The Cornfield of Antietam

The “Cornfield” and “cornfields” are compelling sites from one of the bloodiest battles of the American Civil War.  How calm they look today than in 1862 when the battle raged and the glint of Confederate bayonets were concealed in the Cornfield revealing their location as Union soldiers approached.

“I ordered the regiment to charge into the cornfield.  They started in a gallant style cheering as they moved and penetrated the cornfield, but because of overpowering numbers of concealed enemy we were compelled to fall back.” 1/

“The battlefield was too terrible to behold without a shock.  I never want to see another such.  I counted eighty Rebels in one row along the fence in front of us, lying so thick you could step from one to the other, and this was only in one place.  In others they lay in heaps, mowed down, and many of our brave boys with them.  So it was everywhere.” Edward S. Bragg of the 6th Wisconsin, and wounded at Antietam describes the scene where the Texas Brigade fought.”2/

______________
1/ Joel Wanner of the 128 PA describes their attack into the cornfield –
From For Honor, Flag, and Family Civil War Major General Samuel W. Crawford, 1827-1892 by Richard Wagner.  Shippensburg:  White Mane Books, 2005.

2/From “First Texas in the Cornfield.” by George E. Otott.  The Maryland Campaign of 1862 Civil War Regiments:  A Journal of the American Civil War. Vol 5, No 3. Campbell CA:  Savas Publishing Company, 1998.

Burnside’s Bridge in Autumn

One of the most beautiful historical sites of the American Civil War is Antietam National Battlefield in Sharpsburg, Maryland.  We have photographed the battlefield many times since our university studies of the American Civil War.   This image is of the famous Lower Bridge better known as Burnside’s Bridge.  Read the history of this battle and see historic images at the digital handbook of Antietam here.