Video
Final Attack
Transcript
Hello everyone. My name is Mark Cheney. I'm a park Ranger here at Antietam National Battlefield. Today we're here at tour. Stop 9. The final attack now the ground we're standing on. This will witness the final hours of fighting on September 17th of 1862. After Union General Ambrose Burnside takes the lower bridge, he now has the daunting task of organizing his entire core on the western side of the Antietam Creek.
It takes nearly two hours for the divisions of the 9th chord to cross the Creek, resupply and organize fresh troops for the final advance towards Sharpsburg. By 3:00 PM, Burnside will have over 8000 troops and supporting artillery forming along this ridgeline.
With Sharpsburg in the Confederate line just 500 yards away, the advancing 9th core has some of the most difficult terrain to scale. The entire Confederate right flank is now in the hands of David R Jones and more than 2000 Confederate soldiers. With their own artillery support, the US line would start to advance through these fields behind me. Now, despite the high ground that the Confederate line controls, they're lined with, not hold without additional reinforcements. Captain John Dooley of the first Virginia remembers the Union assault quote, “Now they are at the last elevation of rising ground, and whenever a head is raised, we fire. Now they rise up and make a charge for our fence, hastily emptying our muskets into their line. We fled back through the cornfield.”
At around 4:00 PM, the Confederate line was starting to break and the Federals could see the town of Sharpsburg. It is at this moment that the last of Lee's reserves will arrive, Confederate General AP Hill and his light division. Despite being exhausted after marching nearly 17 miles from Harpers Ferry, they would slam into the exposed union, left flank and drive them back by 5:30. Burnside's men will fall back and regroup, but before another attack can be organized, the Sun will begin to set, bringing the battle to an end. That evening, over 23,000 union and Confederate soldiers lay dead or wounded on the fields of Sharpsburg.
Antietam remains the bloodiest day in Americas history. 23 thousand sons, husbands, brothers, uncles, nephews and families affected by this gruesome 12 hours of fighting. The next day, neither army would renew the battle. But the evening of the 18th, Lee would retreat across the Potomac, allowing General McClellan and President Lincoln to declare Antietam to be a Union victory.
This victory would allow President Lincoln to issue his preliminary Emancipation Proclamation stating that all persons held as slaves within any state or designated part of a state, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then thenceforward and forever free.
This document will forever change the history of our country and forever change the lives of nearly 4 million enslaved people. Despite the battle being over the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation signed the work at Antietam is still not over. Join us at our final tour stop and Team National Cemetery where we will talk about the dead of Antietam.
Description
A short video presentation on Tour Stop 10, The Final Attack.
Duration
3 minutes, 59 seconds
Credit
NPS - Mark Chaney
Date Created
05/15/2020
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