Antietam Campaign Quotes

“And a wild, primitive madness seemed to descend on the men who fought in the cornfield: they went beyond the limits of sanity and endurance at times, Northerners and Southerners alike, until it seems that they tore at each other for the sheer sake of fighting. The”
― Bruce Catton, Mr. Lincoln's Army

“A full appreciation of this crucial position requires an examination of the Confederate defense on this side of Antietam Creek and a walk across the famous Burnside Bridge to explore the IX Corps’ efforts to cross the span and push up to this high ground and beyond.”
― Carol Reardon, A Field Guide to Antietam: Experiencing the Battlefield through Its History, Places, and People

“My first recollection of that day was that early on the morning of September 17, we were all in the cellar with the mattresses off the beds being brought down. I was told I must stay there as there would be a battle. The noise of the battle was plainly heard, the popping of the guns, the rattling of the sabres, and the roaring of the cannon. … Soon General Burnside and his staff rode up to the front porch and dismounted. … I lost all fear of the bullets, and was soon on the porch beside my grandfather.”
― Carol Reardon, A Field Guide to Antietam: Experiencing the Battlefield through Its History, Places, and People

“Captain Werner Von Bachelle of the 6th Wisconsin in General John Gibbon’s Iron Brigade, who died on the Hagerstown Pike with his Newfoundland dog at his side, rests here as well.”
― Carol Reardon, A Field Guide to Antietam: Experiencing the Battlefield through Its History, Places, and People

“As Franklin temporized, another dispatch arrived from McClellan: “It is important to drive in the enemy in your front, but be cautious in doing it until you have some idea of his force. . . . Thus far our success is complete, but let us follow it up closely, but warily.”2”
― Bradley M. Gottfried, The Maps of Antietam: An Atlas of The Antietam (Sharpsburg) Campaign, Including the Battle of South Mountain, September 2 - 20, 1862

“Maj. Gen. A. P. Hill’s division, which had remained behind at Harpers Ferry to oversee the surrender, was marching hard to reach the battlefield. The only question was whether Hill’s “Light Division” would arrive in time to save the Army of Northern Virginia.6”
― Bradley M. Gottfried, The Maps of Antietam: An Atlas of The Antietam (Sharpsburg) Campaign, Including the Battle of South Mountain, September 2 - 20, 1862

“The whole West Woods erupted in a volcano of gunfire so heavy that the color-bearer of the 34th New York was hit five times in rapid succession before he toppled to the ground. The attack of Sedgwick’s division had turned into a crimson nightmare. Men were falling everywhere.75 As the gap widened between Greene’s Twelfth Corps brigades and Sedgwick’s left, the situation became critical. Early’s and Anderson’s Confederate brigades, along with Barksdale’s Mississippians, surged around the church, up the Hagerstown Turnpike and into the fields in the rear of Sedgwick’s hapless division.76”
― Kent Masterson Brown, Cushing of Gettysburg: The Story of a Union Artillery Commander