle was a tactical draw it was a strategic defeat for the south because mcclellan s disjointed uncoordinated attacks had hurt lee s army bad enough to force him to withdraw during the night of 18 september the southern retreat south of the potomac completely overshadowed the mass surrender at harper s ferry and possibly prevented foreign diplomatic recognition of the confederacy despite this the stand at sharpsburg of robert e lee s greatly outnumbered army of northern virginia was probably the confederate army s finest hour 2 100 us soldiers and 1 500 cs soldiers died that day a one day death toll by hostile action not rivaled in america till 9 11 adding wounded missing and prisoners on both sides casualties totaled nearly 25 000 the civil war was not decided at sharpsburg the fall of atlanta two years later did that but the last chance of the south to outright win the war as opposed to surviving an attritional struggle died at sharpsburg posted by el jefe maximo at 5 20 pm 1 comment older posts home subscribe to posts atom about me el jefe maximo welcome to the absolute monarchy of el jefe who is mostly conservative and often republican sometimes even republican who is a guaranteed curmudgeon view my complete profile followers my blog list gates of vienna the firearm blog battleswarm blog redstate power line tea at trianon american thinker realclearpolitics flopping aces stately mcdaniel manor politico national review online other mccain daily telegraph warfare in the age of steam david warren essays in idleness 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