Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - The Battle of Antietam

Starting point is 00:00:00 September 17, 1862 was the bloodiest day in the history of the United States. In just 12 hours, 22,726 people were killed, wounded, or went missing just outside of Sharpsburg, Maryland in one of the largest battles of the U.S. Civil War. Despite the battle ending in a draw, the Union's ability to hold off the Confederates was a major strategic victory, with significant political ramifications that helped shift the entire course of the war. Learn more about the Battle of Antietam on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Hey y'all, it's Kelly Clarkson with Wayfair. Ever order furniture online and wonder what if? Like, what if it doesn't hold up? That sofa was four days old. You should have ordered from Wayfair.

Starting point is 00:00:57 With Wayfair, there's no what if. Just style you love and quality you can trust. Visit Wayfair.cair, every style, every home. Welcome to the I Can't Sleep podcast with Benjamin Boster. If you're tired of sleepless nights. You'll love the I Can't Sleep podcast. I help quiet your mind by reading random articles from across the web to bore you to sleep with my soothing voice. Each episode provides enough interesting content to hold your attention, and then your mind lets you drift off. Find it wherever you get your podcasts. That's I Can't Sleep with Benjamin Boster. In the late summer of The Civil War appeared to be going increasingly well for the Confederacy in the Eastern Theater. Earlier that year, Union Major General George B. McClellan had launched the Peninsula campaign,

Starting point is 00:02:14 attempting to capture Richmond by advancing up the Virginia Peninsula. McClellan came close to the Confederate capital, but Robert E. Lee, who assumed command of what became the Army of Northern Virginia in June, drove him away during the Seven Days battle. Lee then turned north against Major General John Pope's newly created Army of Virginia. At the second Battle of Bull Run fought August 28th through the 30th, Lee inflicted another serious defeat on the Union. The Confederates now had the initiative. Lee believed that there were several reasons to carry the war north into Maryland.

Starting point is 00:02:49 North Virginia had been ravaged by months of campaigning, and moving into Maryland would allow Virginia farm some respite, while Confederate forces obtained food and supplies from Northern Territory. An invasion could also threaten Baltimore, Washington, and perhaps Pennsylvania. There were political objectives as well. Maryland was a slave state that had remained in the Union, and Confederate leaders hoped that Confederate troops might track Marylanders who were sympathetic to secession.

Starting point is 00:03:19 Lee thought that Marylanders would welcome the Confederate Army. His belief was reasonable given the state's previous reactions towards President Lincoln. He specifically felt that the Baltimore riots in 1861 and the fact that Lincoln had to travel through Baltimore in disguise for his inauguration were evidence of Southern sympathy. But the welcome was much colder than expected. By 1862, many people in Maryland had changed their tune and started to support the Union. This meant that instead of giving the Confederate armies a warm welcome, the citizens mostly stayed inside or just watched the army pass by. More important than their reception, a dramatic Confederate victory on northern soil might strengthen

Starting point is 00:04:01 peace advocates in the north and encourage Britain or France to recognize the Confederacy diplomatically. The stakes were therefore far greater than just the control of a few miles of Maryland countryside. Beginning in early September, approximately 40 to 50,000 Confederate soldiers crossed the Potomac River into the state of Maryland. Lee concentrated much of his army near France. Frederick, Maryland, but an important problem soon emerged behind him. The Union garrison at Harper's Ferry, located where the Shenandoah River met the Potomac, remained in Confederate lines of communication. Lee could not safely continue north while

Starting point is 00:04:41 thousands of Union troops occupied the town. Therefore, he made a dangerous decision. He divided his already relatively small army. On September 9th, Lee issued Special Order's Number 191, instructing different portions of the Army of Northern Virginia to move in separate directions. Thomas Stonewall Jackson and other Confederate forces would converge on Harper's Ferry, while other commanders guarded mountain passes and supply routes. Lee expected the separate portions of his army to reunite afterwards. Divining an army in enemy territory was risky, but Lee had repeatedly demonstrated a willingness to accept such risks.

Starting point is 00:05:22 By splitting the troops, Lee believed that he could better defend, his supply and communication lines, allowing his invasion of the north to proceed more smoothly. Harper's Ferry was so important because it was home to a crucial Union garrison, and by capturing it, Lee could replenish supplies and secure his supply line. On September 13th, something happened that was completely out of the blue. Union soldiers from the 27th Indiana Infantry were resting near Frederick when they discovered an envelope containing three cigars wrapped in a piece of paper. The paper turned out to be a copy of Special Orders No. 191.

Starting point is 00:06:01 The document revealed the disposition and movements of Lee's divided army. Corporal Barton W. Mitchell is usually credited with physically finding the orders, although the exact circumstances have generated considerable historical debate. Regardless, the document eventually reached General McClellan. For a commander who was famous for believing that Confederate armies were much larger than they really were, the discovery was an extraordinary intelligence coup. McClellan suddenly possessed information that commanders almost never receive, a detailed description of the enemy's operational movements while the enemy army was divided.

Starting point is 00:06:42 McClellan reportedly recognized the opportunity immediately. Between Frederick in the area around Sharpsburg lies South Mountain, an extension of the Blue Ridge Mountains. To reach Lee, McClellan's army of the Potomac had to force its way through mountain gaps guarded by Confederate troops. On September 14th, Union and Confederate soldiers fought at several passes, including Turner's Gap, Fox Gap, and Crampton's Gap. The Union forces eventually broke through. At Crampton Gap, the Union's 6th Corps overwhelmed Confederate defenders and entered Pleasant Valley. Across the day's fighting, Union losses were roughly 2,300, while Confederate Losses, losses exceeded 4,000. Given his losses, General Lee briefly considered abandoning the entire campaign.

Starting point is 00:07:30 Instead, he chose to make a stand near Sharpsburg, a small Maryland town just east of the Potomac River. Meanwhile, Stonewall Jackson was completing the Confederate operations against Harper's Ferry. The union position at Harper's Ferry was dominated by surrounding heights. Confederate artillery positions that were stationed on those heights made the government. Garrison's position untenable. On September 15th, the Union Garrison surrendered. More than 12,000 Union soldiers became prisoners in one of the largest Union surrenders of the war. Jackson then hurried most of his forces towards Lee at Sharpsburg, and this development was crucial, because without Jackson's reinforcements, Lee might have been unable to remain in Maryland. Lee positioned the Army of

Starting point is 00:08:20 northern Virginia on high ground immediately west of Antietam Creek, with Sharpsburg behind him and the Potomac River further west. It was a dangerous position because retreat depended largely upon crossing the Potomac. But it also offered advantages. The creek itself was a strong natural barrier because it was deep and fast moving. Any army trying to cross had to use one of three bridges, making the spot easy to defend. Lee also joined up with Jackson's men, which nearly doubled his forces. But still, the Confederates were outnumbered with only 30,000 men against 53,000 Union troops. On the afternoon of September 16th, McClellan made the first move. He sent General Joseph Hooker's troops across the creek to find the Confederate left flank.

Starting point is 00:09:09 Hooker's men were intercepted around dusk and both sides skirmished until nightfall. The main battle began the next morning, September 17th, and lasted 12 hours. McClellan realized that attacking Lee's center would fail, so he chose to attack the flanks first. General Hooker took his Union troops and launched an assault against the Confederate left flank, pushing South to gain the high ground. The attack lasted for roughly two and a half hours. Ultimately, the initial attack ended when the Confederates ran out of additional reinforcements, causing them to fall back. This allowed the Union to secure the high ground advantage. A group led by General John Sedgwick attacked the other Confederate flank.

Starting point is 00:09:53 The Union soldiers didn't know that two Confederate divisions were waiting there, those being the men from the Harper's Ferry attack. The surprise caused heavy union losses and forced them to retreat. Another group of Union soldiers was caught up elsewhere. Some soldiers got caught fighting in a sunken road. It was a natural trench that had been worn down from years of agricultural work. This allowed 2,600 Confederate soldiers to defend the position against 10,000 Union soldiers for hours. The Sunken Road at Antietam became known as the Bloody Lane, because 5,000 soldiers died along its 800 yards.

Starting point is 00:10:33 While Union soldiers fought at the Sunken Road, a group led by General Ambrose Burnside attacked the Confederate Right. Burnside and his men captured a key bridge and got into position to attack the weakened Confederate right flank. flank. After regrouping, Burnside launched an attack that pushed the Confederates out. However, Burnside's group couldn't finish off the Confederates because Lee's reinforcements arrived just in time. Even with heavy attacks, McClellan and the Union Army couldn't break through the Confederate defenses to attack the center. And as a result, many Union soldiers didn't even take part in the fighting, neutering the Union's numerical advantage. The Confederates managed to hold most of their ground until nightfall.

Starting point is 00:11:19 When the battle ended, the scene was horrific. Thousands of bodies lay scattered across the ground. At the end of the day, there were an estimated 23,000 casualties on both sides, and neither side was able to claim that they won a decisive battle. Local churches, homes, and barns became field hospitals, where people did their best to care for the wounded. After the main battle, McClellan and Lee fought small skirmishes on September 18th, and by the 19th, Lee saw that McClellan had stopped chasing him,

Starting point is 00:11:52 so he crossed the Potomac River back into Virginia. As Lee and his men retreated, McClellan sent General Fitzjohn Porter to follow them. However, Porter moved too cautiously and was pushed back at the Battle of Shepherds Town. President Lincoln was deeply frustrated that McClellan did not aggressively pursue the retreating confederates. Lee's army was exhausted and badly depleted as across the Potomac. A rapid pursuit might have inflicted further damage, but instead McClellan remained cautious. His continuing reluctance to move eventually exhausted Lincoln's patience. On November 5, 1862, Lincoln removed McClellan from command of the Army of the Potomac.

Starting point is 00:12:36 Ambrose Burnside replaced him, and within weeks, Burnside would lead the Union Army to a disaster at the Battle of Fredericksburg. Technically, the Battle of Antietam was a draw, but President Lincoln in the Union called it a strategic victory because it stopped the South from invading further and slowed their momentum. The greatest consequence of Antietam may have had relatively little to do with the battlefield itself. For months, Abraham Lincoln had been moving towards emancipation as a war policy.

Starting point is 00:13:09 By the summer of 1862, he had prepared a proclamation. declaresing enslaved people in Confederate control territory free. But Secretary of State William Seward advised Lincoln not to announce it following a series of Union military defeats. Doing so could make emancipation appear to be a desperate measure taken by a government losing the war. Lincoln waited for a military success, and Antietam provided it. Five days after the battle, on September 22nd, 1862, President Lincoln issued the preliminary emancipation proclamation. It announced that on January 1, 1863, enslaved people in the states or portion of states still in rebellion against the United States

Starting point is 00:13:54 would be declared free. This also affected European recognition of the Confederacy. Both France and Britain had strong economic ties to the American South, particularly through cotton, but slavery was deeply unpopular amongst large parts of the British public. Once the Union openly linked its war effort to emancipation, diplomatic recognition of the Confederacy became much more politically difficult. A Confederate victory in Maryland might have strengthened the case for European intervention, but instead, Antietam weakened it. Antietam also changed the way Americans perceived warfare.

Starting point is 00:14:33 Photographer Alexander Gardner, working for Matthew Brady's photographic company, arrived on the battlefield shortly after the fighting. Gardner photographed dead soldiers where they had fallen. These were not romantic paintings of heroic charges. They were corpses. Gardner's photographs were subsequently exhibited at Brady's Gallery in New York City. For Americans accustomed to newspaper illustrations and idealized depictions of warfare, the images were shocking. The Battle of Antietam was a battle without a clear tactical victor, yet its consequences were enormous. Lee's first invasion of the North had been stopped,

Starting point is 00:15:14 but McClellan had allowed the Army of Northern Virginia to escape and fight another day. The price was nearly 23,000 casualties in just 12 hours of combat, making September 17, 1862, the single bloodiest day in American history. The executive producer of Everything Everywhere Daily is Charles Daniel. The associate producers are Austin Otkin and Cameron Kiefer. Research and writing

Starting point is 00:15:42 for this episode was provided by Olivia Ash. My big thanks go to everyone who supports a show over on Patreon. Your support helps make this podcast possible. And I also want to remind everyone about the community groups on Facebook and Discord. This is where everything happens that's outside of the show. As always, if you leave a review on any major podcast app or in the above community groups, you too can have it read on the show.

Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - The Battle of Antietam

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