- Joined
- Feb 23, 2013
- Location
- East Texas
First Phase: Morning - Hooker and Mansfield Attack
Union monuments along Mansfield Avenue near the Poffenberger Farm north of the Cornfield.
After maneuvering into position on the afternoon and evening of September 16, 1862, the Union I Corps commanded by Maj. Gen. Joseph "Fighting Joe" Hooker began the battle the next morning in the pre-dawn darkness. Successive uncoordinated attacks were made by each of his four divisions whose numbers finally pushed Stonewall Jackson's Confederate defenders south of what became known as the Bloody Cornfield or simply the Cornfield.
Monument to one of the most colorful New York State Volunteer units, the Fourteenth Brooklyn Chasseurs, distinctive in their red kepis and chasseur pantaloons.
The fight for the Cornfield was much like that of the Wheatfield at Gettysburg the following year, as it drew units endlessly into its vortex where they were successively "chewed up and spit out". Two such units memorialized above and below on either side of Mansfield Avenue were the Union Fourteenth Brooklyn and the famous Texas Brigade, which suffered terrible losses, the 1st Texas suffering the highest regimental percentage loss of any unit in the entire war, 82%.
The Texas State Monument at Antietam seen above and below is devoted only to the exploits of the regiments in the Texas Brigade, the only units from the state in Lee's army. These views are looking south toward Bloody Lane in the middle distance and in the direction from which Confederate counterattacks came throughout the morning as more units entered the battle.
It will be noted that the tablets at Antietam like this one for Hood's Division, unlike those at Western battlefields like Shiloh, Vicksburg, and Chickamauga-Chattanooga, are neither color-coded nor oriented in the direction the units faced during the battle. Instead, they were placed for convenience to be read from the park roads that criss-cross the still-agricultural landscape. All share this same white-on-black combination and must be at least scanned to determine whether they describe Federal or Confederate units and actions.
Dunker Church and West Woods
The tiny Dunker Church above served all morning as the objective for Federal attacks, standing in its stark whiteness on the horizon. By mid-morning, however, Fighting Joe had received a painful wound in the foot and his four divisions that had been committed piecemeal were now largely fought-out. Into the void came the fresh Union XII Corps of Maj. Gen. Joseph K. F. Mansefield, only two divisions strong. Though almost sixty, Mansfield had spent his army career as a bureaucrat in Washington and had never commanded troops in battle. At the outset he rode forward to prevent what he thought was an incident of friendly fire at the edge of the North Woods and received a bullet in the stomach for his trouble. Following that incident, his corps lost all cohesion and its units fought independently.
The Dunker Church remained the focus of Union attacks, however, and George S. Greene's division of the XII Corps managed to advance and remain near it for an hour or more before withdrawing for lack of support. Its interior soon became splotched with blood when it became inevetably a field hospital. Surviving the battle, it was blown down by a windstorm in the 1920's and reconstructed using original materials in time for the centennial of the battle in 1962.
Following the exhaustion of Hooker's and Mansfield's corps, another soon entered the fray when John Sedgewick's division of Maj. Gen. Edwin V. Sumner's II Corps arrived. Sumner directed Sedgewick into the West Woods where they were met by a stinging attack from two Confederate divisions that had just come up, those of Lafayette McLaws and John G. Walker. Caught in a crossfire, Sedgewick was wounded seriously and his division savaged. The monument above is where Confederate Brig. Gen. William Starke of Louisiana was mortally wounded leading his brigade in this fight.
Next, the fight for Bloody Lane
After maneuvering into position on the afternoon and evening of September 16, 1862, the Union I Corps commanded by Maj. Gen. Joseph "Fighting Joe" Hooker began the battle the next morning in the pre-dawn darkness. Successive uncoordinated attacks were made by each of his four divisions whose numbers finally pushed Stonewall Jackson's Confederate defenders south of what became known as the Bloody Cornfield or simply the Cornfield.
The fight for the Cornfield was much like that of the Wheatfield at Gettysburg the following year, as it drew units endlessly into its vortex where they were successively "chewed up and spit out". Two such units memorialized above and below on either side of Mansfield Avenue were the Union Fourteenth Brooklyn and the famous Texas Brigade, which suffered terrible losses, the 1st Texas suffering the highest regimental percentage loss of any unit in the entire war, 82%.
The Texas State Monument at Antietam seen above and below is devoted only to the exploits of the regiments in the Texas Brigade, the only units from the state in Lee's army. These views are looking south toward Bloody Lane in the middle distance and in the direction from which Confederate counterattacks came throughout the morning as more units entered the battle.
It will be noted that the tablets at Antietam like this one for Hood's Division, unlike those at Western battlefields like Shiloh, Vicksburg, and Chickamauga-Chattanooga, are neither color-coded nor oriented in the direction the units faced during the battle. Instead, they were placed for convenience to be read from the park roads that criss-cross the still-agricultural landscape. All share this same white-on-black combination and must be at least scanned to determine whether they describe Federal or Confederate units and actions.
Dunker Church and West Woods
The tiny Dunker Church above served all morning as the objective for Federal attacks, standing in its stark whiteness on the horizon. By mid-morning, however, Fighting Joe had received a painful wound in the foot and his four divisions that had been committed piecemeal were now largely fought-out. Into the void came the fresh Union XII Corps of Maj. Gen. Joseph K. F. Mansefield, only two divisions strong. Though almost sixty, Mansfield had spent his army career as a bureaucrat in Washington and had never commanded troops in battle. At the outset he rode forward to prevent what he thought was an incident of friendly fire at the edge of the North Woods and received a bullet in the stomach for his trouble. Following that incident, his corps lost all cohesion and its units fought independently.
The Dunker Church remained the focus of Union attacks, however, and George S. Greene's division of the XII Corps managed to advance and remain near it for an hour or more before withdrawing for lack of support. Its interior soon became splotched with blood when it became inevetably a field hospital. Surviving the battle, it was blown down by a windstorm in the 1920's and reconstructed using original materials in time for the centennial of the battle in 1962.
Following the exhaustion of Hooker's and Mansfield's corps, another soon entered the fray when John Sedgewick's division of Maj. Gen. Edwin V. Sumner's II Corps arrived. Sumner directed Sedgewick into the West Woods where they were met by a stinging attack from two Confederate divisions that had just come up, those of Lafayette McLaws and John G. Walker. Caught in a crossfire, Sedgewick was wounded seriously and his division savaged. The monument above is where Confederate Brig. Gen. William Starke of Louisiana was mortally wounded leading his brigade in this fight.
Next, the fight for Bloody Lane
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