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| Add Photo — Add Link — Add Commentary — Correct this page — Print | | Sharpsburg in Washington County, Maryland — The American Northeast (Mid-Atlantic) |
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The Most Terrible Clash of Arms
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By Bill Coughlin, April 11, 2011 | |
| | | 1. The Most Terrible Clash of Arms Marker | | |
Inscription.
As Union soldiers stepped out of the Cornfield (in front of you) at dawn, September 17, 1862, Confederate troops, aligned in the fields just behind you, unleashed a horrific volley. The single bloodiest day in American History had begun in earnest.
For the next four hours the Cornfield was the center of a storm of lead, iron, and flame as Federal soldiers from the First and Twelfth Corps clashed with Lee’s men. The Cornfield changed hands again and again as both sides attacked and counterattacked. One soldier remembered, “The air seems full of leaden missiles. Rifles are shot to pieces in the hands of soldiers, canteens and haversacks are riddled with bullets, the dead and wounded go down in scores.”More than 25,000 soldiers fought in and around the Cornfield. By 9:30 a.m. thousands of them lay dead and dying. Confederate Gen. John Bell Hood wrote, “It was here that I witnessed the most terrible clash of arms, by far, that has occurred during the war.” Union Gen. Joseph Hooker remembered that “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 stood in their ranks a few moments before. It was never my fortune to witness a more bloody, dismal battlefield.”| | | | 
By Bill Coughlin, April 11, 2011 | |
| | | 2. The Terrible Most Clash of Arms Marker | | |
Erected by National Park Service.
Location. 39° 28.857′ N, 77° 44.857′ W. Marker is in Sharpsburg, Maryland, in Washington County. Marker is at the intersection of Cornfield Avenue and Dunker Church Road, on the right when traveling west on Cornfield Avenue. Click for map. Marker is in Antietam National Battlefield at auto tour stop 4. Marker is in this post office area: Sharpsburg MD 21782, United States of America.
Other nearby markers. At least 8 other markers are within walking distance of this marker. Johnny Cook (here, next to this marker); A Cornfield Unlike Any Other (here, next to this marker); Second Regiment (within shouting distance of this marker); Hood's Division, Longstreet's Command (within shouting distance of this marker); a different marker also named Hood's Division, Longstreet's Command (within shouting distance of this marker); First Army Corps (within shouting distance of this marker); New Jersey State Monument (within shouting distance of this marker); Indiana State Monument (within shouting distance of this marker). Click for a list of all markers in Sharpsburg.
More about this marker. The right side of the marker features the painting “Through the Cornfield” by Keith Rocco showing The Iron Brigade breaking out of the Cornfield at dawn.
Portraits of Confederate Gen. John Bell Hood and Union Gen. John Gibbon appear at the bottom left of the marker. The Hood portrait has a caption of “Gen. John Bell Hood led his division of 2,000 men from behind the Dunker Church and into the Cornfield in a vicious counterattack. Over 1,000 of his soldiers were killed or wounded in about thirty minutes of combat. Gen. Hood lost the use of his arm at Gettysburg, and a leg at Chickamauga, but survived the war and died in 1879.”
The caption under Gibbon reads, “Gen. John Gibbon commanded the Union Iron Brigade, which helped lead the First Corps assault into the Cornfield. Gen. Gibbon was a West Point graduate and a Mexican War veteran. During the fighting in the Cornfield, which he described as the, “hottest of hornets nests,” Gibbon even helped load and fire a cannon that “produced great destruction in the enemy’s ranks.”| | | | 
By Bill Coughlin, April 11, 2011 | |
| | | 3. Markers on Cornfield Avenue | | Two markers are found at this location. The Most Terrible Clash of Arms marker is seen here on the left. | | |
Also see . . . Battle of Antietam. National Park website. (Submitted on April 15, 2011, by Bill Coughlin of North Arlington, New Jersey.)
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By Bill Coughlin, April 11, 2011 | |
| | | 4. The Bloody Cornfield | | This view of the Cornfield looks north from the marker. Union troops approached from this direction on the morning of September 17, 1862 and were met by Confederates under "Stonewall" Jackson. | | |
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Credits. This page originally submitted on April 15, 2011, by Bill Coughlin of North Arlington, New Jersey. This page has been viewed 211 times since then. Photos: 1, 2, 3, 4. submitted on April 15, 2011, by Bill Coughlin of North Arlington, New Jersey.
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