Scott Hanko
Cornfield Ave. & Monuments
The real battle at Antietam Creek Maryland started on September 17, 1863 when the fighting in the cornfield near the German Baptist Church commonly called Dunkers broke out. Joseph Hooker was the Northern general in this part of the battlefield. Hooker had crossed Antietam Creek with his men to face the Confederate’s left line commanded by Thomas Jackson. The battle started in the North Woods, the most northern place on the battlefield that day. The Confederates eventually fell back to a cornfield directly south of the North Woods. The fighting in this cornfield was extremely bloody, and control of the cornfield changed hands almost fifteen times in three hours. Hooker later said, “every stalk of corn in the northern and greater part of the field was cut as closely as could have been done with a knife, and the slain lay in rows precisely as they had stood in their ranks a few moments before. It was never my fortune to witness a more bloody, dismal battlefield.” Eventually after much fighting Union General Sedgwick decided to make a charge against the Confederate line through the cornfield. He, however, charged right into a trap that Jackson had made. The trap was a crossfire; Jackson arranged his men into a C shaped line. Sedgwick’s men charged right into the middle of this C. It was a heartbreaking loss for the Union. The Confederate crossfire, in just half an hour, cost the Union almost 2,200 men. After all of this McClellan decided that he could not take the Confederate left and the next fighting to begin was in the center.
Antietam Battlefield-Sharpsburg Md.
Cornfield Ave. & Monuments
The real battle at Antietam Creek Maryland started on September 17, 1863 when the fighting in the cornfield near the German Baptist Church commonly called Dunkers broke out. Joseph Hooker was the Northern general in this part of the battlefield. Hooker had crossed Antietam Creek with his men to face the Confederate’s left line commanded by Thomas Jackson. The battle started in the North Woods, the most northern place on the battlefield that day. The Confederates eventually fell back to a cornfield directly south of the North Woods. The fighting in this cornfield was extremely bloody, and control of the cornfield changed hands almost fifteen times in three hours. Hooker later said, “every stalk of corn in the northern and greater part of the field was cut as closely as could have been done with a knife, and the slain lay in rows precisely as they had stood in their ranks a few moments before. It was never my fortune to witness a more bloody, dismal battlefield.” Eventually after much fighting Union General Sedgwick decided to make a charge against the Confederate line through the cornfield. He, however, charged right into a trap that Jackson had made. The trap was a crossfire; Jackson arranged his men into a C shaped line. Sedgwick’s men charged right into the middle of this C. It was a heartbreaking loss for the Union. The Confederate crossfire, in just half an hour, cost the Union almost 2,200 men. After all of this McClellan decided that he could not take the Confederate left and the next fighting to begin was in the center.
Antietam Battlefield-Sharpsburg Md.