Virtual Tour of Sharpsburg: The Final Attack

All photographs on this page can be enlarged. Click on the picture and it will open at full-size in a seperate window.

It was now 3:30 PM. The Confederates were retreating -- broken -- through the town of Sharpsburg. A final push by Burnside would be the coup de grace that could end the entire war.

But it was not to be. For as Southern historian Douglas Southall Freeman so poignantly put it, "Disaster should have been in the air and with it the first signs of stampede. It was not so. The thrilling news has spread that A.P. Hill was coming. For fate or fame, his was to be the last scene."

At about 3:40, Lee looked down the road and spotted troops. Anxiously he asked his aide who the troops were. The aide replied, "They are flying the Virginia and Confederate flags." With great relief, Lee replied, "It is A.P. Hill from Harper's Ferry."

National Park Service wayside marker at tour stop ten announcing that "It is A.P. Hill" and explaining his crucial role at the battle of Sharpsburg.

A. P. Hill's division had been left behind by Jackson at Harpers Ferry to salvage the captured Federal property and finish paroling prisoners. This work completed, Hill started out early on the morning of September 17 with his division. Donning his red battle shirt, he drove his famous Light Division at a killing pace, sometimes even by the tip of his sword. The men marched seventeen miles in just about seven hours. Many men fell out of the ranks, but at 3:40 Hill arrived with most of his veteran division -- containing some of the hardest fighting men in the entire army -- in tow.

When Hill struck, he struck hard. And Sharpsburg was no exception. Supported by the artillery Lee had gathered, immediately Hill's 3,000 troops in five brigades entered the fight, tearing into Burnside's left flank. Some of Burnside's men were green and they were no match for Hill's hardened veterans. It was an overwhelming charge. Within minutes the tide of the battle had turned. Hill's men drove Burnside back across the heights and over the bridge. Hill inflicted twice as many casualties as he took, though among Hill's notable casualties was General Branch.

Within an hour and a half after the timely arrival of A. P. Hill's division from Harpers Ferry, the battle of Sharpsburg drew to a close.

Never before had Lee's Army fought such a battle. A soldier noted that, "the sun seemed almost to go backwards, and it appeared as if night would never come."

Night did come, and with it came the startling facts. September 17, 1862 would be America's bloodiest single day of fighting. The Union came into the battle numbering approximately 87,000 men. It left with 12,410 men less. The Confederates had come to Sharpsburg with about 55,000 men. 10,700 of these men fell on the rolling hills around Sharpsburg. One in four men engaged in battle had fallen.

For Lee, it was amazing he was able to stave off defeat. By shifting his men around, he was able to meet every thrust McClellan made and tactically, the battle was a draw. But it is difficult to imagine how McClellan could have allowed so many golden chances to end the War slip through his fingers. Several times he was presented the chance to destroy Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. But each time he failed to do so.

Monuments in the Area

23rd Ohio Infantry Regiment

Best known as future President William McKinley's regiment, the 23rd Ohio were members of the Kanawha Division of the Ninth Corps rolled up by A.P. Hill's attack. The monument to the 23rd Ohio is located on Branch Avenue. It was dedicated in 1903.

The inscription reads: This Regiment with its Brigade crossed the Ford of Antietam Creek in the afternoon of Sept. 17, 1862, and held this position until the close of the battle. Its loss was 8 men killed, 1 officer and 58 men wounded, 2 men missing, total 69. Two of its members afterwards became President of the United States: Rutherford B. Hayes and William McKinley.

Branch Mortuary Cannon

Cannon barrels, mounted on their muzzles in blocks of stone, mark the names and locations where generals were killed or mortally wounded around the Sharpsburg battlefield. Six generals (three Union, three Confederate) were killed in the battle. This one Mortuary Cannon marks the location where General Lawrence O'Bryan Branch of A.P. Hill's Division fell. There are conflicting accounts of his death. Branch was a former United States Congressman from North Carolina. General Branch has a biography page on this website which you can visit for more information about him: General Lawrence O'Bryan Branch.

This concludes the virtual tour of Sharpsburg.