Final Attack Trail-Stop 6

Stop 6 - The End of the Line

You have walked to the extreme southern end of the battlefield and have completed a mile of the 1.7 mile trail. The stone wall below the majestic hackberry tree is the park boundary. You are beyond the 16th Connecticut, the 4th Rhode Island and southern flank of the Union army.

Once again, it was on this end of the field that A.P. Hill’s Confederate’s made their counterattack to support D. R. Jones’ division that was being pushed back to Sharpsburg. It was Brig. Gen. Maxcy Gregg’s Brigade that attacked right across this hill top and into the 4th RI and 16th CT. One of the men in Gregg’s command remembered, “Running rapidly forward through the corn, we stopped at the top of the hill and poured a galling fire into the fleeing foe. Many of them stopped in a little hollow in the corn at the foot of the hill, afraid to attempt the passage of the open slope beyond. Into them grouped here in a crouching disorderly line we poured volley after volley, doubtless with terrible execution.”

Divisional commanders D.R. Jones and A.P. Hill would not survive the war. Nor would the three Confederate brigade commanders who made this final attack at Sharpsburg.
 
Confederate Generals in the Final Attack
 
From here the trail turns north. You will be walking in the footsteps of BGen. Gregg’s Brigade as they attacked Burnside’s flank.
 

Last updated: February 24, 2021

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