The Cornfield Trail September Harvest of Death 1 Introduction The Cornfield Trail starts at Auto plant crops and pasture animals Tour Stop 2. The trail is 1.6 miles in that help the park maintain the rural length and takes approximately sixty appearance of the landscape. to ninety minutes to complete. The trail is gently rolling, but the surface You will be hiking most of the area can be slightly uneven, so good where the first three hours of battle walking shoes are recommended. took place. More than 25,000 men in blue and gray struggled mightily Please stay on the trail and for control of this northern end of remember you are in an agricultural the field. As many as 8,000 men area. There are groundhog holes were killed or wounded from dawn and poison ivy, please watch your until 9:00 a.m. during two major footing. Please note that the actual Union attacks and a Confederate Cornfield is not always planted in counterattack. corn. The National Park Service issues permits to local farmers who 2 Battle Map The map below is based on the historic map of the battlefield. In the back of this trail guide there is a table of organization for the primary units involved in the Cornfield and a timeline of the battle action. 3 Stop 1 - Parking area at Auto Tour Stop 2 The night before the battle You will be following in the approximately 15,000 soldiers footsteps of Hooker's men for the of the Union 1st Corps and the majority of this hike. One soldier 12th Corps crossed over Antietam in his command remembered, Creek and moved into position "We were astir at the first streaks of just north and east of you. General dawn. No reveille call this morning. George McClellan was the Union Too close to the enemy. Nor was Commander. His plan was to have one needed to arouse us. A simple these troops attack Confederate call of a sergeant or corporal and General Robert E. Lee's northern or every man was instantly awake and left flank early the next morning. alert. All realized that there was ugly business and plenty of it just ahead." Wednesday morning, September 17th, the Battle of Antietam began as Major General Joseph Hooker's 1st Corps moved south. His objective was high ground about one mile south (where the visitor center is today); halfway there is the infamous "Cornfield." Commander of the Union 1st Corps Major General Joseph Hooker The trail begins across from the parking lot and heads south for about 75 yards. 4 Stop 2 - Out of the Woods and Into The Fire You have just moved through what marching a few yards a shell burst was a small woodlot known as the "over our heads; then another; then a North Woods. Over the years local percussion shell struck and exploded farmers used the wood for fences in the very center of the moving and fire wood. Our mission at this mass of men. It killed two men and National Battlefield is to restore wounded eleven...Thus opened the landscape to look as closely the first firing of the great battle of as possible to how it looked the Antietam." day of the battle. One way we are accomplishing this is by re-planting Much of this fire came from a the historic woodlots. The Park cleared hilltop just over a Yi mile Staff and thousands of volunteers to the west (your right) known as have planted trees in this and other Nicodemus Heights. More than areas of the park. a dozen Southern cannon on this far end of Lee's battle line poured Around 5:45 a.m. Hooker's men flanking or enfilading fire into moved out, their battle lines Hooker's men as they moved out of extending nearly a quarter mile on the North Woods. Union artillery either side of you. After marching officer Captain Albert Monroe through the North Woods and into described Nicodemus Heights as the open fields beyond, the Union "an active volcano, belching forth ranks were met with devastating flame and smoke." artillery fire from Confederate guns. Major Rufus Dawes, commander of the 6th Wisconsin wrote that after At this point the trail turns left (east) for about a hundred yards, then turn right and continue south on the edge of the East Woods to the Cornfield. 5 Stop 3 - Tricky Terrain and a Complicated Advance For the next 100 yards you will be Then three 1st Corps brigades walking along the edge of the East moved through this area. One Woods. The woodlot went farther commander was wounded and south than it does today. This is another panicked and ran away, another area that will be re-planted. delaying two of the brigades. This All of the woodlots were important meant that Gen. Abrham Duryea's as staging and rallying areas for Brigade of about 1,000 men both sides. Something you should advanced alone into the Cornfield look for on this hike and elsewhere at about 6:00 a.m. The two delayed on the battlefield is the subtle but units finally joined them, but in deceptive terrain. thirty lonely minutes almost half of Duryea's men would be killed or As one soldier remembered, "One wounded. who has participated in battle knows how much and how little can been seen - the smoke, the trees, the varying formations of the ground limit the vision. The deafening noise making orders hard to be understood. The ghastly work of shot and shell, the shrieking of some of the wounded...all tend to limit the knowledge of battle outside of a few yards on either side." At first light, Hooker ordered two artillery batteries to move to the high ground to your right (west) and fire point blank at the Confederates soldiers in the Cornfield. Their explosive shells were set to burst just 1/4 seconds after leaving the gun. This deadly fire helped clear the way for Hooker's infantry attacks that followed. Continue south along the East Woods to the north-east corner of the Cornfield 6 Stop 4 - Corner Of Death At Antietam An interesting facet of this battle is Harry Hays' Louisiana Brigade. how the most numerous casualties During the ensuing struggle, the often took place along the edges of men from Massachusetts lost 224 the battlefield landscape. Borders killed and wounded out of 334 like this corner; or the southern engaged or 67% casualties. This edge of the Cornfield; along the was the highest percentage of loss Hagerstown Turnpike; or in the for any Union regiment that terrible Sunken Road were deadly. day. Numerous other units of the 1st Corps advanced past and fought near this spot. Later that morning the Union 12th Corps, commanded by Gen. Joseph Mansfield, moved through the East Woods. General Mansfield, in his first major field command, was mortally wounded You are walking in the footsteps of in the advance. Col. Eugene Powell the 12th Massachusetts. Recruited of the 12th Corps, whose Ohio in the Boston area, these men came regiment fought here, wrote, "The from the heart of New England. sight at the fence (north Cornfield They advanced south along the fence) where the enemy was standing East Woods, "Through the field to when we gave our first fire was awful the heavy fence that bordered the beyond description, dead men were memorable cornfield where later in literally piled upon and across each the day the dead were literally piled other." up. Just then a shell struck the fence and exploded right in the midst of The dead men described were us. It seemed for a moment that all Confederates who started the day was chaos, as dust, splinters, and over a half-mile to the south at the smoke filled the air; but it staggered Sunken Road. Lee ordered these us for only an instant, and rubbing men north toward the havoc in the our eyes, we saw that most of us were corn. They pushed all the way to still in fighting trim. Onward to the this corner where met by the full Cornfield." weight of the 12th Corps and driven back. The 12th Massachusetts continued through the Cornfield to the other side where they collided with Gen. Here the trail turns right (west) and follows the northern boundary of the Cornfield 7 Stop 5 - The Most Sacred Ground - The Cornfield You are about to enter the little church, the Dunkard church. Cornfield. Take a moment to As we appeared at the edge of the reflect on the dreadful carnage corn, a long line of men in butternut that occurred here, where farmers, and gray rose up from the ground. laborers and shopkeepers gave Simultaneously, the hostile battle lines up their hopes, their dreams and opened a tremendous fire upon each futures for a cause that both sides other. Men I cannot say fell; they believed was right. were knocked out of the ranks by the dozens." You will now be walking in the footsteps of the Iron Brigade who Later that morning, Confederate pushed through this field at about soldiers under the command 6:30 a.m. These were all mid- of Gen. John Bell Hood western boys from Wisconsin counterattacked back through the and Indiana. Major Rufus Dawes, corn all the way to this northern elevated into command of the edge. All morning soldiers attacked 6th Wisconsin Infantry when around and through this field. By his commander was wounded, 9:00 a.m. the Cornfield changed describes their advance into the hands too many times to count.