Antietam

Antietam

Richard J. LeFevre
American, 1931 - 2000

1991

watercolor and mixed media on paper

Fought in Sharpsburg, Maryland, at Antietam Creek, the Battle of Antietam or the Battle of Sharpsburg on September 17, 1862, was the bloodiest single day in American history with 22,717 soldiers killed, wounded, or missing after 14 hours of fighting. To the left in the painting is Confederate General Robert E. Lee and below him is Maj. Gen. Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson. To the right is Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan who led the Union forces at Antietam. Before the battle, Union Corporal Barton Mitchell found three cigars wrapped in paper (shown in the center of the painting) in a Confederate campsite recently abandoned by forces under the command of Maj. Gen. D.H. Hill. The paper was General Robert E. Lee’s Special Order 191 that outlined the disposition of the Army of Northern Virginia and Lee’s strategy for his Maryland Campaign. Despite this distinct advantage, McClellan did not adequately act on this information nor did he engage with his entire forces at Antietam to press his numerical advantage against Lee. Nevertheless, portions of the armies met on the morning of September 17, in what was to be a three-pronged attack by the Union starting along the Confederate left flank in a cornfield with a small German Baptist church called the Dunker church (due to their habit of baptism by immersion), continuing to the center in late morning at a sunken road, and finally in the afternoon on the right flank near the bridge over Antietam Creek. The attacks near the center of the line at the sunken road became such a disaster for troops on both sides that it was known as Bloody Lane. Maj. Gen. Ambrose E. Burnside, shown on the right side of this piece, did not engage with his troops until the afternoon when he repeatedly attempted to take the bridge that today bears his name: Burnside's Bridge. Burnside lost hundreds of soldiers in successive charges before finally crossing the bridge. Had he chosen to travel a short distance upstream, his men could have waded across the creek. At the end of the day, after 14 hours of bloody fighting, both armies where sitting in the same places that they were at 8:00 a.m. that morning.

Bequest of the Artist