Opposing the Second Corps at Antietam: The Fight for the Confederate Left and Center on America’s Bloodiest Day

214 Pages·2016·16.49 MB·English

by  Marion V. Armstrong Jr.

Opposing the
Second Corps
at Antietam

Opposing the
Second Corps
at Antietam
h
The Fight for the
Confederate Left and Center
on America’s Bloodiest Day
MARION V. ARMSTRONG JR.
The University of Ala bama Press
Tuscaloosa
The University of Alab ama Press
Tuscaloosa, Ala bama 35487–0380
uapress.ua.edu
Copyright © 2016 by the University of Alab ama Press
All rights reserved.
Inquiries about reproducing material from this work should be addressed to the
University of Ala bama Press.
Typeface: Caslon
Manufactured in the United States of America
Cover art: The rebels covered by a ledge of rock repulsing the troops on the right in
the woods beyond the Dunker Church, battle of Antietam. Sketch by Alfred R. Waud
(1828–1891); courtesy of the Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.
Cover design: Michele Myatt Quinn
∞
The paper on which this book is printed meets the minimum requirements of
American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for
Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1 984.
Cataloging- in-P ublication data is available from the Library of Congress.
ISBN: 978- 0- 8173- 1904- 5
E- ISBN: 978- 0- 8173- 8957- 4
Contents
List of Maps vii
Preface ix
1. Maintaining the Initiative 1
2. The West Woods 20
3. The Sunken Road 68
4. The Afternoon 142
Notes 167
Selected Bibliography 183
Index 187

Maps
1.1. Situation 0600 14
2.1. Situation 0830 22
2.2. Situation 0840 24
2.3. Situation 0850 27
2.4. Situation 0900 28
2.5. Situation 0910 35
2.6. Situation 0920 39
2.7. Situation 0930 42
2.8. Situation 0940 46
2.9. Situation 0950 51
2.10. Situation 1000 57
2.11. Situation 1010 60
2.12. Situation 1020 63
2.13. Situation 1030 66
3.1. Situation 0620 73
3.2. Situation 0730 75
3.3. Situation 0745 77
3.4. Situation 0800 78
3.5. Situation 0810 79
3.6. Situation 0820 82
3.7. Situation 0830 84
3.8. Situation 0910 88
viii Maps
3.9. Situation 0920 92
3.10. Situation 0930 94
3.11. Situation 0940 98
3.12. Situation 0950 100
3.13. Situation 1000 103
3.14. Situation 1010 105
3.15. Situation 1020 106
3.16. Situation 1030 111
3.17. Situation 1050 112
3.18. Situation 1110 119
3.19. Situation 1130 121
3.20. Situation 1150 125
3.21. Situation 1200 127
3.22. Situation 1215 130
3.23. Situation 1230 134
3.24. Situation 1245 136
3.25. Situation 1300 139
4.1. Situation 1300 143
4.2. Situation 1630 155
Preface
In 2008, The University of Alab ama Press published my book Unfurl Those
Colors!: McClellan, Sumner, and the Second Army Corps in the Antietam Campaign.
The book was a study in command, operations, and tactics at the army corps
level. Its focus was the decisions made by Major General George B. McClellan,
the commander of the Army of the Potomac, and how those decisions were
communicated to and carried out by Major General Edwin V. Sumner, com-
mander of the Second Army Corps, and his division and brigade command-
ers. The work also considered the perspectives of the junior officers and enlisted
soldiers of the Second Corps as they carried out the orders sent down to them
from the command level.
Given this subject matter and approach, the book necessarily addressed the
campaign only from the perspective of its subjects, and did not reveal what
their opposite numbers were doing. All that the reader knew of the Confed-
erate side of the action was what the subjects themselves knew at any particular
time during the campaign and battle. As one reviewer of the book commented,
the Confederates were nothing more than “dim fig ures” in the distance. But
this was how it needed to be because decisions, orders, and actions are always
undertaken with an imperfect knowledge of what the enemy is doing. I wanted
the reader to see the campaign and the battle through the eyes of the com-
manders and soldiers who were making the decisions and doing the fighting.
This work, Opposing the Second Corps:at Antietam: The Fight for the Confederate
Left and Center on America’s Bloodiest Day, is intended as a companion volume to
Unfurl Those Colors that considers the Confederate side of the fight against the
Second Army Corps during the Battle of Antietam on 17 Sep tem ber 1862. As
such, it addresses the battle for the Confederate left and center, primarily the
battle from the Confederate prospective for the West Woods and the Sunken
Road. As with Unfurl Those Colors, Opposing the Second Corps at Antietam is set