The Battle of Antietam was a fiercely-fought military engagement of the American Civil War. It took place during Robert E. Lee's Maryland Campaign of September 1862. It was fought between the Union Army, under George B. McClellan, and the Confederate forces (Army of Northern Virginia), led by General Robert E. Lee, on September 17-18, 1862, along the banks of the Antietam Creek, close to Sharpsburg, State of Maryland. The result of the battle was a draw as it was one of the most vicious military encounters of this armed conflict.
The Confederate Army's Maryland Campaign had begun on September 4, but it was not successful as the Southern forces were quickly thrown back by a Northern counterattack launched by the Army of the Potomac, under the command of General McClellan. This forced Robert E. Lee to fall back several miles. At the ensuing Battle of South Mountain, McClellan forces were temporarily stopped, giving Lee enough time to rally and redeploy his army of 38,000 men on the Antietam Creek, which flows into the Potomac River. McClellan, on the other hand, massed his army of 75,000 troops to attack the Confederate positions on September 17.
George B. McClellan launched his attack at dawn, charging against the Confederate army's left flank. The vicious fighting raged on back and forth around the West Woods, the Dunker Church, and David Miller's cornfield. Waves after waves of Union units assaulted the Confederate positions. However, they were immediately driven back by Rebel counterattacks. Therefore, the fighting shifted to the center, where repeated Union assault eventually captured the Confederate main line of defense that ran along a sunken road. The fighting was so violently and gory that this part of the road would become known as Bloody Lane. Although McClellan had broken the Confederate line, he did not dare to push further by committing his reserve forces. This made it possible for Lee to reinforce secondary lines of defense.
On September 18, the two armies kept fighting evenly, with stalemate. However, after dark, the Confederate army crossed back the Potomac into Virginia, putting an end to the Maryland Campaign. Although McClellan went in pursuit of the Rebel forces, his vanguard advance was checked by the South at Shepherdstown. The ferociously-fought battle along the Antietam claimed 12,400 dead and wounded Union men, while the Confederate army suffered 10,300 casualties.
Below, a map of the battlefield, showing the Union attack on the Confederate's center. Although he was successful in his attack on the Rebel line near West Woods, Sedgwick's division would be annihilated in a surprise counterattack unleashed by two Confederate divisions.
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