The East Woods

The East Woods stand in the distance above the Cornfield

NPS Antietam / BBaracz

Quick Facts

Location:

Sharpsburg, MD

Amenities

1 listed

Historical/Interpretive Information/Exhibits

A small engagement took place in this area the night before the bat­tle. The fighting also opened here early on September 17 as Union and Confederate soldiers exchanged deadly musket volleys, vying to control these woods.

 

"The shells crashing through the trees and fluttering overhead as well as the musketry… all contributed to mark the time, and place, fixed in one's memory forever."
Diary of Sergeant Charles Broomhall, 124th Pennsylvania Infantry

The first infantry engagement at Antietam took place here during the early evening hours of September 16. As darkness fell, Federal soldiers from Hooker's First Corps clashed with Confederates under Stonewall Jackson. The opposing picket lines exchanged fire throughout the damp and dismal night.

Shortly before sunrise on September 17, First Corps soldiers advanced through the East Woods and engaged Confederates posted along Mumma Farm Lane behind you. During the next three hours the woodlot changed hands numerous times as both sides pushed reinforcements into the fray.

Finally, near 8:00 a.m., the Union Twelfth Corps drove the Confederates from this area for the last time that day. The Twelfth Corps soldiers had taken the woods, but they lost their commander Gen. Joseph K.F. Mansfield.

Gen. Joseph King Fenno Mansfield entered West Point age the age of fourteen, graduating 2nd in the Class of 1822. Fifty-nine years old at Antietam, one of Mansfield's men described him as "venerable, but not old; white haired, yet fresh and vigorous, his face showed that intelligent courage which a soldier admires." Confusion reigned in the East Woods as the Twelfth Corps advanced. Gen. Mansfield rode to the front telling his men to stop shooting, "You are firing into your own men!" He was wrong. Just then a Confederate bullet went through his chest. Carried to the rear through the "tornado of deadly missiles," Mansfield died within 24 hours. He was one of six generals killed at Antietam.

It was Confederate Gen. Alexander Lawton's soldiers who took the brunt of the initial Union attacks. At dawn, Lawton's Division of approximately 2,500 men were in the open ground south of the Cornfield and the East Woods. In the furious fighting across this ground, over 1,100 of Lawton's Confederates were killed or wounded. Lawton, educated at West Point and Harvard University, was also wounded. He survived the Civil War and became president of the American Bar Association in 1882. He was appointed minister to Austria in 1887, and died there in 1896.

Open Transcript 

Transcript

Hello, I'm Park Ranger Jess Rally and I am standing at Tour Stop #3, the East Woods. I'm currently in the very heart of the East Woods and it is here that the first shots of the Battle of Antietam were fired.

This ground was a scene of vicious fighting and changed hands multiple times throughout the 1st 4 Hours of the battle. The fighting in the East Woods did not end. However, with the end of the battle. After the war, many veterans returned. Fighting to preserve their memory, to tell their stories, and to place their monuments. And the fight continues today, as we work to protect our nation's battlefields.

Over the past several years, we have worked with several groups, including the American Battlefield Trust, the Safe, Historic Antietam Foundation and other groups to preserve, rehabilitate, interpret and make it accessible. 9 acres of Antietam National Battlefield and the East Woods to be used by you.

Today, and to be left for future generations. At the time of the battle, the East Woods was a 35-acre wood lot made-up mostly of large trees covering rocky terrain with little undergrowth. The trees and rock formations created obstacles for the troops moving through this area, but also provided cover during the intense fighting.

As mentioned at stop 2, troops commanded by a Union General Joseph Hooker and Confederate General John Hood skirmished on the evening of September 16th with the majority of that fighting taking place in this wood lot. According to Hooker that skirmishing never fully ceased during the night, General Hooker later wrote, “Desultory fire was kept up between the pickets almost throughout the night, and about 9:00 PM I visited them in order to satisfy myself concerning this firing, and found that the lines of pickets of the two armies were so near each other as to be able to hear each other walk.” As such, the first shots of September 17th were fired in these trees.

As dawn broke, Hooker sent forward the first major union assaults of the day. The men of James Ricketts division advanced down the Poffenberger Lane and into the east woods, engaging the right end of Alexander Lawton's Confederate division. Private Julius Ribardi of the 12th Massachusetts was wounded in the advance and found himself on the edge of the east woods. “The air is full of explosions and smell of brimstone. Missiles of all kinds strike the tree and dead branches fall among the wounded. I was shot through the right thigh by our men. I had till then steered clear from the shots of the attacking party by painfully dragging myself on the north or the South of the tree, but too weak to continue those tactics. I was aground on the east side of the tree, exposed to the fire of slavery and freedom.”

Even as Late's division was pushed back, a new wave of Confederate forces arrived at 7:00 AM. With the elements of John Hood's division charging from behind the Dunker Church charging up the Smoketown road and swarming into the East woods now, it was Ricketts turn to call retreat, and his place would be taken by the lead division of the Union 12th Corps, the Union 12th Corps, was a conglomeration of veteran battle finned regiments and brand new, barely trained regiments, all fighting side by side. They were also new to their Commander, 59-year-old, the Union General Joseph Mansfield, who had taken command of them only two days before.

Battle Aunt Tatum would be General Mansfield's first combat experience of the Civil War, and sadly it would also be his last. Mansfield and his men had crossed the Antietam Creek the evening before the battle and spent the night on a nearby farm. At 7:30 AM, Mansfield's lead division, commanded by a Union general, Alpheus Williams, marched down the Smoketown Road and entered the fray. General Mansfield, attempting to lead the effort into the East Woods would be mortally wounded near this spot only moments after entering the trees.

This monument to General Mansfield is one of six Mortuary cannon on the battlefield, each one marks the location where a general officer was killed at Antietam. General Williams would continue the struggle for the East Woods, but would fail to dislodge Confederate forces hidden behind the rocks and trees.

Both sides would now send reinforcements racing for this vital wood lot, with United States General George Green's division meeting troops under the command of Confederate General DH Hill Head on. Greenwood Sand Hillsman into full retreat, securing the east woods for the union for the remainder of the battle. This did not, however, end the Eastwood's role in the.

Well over 7 different US batteries of artillery would take up position along the West face of the woods to ensure the woodlot remained under Union control. Likewise, elements of another 4 United States divisions would either March through or take a position in the trees at some point in the battle.

One of these divisions, commanded by United States General John Sedgwick, would go on to fight at stop #5 the West Woods, another commanded by US General William French, would assault the bloody lane stop #7. The terror of September 17th in the East Woods had ended, but now began the work of survival in the field hospitals and the task of bearing the dead after the war.

Veterans came back to the East woods, walking the wood lot, telling their stories and placing a monument to General Mansfield. Over the decades, even though the trees of the east woods were no longer caught between the fire of slavery and freedom, there was a new fight to preserve the east woods for future generations. Beginning in 2015, an effort was spearheaded by the American Battlefield Trust and the Save Historic Antietam Foundation to protect over 9 acres of Prime battlefield in the East Woods today.

Those nine acres are a preservation victory, having been replanted, and this land is being currently incorporated into the story of Antietam by Antietam National Battlefield staff to be used as a tool to tell the stories of the men who fought amongst these trees to visitors today and for many generations to come. No fewer than 8 union divisions and three Confederate divisions fought over, marched through, attacked and defended the east.

As part of this northern section of the battlefield, the East Woods is a part of one of the bloodiest square miles in American history. Your next stop, stop #4 will immerse you in the very epicenter of that fighting. It will take you onto a field that today is known simply as the cornfield.

Duration:

7 minutes, 7 seconds

Video presentation of Tour Stop 3, East Woods.