BGuthrie Photos: MD -- Antietam Natl Battlefield -- Middle Bridge (Sunken Road)

MD -- Antietam Natl Battlefield -- Middle Bridge (Sunken Road):

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[1] ANTIMI_120303_004.JPG	[2] ANTIMI_120303_011.JPG	[3] ANTIMI_120303_013.JPG
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[28] ANTIMI_120303_135.JPG	[29] ANTIMI_120303_146.JPG

Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. ANTIMI_120303_084.JPG: A Simple Farm Lane Changed Forever During the early hours of the battle, Col. John Brown Gordon promised Robert E. Lee, "These men are going to stay here, General, till the sun goes down or victory is won." The Confederate troops that Gordon commanded were part of a well protected line of over 2,200 men hunkered down behind piled-up fence rails in this well worn sunken road. When the Federal attacks shifted south at approximately 9:30 a.m., the Confederates held their fire until the last possible second. Then, as Gordon remembered, "My rifles flamed and roared in the Federals' faces like a blinding blaze of lightning...the entire line, with few exceptions, went down in the consuming blast." For more than three hours thousands of men blazed away at each other at point-blank range. Eventually the overwhelming Union numbers and confusion in the Confederate ranks forced the defenders back. When the fighting subsided, 5,500 soldiers lay dead or wounded on the field and in the road. That number included Col. Gordon, who had been hit five different times. After the deadly struggle for this sunken road, soldiers who fought here described it as the "road of death" and a "ghastly flooring." From that day forward, the road has been known as Bloody Lane. Col. John Gordon (left) survived his five wounds at Antietam. He fought for the Confederacy for the rest of the war. Later he was Governor of Georgia and a U.S. Senator. West Pointer and Confederate division commander, Gen. Daniel Harvey Hill (right), commanded the soldiers who fought in the Sunken Road. Union soldiers captured this sword from Capt. Edwin Osborne, 4th North Carolina Infantry. A soldier in his unit wrote how at Antietam "the roar of musketry was incessant... soon Capt. Marsh was mortally wounded - Capt. Osborne was wounded and borne from the field. One by one the other company officers fell, either killed or wounded until 2Lt. Weaver was in command of the handful of men who were left, and then he was killed bearing the colors of the regiment in his hand."
2. ANTIMI_120303_086.JPG: Heaps Upon Heaps Were There in Death's Embrace Confederate Soldier in the 3rd Alabama Infantry (1) Within the first few hours of the battle, Gen. D.H. Hill sent more than half of his 5,000 soldiers to reinforce the northern end of the Confederate line. Of the two brigades that remained in the lane, one was commanded by Gen. Robert Rodes and the other by Gen. G.B. Anderson. Combined, they numbered about 2,200 men. (2) The first Federal soldiers to attack the Sunken Road were Gen. William H. French's troops. At approximately 9:30 a.m., these men crested the ridges just in front of the Sunken Road, and the bloody work began. French had close to 5,000 men under his command. (3) About 10:30 a.m. Gen. Israel Richardson's division, led by the famous Irish Brigade, advanced and added over 4,000 soldiers to a Union attack where "the missiles of death were flying so thickly." (4) Some 3,800 Confederate reinforcements, under Gen. Richard H. Anderson, attempted to strengthen the line in the road, but were unsuccessful. Near 1:00 p.m., Richardson's men broke through and captured the Sunken Road. As the Confederates retreated, one soldier remembered that "the minnie balls, shot and shell rained upon us from every direction except the rear." Some of the Federal troops were able to continue south to the Piper Farm, but were driven back by a desperate Confederate stand. When the fighting ended, over 5,000 soldiers had been killed or wounded. Neither side gained a decisive advantage. During the fighting around the Sunken Road, two generals fell mortally wounded. Confederate Gen. George B. Anderson was shot in the ankle and died from infection a month after the battle. After the Sunken Road had fallen, Union Gen. Israel Richardson was hit by a fragment of an artillery shell. He died at the Pry House in early November 1862. Battle for a Farm Lane Approximate Time of Action: 9:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Approximate Number of Soldiers engaged Union 10,000 Confederate 3,000 Total 13,000 Approximate Number of Casualties for Each Army Union Army of the Potomac 2,900 killed, wounded, missing Confederate Army of Northern Virginia 2,500 killed, wounded, missing
3. ANTIMI_120303_134.JPG: War Department Observation Tower This tower was built by the War Department in 1896 as part of the early development efforts by the U.S. military to create an open-air classroom at Antietam. The War Department also placed cannon, built roads and fences. They interviewed Antietam veterans and created over 200 detailed battle tablets like the ones here at the tower. The War Department established five National Military Parks in the 1890s - Antietam, Gettysburg, Chickamauga-Chattanooga, Shiloh, and Vicksburg. The five parks were transferred to the National Park Service in 1933 in an effort to consolidate public lands.
4. ANTIMI_120303_146.JPG: The Pry House, where McClelland had his headquarters, is in the distance
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