Antietam is a river in western Maryland near Sharpsburg. On 09.17.1862 there around 41,000 soldiers fought under the Confederate General Robert E. Lee with 77,000 men against the far superior army Potomac Union General George B. "Little Mac" McCellan (according to other reports were 55,000 men against over 84,000 men). Although Antietam is often measured as an indecisive battle history, and in today's perception of Gettysburg completely displaced, thus temporarily succeeded Lee, once again against some of the classic Textbook strategies negotiated so that the war to relocate to the territory of the enemy. Sharpe played an important role in Antietam.
The north had in the Civil War, despite its superiority in men and material to date have looked bad. Eighteen months after the war began, it was not able to score a major victory in Virginia or Richmond, the Confederate capital to take. On the contrary, the North had cashed at Bull Run a severe and humiliating defeat and was still remained unhappy. Lee marched to Bull Run on the Potomac to the north and threatened Maryland and Pennsylvania. Union General McCellan tried Lees To repel invasion. Lee's troops stood with his back to the Potomac and had only a river crossing for a possible withdrawal.
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93rd Infantry New York at Antietam
was The march of the Confederate troops between Lee and his supply is an important; Arsenal of weapons North, Harper's Ferry. Lee said its rules against all forces, and sent "Stonewall" Jackson and his troops to Harper's Ferry, on the 14.9. was taken, and fell prey to violent and over 12,000 prisoners in the South. Now, however, the North was among others by capturing a command of Lee has become clear that the South had two divided this force and the troops McCellans tried to advance and to separate the two southern units of each other. Lee turned him along a contour line with views contrary to the Antietam and was awarded the evening of 14 Amplification by the majority of Jackson's troops. Before that Confederate sharpshooters during the day advances delayed by Union troops. This Union-General Jesso Reno fell by sniper fire of Sergeant Charles Bennett of the 23rd North Carolina Regiment.
supply Confederate wounded after Antietam
; On 15 and 16.9. fought Union and Confederate artillery. On the evening of 16 Union began the first attacks, which still had the character of armed reconnaissance.
On 17 early in the morning then began the massive advance of Union troops. First, the Army Corps reached under General Joseph "Fighting Joe" Hooker of "Stonewall" Jackson's organizations on the left flank of the Confederates who were closest to the Potomac and pressed them hard. By Confederate sniper fire came Unions General Josph KF Mansfield. Hooker himself, who was an easily recognizable horse riding, heavy sniper wounded. There will not be loss-making attacks and counterattacks, during which, for example, the location roughly in the middle of moving, "Miller's cornfield" 15 times the owner.
defended in the middle of the front across the Confederate General Ambrose Powell Hill as "Bloody Lane" became known streets and the farms of the families Piper and roulette against several attacks by Sumners troops over four hours.
Although the Confederates had to retreat in the heart, prevented McCellan's reserve forces from advancing, depress Lee's center and two assign the Confederates. The places heavily into each other geared opponents fought on shortest distance and for a given measure. However, not all Union troops were used.
General Ambrose Everett Burnside was able finally to take the lower bridge "Rohrbach" later "Burnside Bridge") over the Antietam after four hours hard fight against 400 determined men from Georgia against 15 clock, but he was a 16 clock 30 of Hills Light Division, which was introduced in a forced march from Harpers Ferry stopped. Confederate snipers killed on and off the bridge hundreds of Union soldiers - mostly from buildings and from a ridge in the run-up to distances of 200 and 500 yards.
Burnside Bridge
killed in the later stages of the battle, the Confederate Union sniper Brigadier General Lawrence O'Bryan - but too late to influence the course of the battle. Unlike the Confederate sharpshooters inserting according to their performance capabilities, Union officers wasted at Antietam, the high value resource snipers usually in a "normal" infantry use - remained so the 1st Unions sniper as a reserve regiment, the 2nd in spite of its scope infantry weapons used in assaults and burned.
We are a band of brothers
And native to the soil,
Fighting for the property
We gained by honest toil.
And when our rights were threatened,
The cry rose near and far
Hurrah for the Bonnie Blue Flag
That bears a single star!
Chorus:
Hurrah, Hurrah!
For Southern rights Hurrah!
Hurrah for the Bonnie Blue Flag
That bears a single star.
As long as the Union
Was faithful to her trust,
Like friends and like brothers
Both kind were we and just.
But now, when Northern treachery
Attempts our rights to mar,
We hoist on high the Bonnie Blue Flag
That bears a single star.
First gallant South Carolina
Nobly made the stand,
Then came Alabama,
Who took her by the hand.
Next quickly Mississippi,
Georgia and Florida all raised on high Bonnie Blue Flag
That bears a single star
...
Bonnie Blue Flag, Song of the Confederate States of America
Antietam can be considered a draw outgoing, battle, though, Lee was forced to withdraw from the North. Given the superiority the North is the de facto stalemate but not vote as a victory for the Union. In this battle, one of the bloodiest on American soil, were about 4,700 men, 18,500 were wounded and about 3,100 remain missing.
President Lincoln, who had taken to the outbreak of war in the issue of slavery a "more moderate position" and on several occasions (eg, still in 1862) rejected the emancipation of slaves as a war aim was, and saw instead the unity of the Union as a top priority, reacted to the military unsatisfactory situation with the proclamation of the abolition of slavery and thus maneuvered the South politically on the defensive and international isolation without significant foreign Support. The far superior military machine of the north and almost endless crowds seal the fate of the South, despite some significant military successes such as Lee's victory over Grant in Fredericksburg (17,000 fallen Yankees, 8,000 fallen Confederate). Beginning of 1865 the North has more than one million soldiers, the South still has about 100,000.
Stonewall Jackson
"To move swiftly, strike vigorously, and secure
all the fruits of victory, is the secret of successful war."
"To move swiftly, strike vigorously, and secure
all the fruits of victory, is the secret of successful war."
„Stonewall“ Jackson
Thomas Jonathan „Stonewall“ Jackson (1824 in Clarksburg/Virginia - 1863) war einer the most American generals and is still next to General Robert E. Lee one of the most revered heroes of the South. Although Jackson came from humble and had received from home was not an appropriate educational background, but proved brilliantly at the Academy cadets from West Point. He took part in the war against Mexico, 1846-48, and was by that date as one of the largest and most capable officers of the U.S. military announced. Jackson was a committed Christian and sought long for a religious home. During the occupation of Mexico as he tried to understand Catholicism and spoke to Catholic high dignitaries of Mexico. Finally he found during being stationed in as a professor of artillery at the Virginia Military Institute is fulfilled. His Christian belief also accompanied him during the Civil War on the battlefield. To be a Christian meant for Jackson to be a pacifist. On the contrary, he viewed the defense of his homeland and the territorial independence of the South and also a divine order which had to be executed in the best possible way. Jackson Lee described several times as his "right hand".
In a site survey on 05/02/1863 Jackson was accidentally shot by his own troops and wounded. After amputation of his left arm, he died during his convalescence at 10.5. an Lungenentzündung.
Robert E. Lee
Headquarters, Army of Northern Virginia, April 10, 1865
"After four years' of arduous service, marked by unsurpassed courage
and fortitude, the Army of Northern Virginia has been compelled to
yield to overwhelming numbers and resources. I need not tell the
survivors of so many hard-fought battles, who have remained steadfast
to the last, that I have consented to this result from no distrust
of them; but, feeling that valour and devotion could accomplish nothing
that could compensate for the loss that would have attended the
continuation of the contest, I have determined to avoid the useless sacrifice
of those whose past services have endeared them to their countrymen."
R. E. Lee, General
Robert Edward Lee Geboren 1807 in Westmoreland County/Virginia war Lee, der im Krieg gegen Mexiko verwundet and has been found out at Cerro Gordo and Chapultepec, director of West Point and rejected as Virginians at the start of the Civil War, the Supreme Command of the U.S. Army. He first served as military adviser to Confederate President Jeff Davis, and then the command of the newly formed Army of Northern Virginia. Victorious at Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, he failed at Gettysburg, and finally surrendered before the notorious drinker, brilliant soldier and the first representative of the doctrine of "total war", General Ulysses Sipmson "Sam" Grant (1822-1885). After the war he was president of Lexington College in Virginia and died 1870th
James Longstreet
Headquarters Right Wing, Army before Richmond, June 17, 1862
Soldiers: You have marched out to fight the battles of your country,
and by those battles you must be rescued from the shame of slavery.
Your foes have declared their purpose of bringing you to beggary;
and avarice, their natural characteristic, incites them
to redoubled efforts for the conquest of the South in order
that they may seize her sunny fields and happy homes.
... Let such thoughts nerve you up to the most dreadful shock of battle;
for were it certain death, death would be better
than the fate that defeat would entail upon us all."
James Longstreet, Major-General, Commanding
James Longstreet Headquarters Right Wing, Army before Richmond, June 17, 1862
Soldiers: You have marched out to fight the battles of your country,
and by those battles you must be rescued from the shame of slavery.
Your foes have declared their purpose of bringing you to beggary;
and avarice, their natural characteristic, incites them
to redoubled efforts for the conquest of the South in order
that they may seize her sunny fields and happy homes.
... Let such thoughts nerve you up to the most dreadful shock of battle;
for were it certain death, death would be better
than the fate that defeat would entail upon us all."
James Longstreet, Major-General, Commanding
James "Old Pete" or "Old Warhorse" Long Street (1821 in Edgefield District, South Carolina -1904) was next to "Stonewall" Jackson, the second headed by General Lee, next to - as one historian wrote - also very capable generals Northern States looked like beginners on a regular basis. The infantryman was also wounded in the Long Street Mexico including war and fought at Bull Run, Williamsburg, Seven Pines, before he took part in the Battle of Antietam. Then he fought at Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, Chickamauga and was wounded at Wilderness. In the Civil War, Longstreet, despite its merits and his talent is a tragic figure. He not only lost three of his children within a very short time with a scarlet fever epidemic, but he also was responsible for the - against his own conviction and contradiction - costly attack of Pickett's Division. This fact led to some contemporaries and historians accuse him wrongly defeat at Gettysburg. Longstreet after the war worked in some private and governmental functions and died in 1904 weakened by a cancer of lung inflammation.
literature and references
- Jack L. Dickinson (ed.): Diary of a Confederate sharpshooter. Charleston1995.
- Harrison Hunt: Heroes of the War Civiale. New York, 1990.
- Bernd C. Längin: The American Civil War. Augsburg 1998th
- John L. Plaster: Sharp Shooting in the Civil War. Boulder 2009th
- sniper in the Civil War
- Stonewall Jackson House (museum / memorial) in Lexington
- original texts of General Lee
- Arlington House, Robert E. Lee Memorial
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