The Battle of Antietam

104 Pages·1996·16.105 MB·English

by  James P. Reger

War
Battles of the Civil
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The
Battle
of
Antietam
by James Reger
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The Battle of Antietam
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ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY
FORT WAYNE, INDIANA 46802
You may return this book to any location of
the AllenCounty Public Library.
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The
Battle
of
Antietam
Books in the Battles Series:
The Attack on Pearl Harbor The Battle of Stalingrad
The Battle of Antietam The Battle of Waterloo
The Battle of Belleau Wood The Battle of Zama
The Battle of Britain The Charge of the Light Brigade
The Battle of Gettysburg Defeat of the Spanish Armada
The Battle of Hastings The Inchon Invasion
The Battle of Marathon The Invasion of Normandy
The Battle of Midway The Tet Offensive
War
* Battles of the Civil *
The
Battle
of
Antietam
by James Reger
P.
Lucent Books, P.O. Box 289011, San Diego, CA 92198-9011
—
Allen County Public Library
900 Webster Street
PO Box 2270
Fort Wayne, IN 46801-2270
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Reger, James P.
The Batt—le of Antietam / by James P. Reger
p. cm. (Battles of the Civil War)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Summary: Examines the events preceding, during, and after the
Battle of Anuetam in 1862.
ISBN 1-56006-454-4 (alk. paper)
—
1. Antietam, Battle of, Md., 1862 Juvenile liter—ature.
[1. Anuetam, Battle of, Md., 1862. 2. United States History
Civil War, 1861-1865—Campaigns.l I. Title. II. Series.
E474.65.R44 1997
973.7'336—dc20 96-14415
CIP
AC
Printed in the U.S.A.
Copyright 1997 by Lucent Books, Inc., P.O. Box 289011,
San Diego, CA 92198-9011
No part of this book may be reproduced or used in any other form or by
any other means, electrical, mechanical, or otherwise, including, but not
limited to, photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval
system, without prior written permission from the publisher.
Contents
Foreword 6
Chronology of Events 8
Introduction: The Rising Southern Tide 9
Chapter 1: Causes, Stakes, and Odds 14
Chapter 2: Delay at South Mountain 28
Chapter 3: The Bloodiest Day Dawns 41
Chapter 4: A Lane Made Bloody 52
Chapter 5: Burnside's Bridge and Beyond 63
Chapter 6: Aftermath 73
Appendix: Biographies of the Commanders 86
Glossary 88
For Further Reading 89
Works Consulted 90
Index 91
Picture Credits 94
About the Author 95
Foreword
Almost everyone would agree with William Tecumseh Sherman
that war "is all hell." Yet the history of war, and battles in particu-
lar, is so fraught with the full spectrum of human emotion and
action that it becomes a microcosm of the human experience.
Soldiers' lives are condensed and crystallized in a single battle.
As Francis Miller explains in his Photographic History ofthe Civil
War when describing the war wounded, "It is sudden, the transi-
tion from marching bravely at morning on two sound legs,
grasping your rifle in two sturdy arms, to lying at nightfall under
a tree with a member forever gone."
Decisions made on the battlefield can mean the lives of thou-
A
sands. general's pique or indigestion can result in the difference
between life and death. Some historians speculate, for example,
that Napoleon's fateful defeat at Waterloo was due to the begin-
nings of stomach cancer. His stomach pain may have been the
reason that the normally decisive general was sluggish and reluc-
tant to move his troops. And what kept George McClellan from
winning battles during the Civil War? Some scholars and contem-
poraries believe that it was simple cowardice and fear. Others
argue that he felt a gut-wrenching unwillingness to engage in the
war of attrition that was characteristic of that particular conflict.
Battle decisions can be magnificently brilliant and horribly
costly. At the Battle of Thaspus in 47 B.C., for example, Julius Cae-
sar, facing a numerically superior army, shrewdly ordered his
troops onto a narrow strip of land bordering the sea. Just as he
expected, his enemy thought he had accidentally trapped himself
and divided their forces to surround his troops. By dividing their
army, his enemy had given Caesar the strategic edge he needed to
defeat them. Other battle orders result in disaster, as in the case of
the Battle at Balaklava during the Crimean War in 1854. A British
general gave the order to attack a force of withdrawing enemy
Russians. But confusion in relaying the order resulted in the 670
men of the Light Brigade's charging in the wrong direction into
certain death by heavy enemy —cannon fire. Battles are the stuff of
history on the grandest scale their outcomes often determine
whether nations are enslaved or liberated.
Moments in battles illustrate the best and worst of human
character. In the feeling of terror and the us-versus-them attitude
that accompanies war, the enemy can be dehumanized and treat-
ed with a contempt that is considered repellent in times of peace.
At Wounded Knee, the distrust and anticipation of violence that
grew between the Native Americans and American soldiers led to
the senseless killing of ninety men, women, and children. And
who can forget My Lai, where the deaths of old men, women, and
children at the hands of American soldiers shocked an America
already disillusioned with the Vietnam War. The murder of six mil-
lion Jews will remain burned into the human conscience forever
as the measure of man's inhumanity to man. These horrors cannot
be forgotten. And yet, under the terrible conditions of battle, one
can find acts of bravery, kindness, and altruism. During the Battle
The Battle of Antietam