Antietam Campaign

MARYLAND CIVIL WAR TRAILS How to Use this Map-Guide This guide depicts a 90-mile historic and scenic driving tour that follows the route taken during Robert E. Lee’s September 1862 Maryland Campaign. Information contained here and along the Trail tells stories that have been hidden deep within the landscape for 140 years. Follow the bugle trailblazer signs to waysides that explain the day-to-day stories of soldiers and civilians as thousands of men and boys marched toward their undeniable destiny. The Trail can be driven in one, two, or three days depending on traveler preference. Recreational activities such as hiking, biking, paddling, and horseback riding add a different yet powerful dimension to the driving experience. Amenities along the Trail include dining, lodging, shopping, and attractions which highlight Maryland’s important role in the Civil War. For more detailed travel information, stop by any Maryland Welcome Center, or local Visitor Center, or contact any of the organizations listed in this guide. For additional Civil War Trails information, visit www.civilwartrails.org. For more Maryland travel information, visit www.mdisfun.org. View west from South Mountain. Cover Photography: www.tadderphotography.com Photography: Cover Follow these signs to more than 1,000 Civil War sites. Monument to Civil War soldier at Antietam National Battlefield. HH LEE INVADES MARYLAND HH he Battle of Antietam on Septem- September 3, “The present seems to be the ber 17, 1862, the culmination of most propitious time since the commence- Gen. Robert E. Lee’s first inva- ment of the war for the Confederate Army to T sion of the North, was one of enter Maryland.... If it is ever desired to give five Confederate offensives conducted on material aid to Maryland and afford her an a 1,000-mile front that fall. As Lee’s Army opportunity of throwing off the oppression of Northern Virginia (about 40,000 men) to which she is now subject, this would seem marched across central and western Mary- the most favorable.” Surprisingly, Lee then land, other Confederate forces moved into wrote, “The army is not properly equipped Kentucky, northern Mississippi, and the for an invasion of an enemy’s territory. It Kanawha River valley of western Virginia. lacks much of the material of war, is feeble Never again during the war would so many in transportation, the animals being much Confederate armies be on the offensive at reduced, and the men are poorly provided the same time. with clothes, and in thousands of instances Lee’s invasion was the bloodiest are destitute of shoes. Still, we cannot and the most decisive of these incur- afford to be idle, and though weaker sions. Following his success at the than our opponents in men and mil- Second Battle of Manassas (Bull itary equipments, must endeavor Run), Lee wrote to Confederate President Jefferson Davis on (left) Gen. Robert E. Lee (below) The Confederate army crosses the Potomac River into Maryland. H H H LEE INVADES H LOST & FOUND MARYLAND to harass if we cannot destroy them. I am aware that the movement is attended with much risk, yet I do not consider success impossible, and shall endeavor to guard it from loss.” Meanwhile, less than 25 miles away, Union Gen. George B. McClellan was staging his Army of the Potomac, roughly 85,000 men. D.H. Hill’s copy of the Special Orders No. 191. While camped in Frederick, Mary- land, a few days later, Lee decided on fter crossing the Potomac a bold move. Because the 12,000-man River early in September Federal garrison at Harpers Ferry posed 1862, Confederate Gen. a threat to his lines of supply, communi- A Robert E. Lee reorganized cation, and retreat, Lee could not safely the Army of Northern Virginia into operate north of the Potomac River three separate wings. On September 9, without neutralizing it. Accordingly, at Frederick, Lee outlined his strategy he divided his army into four parts. He in Special Orders 191. He would divide directed Gen. Thomas J. “Stonewall” his army—send Gen. Stonewall Jack- Jackson to supervise the envelopment of son to attack Harpers Ferry and Gen. Harpers Ferry with three Confederate James Longstreet toward Boonsboro. columns numbering more than 25,000 Lee distributed the orders to his senior men. Lee assigned the newly arrived subordinates. division of Gen. D.H. Hill to guard A copy addressed to Gen. D.H. Turner’s Gap near Boonsboro. He later Hill got left behind, wrapped around ordered Gen. James Longstreet to lead three cigars, when the Confederates the rest of the army, about 10,000 strong, marched to South Mountain the next to Hagerstown, Maryland, near the day. On September 13, a Union soldier Mason-Dixon Line and prepare to enter found the bundle in Hill’s former camp Pennsylvania. and presumably enjoyed the cigars. All of this changed when a copy of The wrapper, read by another soldier, Lee’s plan (Special Orders No. 191) fell soon reached Gen. George B. McClel- into Union hands. McClellan’s army gave lan, who exclaimed that he held the chase and forced the Confederates into Confederate battle plan in his hands! a holding action in the South Mountain The lost order probably was found gaps. Lee gathered his army at Sharps- on the Hermitage or Best Farm. Hill burg and decided to make a stand north- forever after denied having received east of town on Sharpsburg ridge. Two or lost the “lost orders.” He produced days later the armies met in the bloodi- his own set, in Jackson’s handwriting, est one-day battle in U.S. history. as proof. HH WAR ON THE BORDER HH uring the Civil War, the Potomac River became the boundary between the United States of DAmerica and the Confederate States of America. Perhaps 500,000 Union and Confederate troops and their animals marched through and camped in the region, placing a tremendous strain on the environ- ment and economy. After the Battle of Antietam a soldier wrote, “few were the houses [near Sharpsburg] that had not been pierced by solid shot or shell.” Union Gen. George B. McClellan made the Pry family home his headquarters; damages to the farm and house exceeded $2,400 and included the loss of 900 bushels of wheat Sharpsburg’s Main Street, 1862, just a few days after and 20 acres of ripe corn. Pry, ruined by the the Battle of Antietam. occupation, eventually left Sharpsburg. After the Battle of Gettysburg, Gen. through one of the most fertile portions of Robert E. Lee’s army retreated to the rain- Washington County. Along these lines farms swollen Potomac and dug in between Downs - have been terribly devastated. Fences have ville and Hagerstown, Maryland. Several been destroyed, timber cut down, embank- actions occurred over two weeks at Hager- ments thrown up, ditches dug, wheat, corn, stown, Funkstown, Boonsboro, and Williams - and cloverfields destroyed, the whole pre- port. A writer reported that “the rebel line senting a scene of desolation and destruc- of entrenchment, as well as our own, which tion painful to behold. Some farmers esti- were hastily thrown up opposite to them, mate their losses at six, eight, and ten extend for a distance of twelve miles thousand dollars [while] others say they are entirely ruined.” Civilians under fire. Throughout the war, Confederate partisans mounted small raids along the border, and gangs of deserters from both sides roamed the region stealing horses and other livestock and committing mayhem. Besides property damage, civilians some- times suffered attacks on their persons. Confederate partisans on a raid to Sharps- burg early in 1863 shot and killed a local citizen, and during the summer of 1864, a drunken Union soldier accidentally shot and killed a young girl at Sandy Hook. HARPERS FERRY SOUTH MOUNTAIN hen Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee led the Army of Northern Vir- W ginia into Maryland early in Septem-ber 1862, he sought supplies and recruits to invade Pennsylvania. While he rested his men at Frederick, he hoped that the outnumbered Union Harpers Ferry, 1862. garrison at Harpers Ferry would flee and leave his lines of communication ent by Gen. Robert E. Lee to and transportation unhindered. When capture Harpers Ferry and the Federals stayed put, however, Lee secure Confederate lines of issued Special Orders No. 191 to divide Scommunication during the his army and send Stonewall Jackson Maryland invasion, Gen. Thomas J. with almost two thirds (6 of 9 divisions) “Stonewall” Jackson approached of its soldiers to capture Harpers Ferry. Harpers Ferry from three directions Lee and the rest of his army marched with 24,000 soldiers in mid-September over South Mountain, using it as a 1862. Jackson and 14,000 men swept screen to help keep Gen. George B. Union troops at Martinsburg into the McClellan’s pursuing Army of the Poto- Harpers Ferry trap. Gen. John G. mac at bay. But then the Federals found Walker’s 2,000-man division secured a dropped copy of Lee’s orders, and it Loudoun Heights, while Gen. Lafa yette became even more critical for the Con- McLaws climbed Maryland Heights on federates to hold the South Mountain September 13; the Federals there soon passes until Jackson completed his mis- withdrew to Harpers Ferry. sion and rejoined them. The day-long Jackson, atop School House battle on September 14, it turned out, Ridge, used the terrain effectively to gave them just time enough. position his artillery and troops. On the night of September 14, however, Franklin’s Corps storming Crampton’s Gap. 1,400 Union cavalrymen escaped across the Potomac River.

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