General Robert E. Lee had placed cannon on Nicodemus Heights to his left, the high ground in front of Dunker Church, the ridge just east of Sharpsburg (site of the National Cemetery), and on the heights overlooking the Lower Bridge. Infantry filled in the lines between these points, including a sunken lane less than a half mile long with worm fencing along both sides (later known as Bloody Lane). A handful of Georgia sharpshooters guarded the Lower Bridge (Burnside Bridge).
By the evening of the 16th, Gen. George McClellan had about 60,000 troops ready to attack--double the number available to Lee. The battle opened at a damp, murky dawn on the 17th when Union artillery on the bluffs beyond Antietam Creek began a murderous fire on Jackson's lines near the Dunker Church. [See Artillery for details about cannons used.]
 Miller's Cornfield--west edge (32K) |
 Miller's Cornfield--sign (29K) |
 Rebels preparing for battle--Antietam reenactment (63K) |
Miller's Cornfield
As the Federals marched toward Miller's Cornfield north of town, the Confederates rose up in the cornfield and fired on the advancing lines. McClellan responded by withdrawing his infantry and training cannon on the corn. "In the time I am writing," Hooker reported, "every stalk of corn in the northern and greater part of the field was cut as closely as could have been done with a knife, and the slain lay in rows precisely as they had stood in their ranks a few moments before."
Hooker's troops advanced again, driving the Confederates before them, and Jackson reported that his men were "exposed for near an hour to a terrific storm of shell, canister, and musketry." About 7 a.m. Jackson was reenforced and succeeded in driving the Federals back.
[Click image to view map.] An hour later Union troops under Gen. Joseph
Mansfield counterattacked and regained some of the lost ground. Less than
200 yards apart, the opposing lines fired lead into each other for a half
hour. "They stood and shot each other, until the lines melted away
like wax," reported a New York soldier, Isaac Hall. Fighting continued
back and forth over the 20-acre cornfield, with the field changing hands
15 times, according to some accounts.
 Dunker Church (28K) |
 Inside church--from front (20K) |
 View from Dunker Church --looking north (21K) |
 View from Dunker Church --looking southeast (24K) |
Then, in an effort to turn the Confederate left flank, Gen. John Sedgwick's division of Gen. Edwin V. Sumner's corps advanced into the West Woods. There Confederate troops arriving from other parts of the field struck Sedgwick's flank, killing or wounding nearly half of his division--about 2,255 men--within a quarter hour of point-blank fire.
During the three hours of battle, the Confederates had stopped two Federal corps and a division from another, totaling about 20,000 men. Approximately 10,000 men from both sides lay dead or wounded.
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