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Cool video, he doesn’t mention the Irish Brigade, the 69th New York, absolutely getting shot to bits while returning fire into the Bloody Lane, before retiring in good order. That prob’ly in the other video.

The following year the Irish Brigade was in it at Gettysburg. Their monument there, designed and built by an Irishman who had served in a Virginia artillery outfit on the CSA side from Bull Run clear through Appomattox ( he had also been present at Gettysburg), stands out as being startlingly contemporary in appearance.



An excellent read is the book “Antietam: The Soldiers Battle”, told largely in the written words of those who were present.

The same NY Artillery Captain Adolphus Martin who lined up the Parrot rifle shot on the Devil’s Den Sharpshooter also wrote about Antietam. The were up on high ground when they saw two men, one mounted, walking in front of the Confederate line about a mile distant and deduced they were officers.

Martin’s men turned a Parrot rifle, lined it up, and jokingly invited Martin to pull the lanyard to set off this improbable Hail Mary shot.

Then from Longstreet’s memoirs we get him walking out in front of the line to reconnoiter, on foot so as less likely to draw fire. General Daniel Harvey Hill accompanied Longstreet while mounted, ignoring Longstreet’s warning.

Seeing the smoke from Martin’s distant Union cannon shot, Longstreet wrote that he observed it was probably aimed at them and once again advised Hill to dismount. A moment later the shell arrived and took off both front legs of Hill’s horse beneath him.

Burnside lost Antietam

Lee was offered the command of the Entire Union Army, and turned it down. It was his loyalty to his home state of Virginia that he followed. In return the Union confiscated his family home, and turned much of the property into a Union Cemetery. we now know as Arlington National Cemetery at Fort Myer.

I grew up in Virginia and was born in 1952. IN school we were still taught to worship Robert E Lee in my lifetime, starting in my youth. I'm Virginian going back to the first boat at Jamestown. To this day I still worship Robert E Lee as a patriot to his home state. My family is related to the Lee family thru marriage, 5 generations BEFORE Robert was born.

I use to see this bridge in my sleep as a kid, thru elementary school, junior high and high school, even thru college.

I grew up in Northern VA and have been to all of the battlefields mentioned, but I've always avoided Antietam. I've only been to it a couple of times... and I always felt like a little kid walking thru a grave yard on a Halloween Night...

If there is such a thing as reincarnation, I was definitely at this battle. Survived but there was a lot of death all around.

Like returning to the scene of a bad accident....years later.

When I was at Antietam in the late 90’s a US Park Ranger was giving us a talk about the carnage that happened there. He was so emotional he actually teared up. It was very touching to witness.

Ron

Can’t forget the Dunker Church…

Yep, and IIRC the Union had enough ammo they could afford to practice.

Meanwhile neither side bothered much with rifle-musket practice. I believe it was Patrick Ferguson on the Confederate side who was the only guy who initiated organized range estimation/shooting practice.

He had previously been a regular in the British Army and instituted the sort of marksmanship training he had experienced there. Irony; at that time Civilian Militia outfits and rifle competitions were fashionable in England. Many were using privately made Enfield rifle muskets.

About 1860 the British Government decided only Enfield-made Enfields were acceptable, resulting in a flood of custom-made Enfields up for sale. Said Enfields being bought up by the Confederacy.

Nice photo.

During the combat following the Union side finally taking that bridge, the book Antietam: The Soldier’s Battle includes a quote from a Confederate musician involved in the fighting. Him and his buddy were calling out the notes that the Federal minies made as they flew by.

Noble lineage. It's cold of me, or non-diplomatic, to call him stupid. Obviously he wasn't at all. His loyalty to his own home state of Virginia is the tragic heart of the divisive war. Someone here reminded us Virginia had been its own independent state more than 200 years before it joined into the federation. That singular allegiance, and other serious oversights, prevented him and all the landed aristocrats from developing a winning strategy. They squandered their advantage of the war's unpopularity in the North, alienated the very sympathetic western states by blocking Mississippi River trade, and squabbled among themselves. Instead of letting the unimportant Virginia fall while retreating into assymetric war of attrition, they could easily win, they went toe to toe with a much more unified and powerful foe. His sharp tactics and fierce fighting men made their regimental flag world famous and revered, but wasn't a winning strategy.

Been there 6-7 times. One time to walk the exact grounds of a particular unit to do a paper for Command and Staff. There are resources to get you to within a few feet of their location. I felt like I was in the Commander’s mind and understood his thought process.

It’s a national treasure. Will never get old.

Evidently you found a little clearer weather than we had up here all day yesterday.😀
Never could understand Burnside at Antietam. He fixated on that bridge all afternoon, and a fellow can walk across that creek just about anywhere!😳
He certainly lacked a little imagination, as he displayed quite literally at Fredericksburg in December.
I have a hard time criticizing Little Mac. I have come to somewhat admire the man in spite of his faults. We established before that he was constantly getting false reports of enemy strength from Pinkerton, perhaps even on purpose to keep him from winning the war too early!😟
Hooker fouled up royally as a commander of AOTP, but as an administrator, he did a lot of things to make it a much better force than it had been.

More than 6,000 monuments on the battlefields, a true edifice of American History…

I was at Sharpsburg once. I stood in the bloody lane. I actually was speechless. Unreal what happened there

I've done the Virginia battlefields and I live near Gettysburg. What I've always been wanting to do is the Tennessee battlefields

Relatively unheard of, Monocacy Battle July 9, 1864, saved Washington DC…

Ol jube got close there

Thanks for the thread, Shrap. I've enjoyed following along with you.

Although Wallace was what would be considered defeated, at Monocacy, it is an indication of losing the battle, but winning the war, and saving Washington DC…

Hopefully the criticism and name calling that happens here can take a back seat while I am able to share a small reflection on American History…

Harper’s ferry ain’t far away