Battle of Antietam: Taking Rohrbach Bridge at Antietam Creek

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Battle of Antietam: Taking Rohrbach Bridge at Antietam Creek
While Union commander George McClellan fumed and the Battle of Antietam hung in the balance, a handful of Rebels held off Federal troops at "Burnside Bridge."

The day--September 17, 1862--promised to be long and hot, and the regimental commanders in Brigadier General Samuel Sturgis' division of the Union Army of the Potomac, now tramping along the Porterstown Road southeast of Sharpsburg, Maryland, ordered their men out of line by squads to fill their canteens from nearby wells.

Hundreds of thirsty, dry-mouthed men broke ranks and streamed like blue-jacketed cockroaches toward the wells. The rapid exodus quickly attracted the malign attention of Confederate batteries several hundred yards away, on the western bank of Antietam Creek. The Rebel gunners' aim, though largely inaccurate due to the extreme range, put the division's ambulance train to flight, but did not discourage the parched infantrymen from their much-needed water details.

Two privates from the 9th New Hampshire Regiment almost "bought the farm" in a small orchard near the ambulance park when an incoming shell burst directly in front of them. The projectile hurtled over their heads with a horrendous scream and splintered surrounding apple trees. Hard green apples pelted the men like hail, forcing them to dive for cover. Crawling from beneath their blanket of apples, the two men limped after their water, filled their canteens and returned, bruised but successful, to their admiring regiment.

Across Porterstown Road, directly opposite the 9th New Hampshire, the untried soldiers in the 35th Massachusetts Regiment almost joined the dash for water too late. Their runners, loaded down with canteens, finally returned to the regiment slightly before 10 a.m. The sweating men received the warm, muddy water as if it were priceless. They were lucky to have it--the ravening hordes of their fellow soldiers had nearly emptied the wells.

The men in Sturgis' division were luckier by far than many of the roughly 100,000 Union and Confederate soldiers already scattered about the sunken roads, orchards and cornfields that ringed the Maryland-Virginia border town of Sharpsburg. The entire IX Corps, of which Sturgis' division was a part, had been lurching about since daylight on the eastern side of Antietam Creek, but had taken few casualties from the Confederate batteries in the vicinity of Boonsboro Pike--most of the Rebel projectiles had turned out to be duds. Indeed, the monotonous whizzing of the shells had lulled some of the men to sleep.

A little over a mile to the north, above Sharpsburg, it was a far different story. Major General George B. McClellan's Union army had been attacking General Robert E. Lee's outnumbered Confederates for four hours, slashing through woods and cornfields toward the Rebel position on the high ground near a small German Baptist meetinghouse, the Dunker church. Fighting had been horrific--whole rows of opposing soldiers scythed down like new-mown wheat--but nothing had been settled. The fate of Lee's ambitious invasion of Maryland, and perhaps of the Union itself, remained very much in the balance.

Lee had invaded western Maryland two weeks earlier, intent on relieving the Union pressure on Virginia, particularly during the crucial harvest season. He envisioned thousands of fresh Confederate recruits rushing to his banner from "occupied" Maryland, which, though officially neutral, had widespread Southern sympathies. A dramatic battlefield victory on Northern soil might also force European recognition of the Confederacy.

Audaciously, Lee divided his army, sending Maj. Gen. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson southeast to converge on Harpers Ferry, while Maj. Gen. James Longstreet moved north toward Hagerstown. The chance discovery of a copy of Lee's orders gave McClellan the opportunity to destroy the Rebel army while it was dangerously divided, but the overly cautious "Little Mac" delayed long enough for the Confederates to make a stand at South Mountain on September 14, salvaging their supply trains and giving Lee time to plan his next move.

Lee gathered his two wings together on the outskirts of Sharpsburg, along Antietam Creek. There he determined to fight it out, depending on McClellan's inherent timidity to compensate for the nearly 2-to-1 advantage the Union commander had in troops. The Battle of Antietam had opened at dawn on the 17th.

At 10 a.m., Maj. Gen. Ambrose Burnside, commanding McClellan's left wing, received the order to assault Lee's right. The movement would necessitate taking the 125-foot-long Rohrbach Bridge, a triple-arched stone span crossing Antietam Creek between two steep banks. Within an hour, 350 Georgians, under the command of Colonel Henry L. "Old Rock" Benning, repelled two assaults by Brig. Gen. James Nagle's brigade to storm the bridge.

While Nagle made his second futile charge against the entrenched Confederates on the west bank of the creek, Sturgis placed Brig. Gen. Edward Ferrero's brigade along the creek bank south of the bridge. Three times, Sturgis ordered the former New York City dance instructor to take the bridge along Nagle's line of approach.

Ferrero formed his brigade in a cornfield near a bend in the creek, immediately west of the Lower Bridge Road. The 51st Pennsylvania was in front, followed by the 51st New York, 21st Massachusetts and the untried 35th Massachusetts. "It is General Burnside's special request that the two Fifty-firsts take the bridge," Ferrerro shouted. "Will you do it?"

Corporal Lewis Patterson of Company 1, 51st Pennsylvania, a known teetotaler, shattered the ensuing silence with, "Will you give us our whiskey, Colonel, if we take it?" (The Pennsylvanians had had their liquor ration cut for misconduct on the march.)

"Yes, by God!" cried Ferrero. "You shall have as much as you want, if you take the bridge." He added that he would see to it if he had to send back to New York to get the whiskey and pay for it out of his own pocket.

Tension rippled through the line as the brigade moved out. The 51st Pennsylvania, following the diagonal approach used by Nagle's men earlier, passed northeast behind the 9th New Hampshire toward the right rear of the twin knolls overlooking the creek and bridge. The 51st New York stayed in place while the smaller 21st Massachusetts filed right into the plowed field the New Hampshire men had formerly occupied.

The Massachusetts regiment behaved poorly while moving out. Singly and in small groups, rattled soldiers rose up sporadically from their line and shot wildly through the brush toward the opposite creek bank. Lieutenant John W. Hudson, one of Ferrero's aides, later observed wryly that the men were firing "by guess," and that some had gotten back "a good rifle ball to pay for their wisdom."

Ferrero posted the 51st New York at right angles to the 21st Massachusetts in the field facing the bridge, then he and his staff moved behind the first knoll to direct the assault of the 51st Pennsylvania. Only the 35th Massachusetts remained undeployed, standing in the middle of the road at the creek bend.

Ferrero ordered Hudson to send for the regiment. While the green troops of the 35th Massachusetts double-quicked obliquely to the northeast, the 51st Pennsylvania made its move toward Rohrbach Bridge.

Hudson, who had been watching the 21st Massachusetts waste a good quantity of ammunition on the brush-covered western bank, turned his head to the right as a half-hearted cheer reverberated from the crest of the knolls. The already exhausted Pennsylvanians walked and staggered by platoons toward the creek. Tired or not, however, the hard-drinking bunch dove for cover behind the bridge abutments and the stone wall that paralleled the creek north of the bridge.

Simultaneously, the 48th Pennsylvania made for the bridge with a small part of the 6th New Hampshire, both units from Nagle's brigade. All four regiments started to pour a terrific fire into the opposite bank. They could see the Rebels, in pairs and threes, dodging about through the smoke to escape their bullets.

Captain James Wren of the 48th Pennsylvania ordered his men to lie prone alongside the 51st New York, and they cut loose at will into the leafy foliage and Rebel barricades across the stream. Wren was coolly directing their fire when an enlisted man from the 6th New Hampshire wandered over to complain that the Rebels had shot off the trigger finger of his right hand. The wounded man shouted that he still had 40 rounds in his cartridge box and did not want to go to the rear. Wren, succumbing to the thrill of the moment, turned to the man and blurted, "Now you bite the ends off these cartridges and I will fire them cartridges of yours." Putting down his sword, Wren took the man's musket and carelessly stood up to shoot.

Three balls in rapid succession zinged close by the captain's ears. His men shouted to him to get down--the Rebs had his range. At the same moment, Wren saw a Confederate leisurely step from behind a large tree next to the bridge, take careful aim and squeeze the trigger. The bullet whistled just above Wren's head. Wisely, he ducked for cover.

Steadying the musket on a fence rail, Wren sighted on the tree. As the Confederate exposed himself for another shot, the captain jerked the trigger and missed. Hastily reloading, he sighted again, determined to draw blood. The next time the graycoat stepped out to shoot, Wren fired. When the smoke cleared, he thought he saw his target double over and drop. Wren promised himself to check his kill if he lived to cross the creek.

The noise at the bridge reached a nerve-shattering crescendo as rifle fire, shrieks and curses mingled with the exploding shells and rattling canister from Simmonds' Kentucky (Union) Battery, which was firing over the Federals' heads into the Confederate positions