I am looking fgor any referecnes to the 28th Pa Vols, Company A, as I had a relative, Partick (McShay) McShea in the battle.

Accounts from his home town in Pa, state he was cited for the capture of a rebel flag, but cannot find any reference.

Art

By Art (McShea) Arway on Dec 18, 2008 at 5:16 pm

I am looking fgor any referecnes to the 28th Pa Vols, Company A, as I had a relative, Partick (McShay) McShea in the battle.

Accounts from his home town in Pa, state he was cited for the capture of a rebel flag, but cannot find any reference.

By Art (McShea) Arway on Feb 5, 2009 at 4:33 pm

The Battle of Antietam

The battle of Antietam or Sharpsburg on September 17, 1862, climaxed the first of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee’s two attempts to carry the war into the North. About 40,000 Southerners were pitted against the 87,000-man Federal Army of the Potomac under Gen. George B. McClellan. And when the fighting ended, the course of the American Civil War had been greatly altered.
After his great victory at Manassas in August, Lee had marched his Army on Northern Virginia into Maryland, hoping to find vitally needed men and supplies. McClellan followed, first to Frederick, then westward 12 miles to the passes of South Mountains. There on September 14, at Turner’s, Fox’s, and Crampton’s gaps, Lee tried to block the Reversals. But because he had split his army to send troops under Gen. Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson to capture Harpers Ferry, Lee could only hope to delay the Northerners. McClellan forced his way through, and by the afternoon of September 15 both armies had established new battle lines west and east of Antietam Creek near the town of Sharpsburg. When Jackson’s troops reached Sharpsburg on the 16th, Harpers Ferry having surrendered the day before, Lee consolidated his position along the low ridge that runs north and south of the town.
The battle opened at dawn on the 17th when Union Gen. Joseph Hooker’s artillery began a murderous fire on Jackson’s men in the Miller cornfield north of town. “In the time I am writing,” Hooker reported, “every stalk of corn in the northern and greater part of the field was cut as closely as could have been done with a knife and the slain lay in rows precisely as they had stood in their ranks a few moments before. “Hooker’s troops advanced, during the Confederates before them, and Jackson reported that his men were “exposed for near an hour to a terrific storm of shell, canister, and musketry.”
About 7 A.M. Jackson was reinforced and succeeded in driving the Federals back. An hour later Union troops under Gen. Joseph Mansfield counterattacked and by 9 o’clock had regained some of the lost ground. Then, in an effort to extricate some of Manfield’s men from their isolated position near the Dunker Church, Gen. John Sedgwick’s division of Edwin V. Summer’s corps advanced into the West Woods. There confederate troops stuck Sedgwick’s men on both flanks, infliction appalling casualties.
Meanwhile, Gen. William H. French’s division of Sumner’s corps moved up to support Sedgwick but veered south into Confederates under Gen. D. H. Hill posted along an old sunken road separating the Roulette and Piper farms. For nearly 4 hours, from 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., bitter fighting raged along this road (afterwards known as Bloody Lane) as French, supported by Gen. Israel B. Richardson’s division, also of Sumner’s corps, sought to drive the Southerners back. Confusion and sheer exhaustion finally ended the battle here and in the northern part of the field generally.
Southeast of town, Union Gen. Ambrose E. Burnside’s troops had been trying to cross a bridge over Antietam Creek since 9:30 a.m. Some 400 Georgians had driven them back each time. At 1 p.m. the Federals finally crossed the bridge (now known as Burnside Bridge) and, after a 2-hour delay to reform their lines, advanced up the slope beyond. By late afternoon they had driven the Georgians back almost to Sharpsburg, threatening to cut off the line of retreat for Lee’s decimated Confederates. Then about 4 p.m. Gen. A. P. Hill’s division, left behind by Jackson at Harpers Ferry to salvage the captured Federal property, arrived on the field and immediately entered the fight. Burnside’s troops were driven back to the heights near the bridge they had earlier taken. The Battle of Antietam was over. The next day Lee began withdrawing his army across the Potomac River.
More men were killed or wounded at Antietam on September 17, 1862, than on any other single day of the Civil War. Federal losses were 12,410, Confederate losses 10,700. Although neither side gained a decisive victory, Lee’s failure to carry the war effort effectively into the North caused Great Britain to postpone recognition of the Confederate government. The battle also gave President Abraham Lincoln the opportunity to issue the Emancipation Proclamation, which, on January 1, 1863, declared free all slaves in States still in rebellion against the United States. Now the war had a dual purpose: to preserve the Union

Major Generals

The six major Generals of the battle of Antietam are Brig. Gen. George B. Anderson, Brig. Gen. Lawrence O’Brian Branch, Maj. Gen. Joseph K. F. Mansfield, Maj. Gen. Israel B. Richardson, Brig. Gen. Isaac P. Rodman, and Brig. Gen. William E. Starke.

Brig. Gen. George B. Anderson

Born near Hillsboro, North Carolina, Anderson was 31 years old at Antietam. West Point graduate, class of 1852, his brigade of North Carolinians fought desperately in the Sunken Road. Wounded in the food, BGen Anderson was transported to Shepherdstown, then Staunton, Virginia and eventually to Raleigh, North Carolina was were he died October 16.

Brig. Gen. Lawrence O’Brian Branch

Branch was born in Enfield, North Carolina in 1820. He graduated from Princeton in 1838, studied law and served in Congress from 1855 until 1861. Branch commanded a brigade attached to A.P. Hill’s Division who made the grueling 17 mile march to the battlefield from Harpers Ferry on the day of the battle. Arriving on the south end of the battlefield, Branch and the other brigades of Hill’s division helped turn back Burnside’s attack at the end of the day. Like George Anderson, Branch was also buried in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Maj. Gen. Joseph K. F. Mansfield

Joseph King Fenno Mansfield was one of the oldest officers on the field at age 59. Born in New Haven, Connecticut, Mansfield graduated from West Point in 1822. A professional soldier, he served in the Army for forty years, including service in the Mexican War. Just two days before the battle, he was given command of the XII Corps. MGen Mansfield led his men through the East Woods towards the Cornfield in support of I Corps already in action. Wounded in the chest he died the next day. There is a monument and mortuary cannon on the battlefield for MGen Mansfield.

Maj. Gen. Israel B. Richardson

This Vermonter was 46 years old when he led his division at Antietam. Another West Pointer, Richardson graduated from the academy in 1841 and distinguished himself during the Mexican War. In 1855 he resigned his commission and moved to Michigan. Returning to service during the crisis of 1861, Richardson led a brigade during the First Battle of Bull Run and the Peninsula campaign. At Antietam he commanded a division in the II Crop that attacked the Sunken Road. Wounded by Artillery while trying to bring up more guns, MGen Richardson died on November 3, 1862.

Brig. Gen. Isaac P. Rodman

Born in Rhode Island, Rodman served in both houses of the state legislative before the war. Rodman’s middle name was peace and he was Quaker. Imagine his dilemma when the war broke out between his religion and service to his country. Rodman was a Captain at First Bull Run and a division commander here at Antietam. Crossing at Snavely’s Ford on the far south end of the battlefield, Rodman led his men in the final assault, only to be turned back by the timely arrival of A.P. Hill and his men. Mortally wounded, this Quaker General would die on September 30, 1862 at age 40.

Brig. Gen. William E. Starke

Born in Virginia, Starke was a successful cotton planter in New Orleans. He served as the colonel of the 60th Virginia, and then was promoted to Brigadier on August 6 1862. When BGen John R. Jones was stunned by an artillery shell and left the field, Stark took command of the Stonewall Division. The onslaught of the Union I Corps’ attack early in the morning began to divide his men back. Starke would lead a counterattack, only to be wounded three times, he died within the hour. His body was returned to Richmond where he was buried in Hollywood Cemetery next to his son who had been killed two months earlier.

Sequel of Events of the Battle of Antieam

September 4: Lee’s army crossed into Maryland at White’s Ferry.

September 7: Lee concentrates his army at Frederick before sending Stonewall Jackson to capture Harper’s Ferry.

September 4-7: McClellan resumes command of the Federal army and advances cautiously to find Lee and cover Washington.

September 11: D.H. Hill’s Confederates guard the passes in South Mountain while Longstreet watches to the north at Hagerstown.

September 11-12: Jackson attacks the Federal garrison at Martinsburg and drives them towards Harper’s Ferry.

September 13: McClellan reaches Fredericks and discovers Lee’s plans in the mislaid Confederate Order 191.

September 13-15: Jackson seals the southern exit to Harper’s Ferry and bombards the Federal garrison.

September 13-15: Walker’s Confederate division occupies Loudon Heights and completes the Cordon around Mile’s division. The Federals surrendered 12,000 troops at Harper’s Ferry on the 15th.
September 14: Federal I and IX Corps capture Turner’s Gap from D. H. Hill and Longstreet, forcing a Confederate Retreat.
September 14: A portion of McLaw’s Confederates delay Franklin’s Federal VI Corps at Crampton Gap.
September 15: With the imminent fall of Harper’s Ferry, Lee determines to make a stand along Antietam Creek at Sharpsburg.

Sept. 17:
6 am: Hooker’s Federal Corps begins the attack but his left bogs down under artillery fire from Nicodemus Hill.
7 am: Hood’s Confederates counterattack and stop I Corps’ advance at the Miller cornfield.
7:30-9 am: Mansfield’s XII Corps attacks to the Dunker Church but fresh Confederate reinforcements drive them back.
10 am: Sedgwick’s division of Sumner’s II Corps attacks into the West Woods but is flanked and repulsed with heavy losses.
1 pm: Richardson’s and French’s division of Sumner’s II Corps capture Bloody lane and breach Lee’s center.
10 am-1 pm: Burnside’s IX Corps seize the bridge across the Antietam after repeated attempts to cross.
1 pm: Rodman’s division of IX Corps wades through Snavely’s Ford and flanks Toombs’ Confederates above the bridge.
3 pm: Burnside launches a general assault pushing Longstreet’s Confederates back to the outskirts of Sharpsburg.
4 pm: A.P. Hill’s Confederate division arrives from Harper’s Ferry just in time to cripple Burnside’s advance with a counterattack against the Federal left flank.

General Robert E. Lee’s first invasion of the North was huge gamble that held the potential of very great rewards. Lee’s campaign could win Maryland for the Confederacy, earn diplomatic recognition from Britain and France, and perhaps even force the Union to sue for peace. It would also take his troops out of war-ravage Virginia during harvest time, and enable his troops to live off the enemy’s country for a while. Following his victory at the Second Battle of Bull Run Lee led his ragtag army northward across the Potomac River and into Union territory.

The ensuing battle on September 17 produced the bloodiest day in America combat history with over 23,000 casualties on both sides. More than twice as many Americans were killed or mortally wounded in combat at Antietam that day as in the War of 1812, the Mexican War, and the Spanish-American war Combined.

The two armies met in the Maryland farm fields bordering the trickling Antietam Creek near the town of Sharpsburg. The Union named the conflict the Battle of Antietam in honor of the creek while the South called it the Battle of Sharpsburg in honor of the town. From dawn till dark on the 17th the two armies threw frontal attacks at each other, littering the fields with their dead and wounded. “The whole landscape for an instant turned red,” one northern soldier later wrote. Another veteran recalled, “[The cornfield] was so full of bodies that a man could have walked through it without stepping on the ground.” No clear victor emerged and the fighting stopped out of shear exhaustion. Lee withdrew during the night of September 18, and re-crossed the Potomac. Tactically, the battle ended in a draw. Strategically, it was a victory for the Union.

By Jenya White on Apr 30, 2009 at 3:00 pm