Ah, the Quarterly Antietam Trip!
One of the cycles I’ve fallen into after relocating to Northern Virginia involves trips to the big battlefields. It’s worked out that visits to Antietam, Gettysburg, Fredericksburg-Spotsylvania, and Manassas happen with some regularity. When I was based in the Trans-Mississippi or Department of Georgia, my visits to these large battlefields were almost breakneck pace. I might get a day at each site, so planning was critical. Often I’d rush through a stop without seeing all that honestly should be seen. Now that I am not under such time constraints, I can split out parts of the battlefields for detailed walks, taking what time is needed to really understand the ground, the people involved, and the battle.
This weekend was Antietam. At first, I feared the weather would limit the explorations. As we crested South Mountain on the Old National Road, there was a dusting of snow. Just enough to whiten the ground at the edges of the road, reminiscent of a cotton harvest season morning at points further south. Once down in the valley, the white stuff was absent and the morning just crisp enough to require gloves. This day my focus was on the morning phase of the battlefield, more the Federal advance than the Cornfield. This section of the field has always been a fuzzy area to my understanding of the battlefield. Everybody has read about the confused fighting around the North and East Woods and Cornfield. To me, when I read “confused fighting,” I take it one of several ways – the author doesn’t have space to account for the movements, the author hasn’t got a clue so he’s filling literary ellipses, or here’s an opportunity for an enterprising researcher to sort out the details!
Back in September last, I attended a NPS hike around the battlefield. Ranger Kieth Snyder guided us through the Cornfield. The focus was more on the Confederate unit movements, out of respect for time – after all we had a whole battlefield to cover and only had the day. (BTW, a podcast version of the tour is available at Civil War Traveler.) The tour experience had me thinking afterwards about how the Federal units were arrayed, the sequencing of their movements, and overall how the battle played out through those critical hours. While the Park Service has done wonders with projects to restore the battlefield, the East and North Woods still require some imagination on the part of the visitor. The rolling terrain in that sector seemed much more pronounced than in the center or southern portions of the battlefield. In my old Army days, we’d have called the ground here “washboard” and spoke of “defilade positions in the wadis” or such. Honestly, even without the woods, I found it hard to locate a key point offering good fields of fire for crew served weapons, i.e. artillery. Also looking at things with the old Scout platoon leader’s eyes, I thought it would be difficult to freely maneuver, again even without the historical tree lines and woods. Slowly it began to sink in. The fighting here wasn’t “confused” due to some authors omission or commission or lack of research. Heck the terrain alone is confusing enough, even before throwing in the battle effects! It’s hard enough with the full battery of modern aids and the benefit of 140 plus years of research to piece this together. I’d find it difficult writing an after action review to sort out the details, had I been a participant and lived through it all.
Other parts of the day were spent tracing the Federal advance back to Hitt Bridge and Pry Mill. Certainly worth the back-roads drive (or bike ride) for the extreme Civil War traveler. Before leaving, I made the obligatory pass through the Burnside Bridge and around the rest of the driving tour loop. As time permits, I’ve got two goals in mind. First, for the Historical Marker Database, documenting and entering the various War Department tablets, Park Service markers, and memorials. Second, to present an updated listing of the Artillery piece locations at the park. The one existing reference on line I know of, over at cwartillery.org, is useful but a bit dated.
Calling back to the Maryland Heights thread from weeks before, I snapped several photos from the battlefield looking generally in that direction. At the time I thought specifically of Kyd Douglas’ account of the 1864 invasion. He and several other officers took the time to view the old Antietam battlefield. Of course the whole time they were “under the glasses” of the Federal observers on Maryland Heights.
