Showing results for "Voices of the Maryland Campaign"
From The ECW Archives: Voices of the Maryland Campaign
Last year ECW author Kevin Pawlak shared an impressive series which highlighted primary sources from the Maryland Campaign of 1862. Running from September 1-20, the collections gives a “boots on the ground” perspective into the campaign and Battle of Antietam. Want to check it out for yourself since we’re in the campaign’s anniversary dates and approaching […]
Read more...Voices of the Maryland Campaign: September 20, 1862
The day began with Confederate soldiers, led by A.P. Hill’s Division, advancing back to Boteler’s Ford downstream from Shepherdstown, ordered there because of the alarm Pendleton created the previous night that crossing Federals captured all of his 44 guns (in reality, the Federals captured four). Hill’s Confederates ran into two Union brigades conducting a reconnaissance […]
Read more...Voices of the Maryland Campaign: September 19, 1862
As the darkness descended on September 18, the Army of Northern Virginia began to stir, using its cover to slip away, back across the Potomac River. It brought as many of its wounded and supplies with it as it could, but ultimately some had to be left behind. This movement, however, was not the end […]
Read more...Voices of the Maryland Campaign: September 18, 1862
The detritus of war littered the fields, woodlots, and roadways around Sharpsburg. Both armies, winded from the desperate fighting of America’s bloodiest day, collected themselves, began the process of burying their dead and removing their wounded, and awaited whatever might come next. For many, the scenes of the battlefield proved unnerving. Informal truces broke out […]
Read more...Voices of the Maryland Campaign: September 17, 1862
The flash of musketry fire illuminated the dark landscape around the sleepy town of Sharpsburg while the few visible stars still hovered in the early morning sky. With each passing moment, as the sun rose higher behind the peaks of South Mountain, the tension built. Men far from home, reposed from their few hours of […]
Read more...Voices of the Maryland Campaign: September 16, 1862
All of the eyes watching the campaign in Maryland now focused in on the two armies facing off along the banks of Antietam Creek. As more time wore on from the last fight two days prior at South Mountain, more Union and Confederate soldiers gathered with their respective armies and shook out into their battle […]
Read more...Voices of the Maryland Campaign: September 15, 1862
As the heavy morning fog lifted, the trapped Federal garrison, helplessly huddled in its defenses, looked around and saw Confederates everywhere–in front, on either side and behind them. When Mother Nature dissipated and exposed the Union soldiers, the cordon of Confederate artillery opened up and pounded the garrison into surrender. As garrison commander Dixon Miles […]
Read more...Voices of the Maryland Campaign: September 14, 1862
From 9 a.m. until the sun set behind the hills, the day-long Battle of South Mountain raged. Federal troops first struck up the mountain at Fox’s Gap. By the end of 13 hours of fighting, the motley assortment of Confederate units assigned to defend the gap barely held on, but their position seemed untenable. The […]
Read more...