of Antietam

1 Staff Ride GuideTed BallardBattleofAntietamStaff Ride GuideBattleofAntietambyTed BallardCenter of Military HistoryUnited States ArmyWashington, , 2008 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication DataBallard, Ted. Battle of Antietam / by Ted Ballard. p. cm. (Staff ride guide) 1. Antietam , Battle of, Md., 1862. 2. Antietam National Battlefield (Md.) Guidebooks. I. Title. II. Series. 2006 336 dc222006012153 Cover: Battle of Antietam , Thure de ThulstrupFirst Printed 2006 CMH Pub 35 3 1iiiForewordThe Army has long used the staff ride as a tool for pro-fessional development, conveying the lessons of the past to contemporary soldiers.

2 In 1906 Maj. Eben Swift took twelve of-ficer students from Fort Leavenworth s General Service and Staff School to the Chickamauga battlefield on the Army s first of-ficial staff ride. Since that time Army educators have employed the staff ride to provide Army officers with a better understand-ing of a past military operation, of the vagaries of war, and of military planning. It can also serve to enliven a unit s esprit de corps a constant objective in peacetime or support the Army s initiatives, the Center is publish-ing staff ride guides such as this one on the Battle of Antie-tam.

3 This account is drawn principally from contemporary and after-action reports, as well as from reminiscences of partici-pants, both officers and enlisted Battle of Antietam provides important lessons in com-mand and control, leadership, and unit training. This small vol-ume should be a welcome training aid for those undertaking an Antietam staff ride and valuable reading for those interested in the Civil War and in the history of the military , JOHN S. BROWN15 September 2005 Brigadier General, USA (Ret.) Chief of Military HistoryivThe AuThorTed Ballard was a historian with the Army Center of Military History from 1980 2004 and a part of the Center s staff ride program since 1986.

4 Battle of Antietam joins his other battle-field guides to Ball s Bluff and First and Second Bull Run. He was a contributor to the Center s publication The Story of the Non-commissioned Officer Corps; the author of Rhineland, a brochure in the Center s series commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of World War II; and a contributor to the Army Training and Doctrine Command publication American Military Heritage and to the Virginia Army National Guard publication The Tradition Continues: A History of the Virginia National Guard, 1607 1985.

5 VPreFAceThe Battle of Antietam has been called the bloodiest single day in American History. By the end of the evening, 17 Septem-ber 1862, an estimated 4,000 American soldiers had been killed and over 18,000 wounded in and around the small farming com-munity of Sharpsburg, Maryland. Emory Upton, then a captain with the Union artillery battery, later wrote, I have heard of the dead lying in heaps, but never saw it till this battle. Whole ranks fell together. The battle had been a day of confusion, tactical blunders, individual heroics, and the effects of just plain luck.

6 It brought to an end a Confederate campaign to liberate the border state of Maryland and possibly to take the war into Pennsylvania. A little more than one hundred and forty years later, the Antietam battlefield is one of the best-preserved Civil War battlefields in the National Park is ideal for a staff ride, since a continuing goal of the National Park Service is to maintain the site in the condition in which it was on the day of the battle. The purpose of any staff ride is to learn from the past by analyzing the battle through the eyes of the men who were there, both leaders and rank-and-file soldiers.

7 Antietam offers many lessons in command and con-trol, communications, intelligence, weapons technology versus tactics, and the ever-present confusion, or fog of battle. We hope that these lessons will allow us to gain insights into deci-sion-making and the human condition during persons assisted in the creation of this staff ride guide. At the Army Center of Military History, Katherine Epstein edited the manuscript, Sherry Dowdy turned sketch maps into finished products, and Henrietta Snowden designed the final guide.

8 Thanks also to Paul Chiles, Ted Alexander, Keith Snyder, and Brian Baracz, staff historians at the Antietam Na-tional Battlefield, who took time out from their busy schedules to review the manuscript for historical the narrative, the names of Confederate personnel and units appear in italic type, Union personnel and units in regular type. Any errors that remain in the text are the sole responsibil-ity of the , TED BALLARD4 May 2006viconTenTsPageAntietam: An Overview .. 3 Prelude to the Battle .. 3 The Battle.

9 22 Summary.. 45 Further Readings .. 47 Chronology.. 48 Order of Battle, 17 September 1862 .. 54 Casualties.. 75 Organization .. 77 Tactics.. 79 Small Arms .. 81 Artillery.. 83 Artillery Projectiles .. 86 Logistics.. Army Bureau System.. 89 Supply Operations .. 90 Selected Biographical Sketches.. 93 Union Officers .. 93 Confederate Officers .. 99 Suggested Stops.. 105 Maps No. 1. Invasion of Maryland and Union Response,3 13 September 1862.. 5 2. Confederate Movements per Special Orders 191,10 13 September 1862.

10 10 3. Battle of south Mountain, 14 September 1862 .. 14 4. Confederate Situation: Afternoon, 15 September 1862 .. 16 5. Battlefield Situation, 1530 1600, 16 September 1862.. 20 6. Hooker s Attack, 0600 0630, 17 September 1862 .. 23 7. Hood s Attack, 0700 0730, 17 September 1862 .. 27 8. Sumner s Attack, 0900, 17 September 1862 .. 29 9. Sedgwick s Retreat, 0930, 17 September 1862 .. 31 10. French s Attack, 0930 1000, 17 September1862.. 33 11. Richardson s Attack, 1000 1030, 17 September 1862.