Bradley Gottfried - The Maps of Antietam, eBook Short #3: The Movement to and the Battle of Antietam, September 14 - 18, 1862

2012 by Bradley M. Gottfried

The Maps of Antietam: The Movement to and the Battle of Antietam, September 14-18, 1862

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Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available from the Library of Congress.

ISBN-13: 978-1-61121-169-6

ePub ISBN:9781611211696

First Edition, First Printing

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Map 9.4: Jacksons Command Leaves Harpers Ferry for Sharpsburg
(September 15 - 16)

Map 10.1: McClellan and Lee Prepare for Battle at Sharpsburg
(September 16: noon - 4:00 p.m.)

Map 10.2: Hookers I Corps Crosses Antietam Creek
(September 16: 4:00 - 6:30 p.m.)

Map 10.3: Meade Deploys his Division for Battle
(September 16: 6:30 - 10:00 p.m.)

Map 12.1: Hood Moves up from the Dunker Church
(6:45 - 7:15 a.m.)

Map 12.3: Hood Enters the West Woods and Cornfield
(6:45 - 7:15 a.m.)

Map 13.3: Crawfords Brigade Enters the East Woods
(7:45 - 8:15 a.m.)

Map 13.5: Colquitts Brigade Advances into the Cornfield
(8:15 - 8:45 a.m.)

Map 14.3: Sedgwicks Division Drives East and
McLaws Division Arrives (8:45 - 9:15 a.m.)

Map 14.4: Sedgwicks Division Drives into
the West Woods (8:45 - 9:15 a.m.)

Map 16.5: The Confederates are Driven from
the Sunken Road (10:30 - 11:00 a.m.)

Map 17.2: The Repulse of the 11th Connecticut Infantry
(10:00 - 10:30 a.m.)

Map 17.6: Rodmans Division Crosses Snavelys Ford
(1:00 - 2:00 p.m.)

W hat began several years ago with an idea to better visualize and understand the Battle of Gettysburg and the major campaigns in the Eastern Theater has developed into several volumes that are now part of the Savas Beatie Military Atlas seriesa significant effort to research and illustrate the major campaigns of the Civil War in an original and useful manner. My initial effort in 2007 resulted in The Maps of Gettysburg , which spawned a second book two years later entitled The Maps of First Bull Run . Soon after the Gettysburg volume appeared my publisher expressed an interest in expanding the series to the Western campaigns. I agreed it was a good idea, but because my interest lies in the East, other historians would have to be brought aboard to assist. The first two were David Powell and David Friedrichs, who collaborated to produce The Maps of Chickamauga in 2009, the same year my First Bull Run study appeared. Other Western Theater campaign studies for this series are in the works, as are atlas books dealing with Napoleons 1812 invasion of Russia and various World War II campaigns. This is personally pleasing, for as so many people have shared with me, the only way you can really understand a military campaign is through maps, and this presentation unlocks other books on the same subjects.

All this explains why the book you hold in your hands, The Maps of Antietam: An Atlas of the Antietam (Sharpsburg) Campaign, Including the Battle of South Mountain, September 2 - 20, 1862 , is my third effort but the fourth volume in this ongoing atlas series. My next volume, much of which is complete as of the date of this writing, covers the interesting but usually overlooked months following Gettysburg through the end of 1863 and into early 1864, including the campaigns of Bristoe Station and Mine Run and the various ancillary operations that took place during that period. The volume thereafter opens the Overland Campaign, with coverage of the Wilderness and Spotsylvania. Although I am not producing these in chronological order, it is my sincere hope that I will one day complete the major Civil War campaigns in the Eastern Theater of the Civil War from 1861-1865.

The Maps of Antietam is neutral in coverage and includes the entire campaign from both points of view. The text and maps cover the movement of the armies from the beginning of the campaign in early September to the battlefields in the various gaps slicing through South Mountain, the fascinating siege of Harpers Ferry, the maneuvering to the vicinity of Sharpsburg, and to the dramatic climax of the operation along Antietam Creek on September 17. The final segment of the book covers the withdrawal of Lees army into Virginia and the fighting at Shepherdstown on September 19-20. As anyone who is familiar with this series will attest, the purpose of these atlas books is to offer a broad and full understanding of the complete campaign, rather than a micro-history of a particular event or day.

To my knowledge, no single source until now has pulled together the myriad of movements and events of this mammoth campaign and offered it in a cartographic form side-by-side with reasonably detailed text complete with endnotes. Like the books that have come before, The Maps of Antietam dissects the actions within each sector of a battlefield for a deeper and hopefully more meaningful understanding and reading experience. Each section of this book includes a number of text and map combinations. Every left-hand page includes descriptive text corresponding with a facing original map on the right-hand page. One of the key advantages of this presentation is that it eliminates the need to flip through the book to try to find a map to match the text. Some sections, like the preliminary operations (September 13-14) immediately leading up to the fighting at South Mountain are short and required only two maps and two text pages. Others, like the fighting for the Sunken Road on September 17 at Antietam, required eight maps and their corresponding eight text pages. Wherever possible, I utilized firsthand accounts to personalize the otherwise straightforward text. I hope readers find this method of presentation useful.