The Maps of Antietam: The Battle of Shepherdstown, September 18-20, 1862

By Bradley M. Gottfried

The Maps of Antietam: An Atlas of the Antietam (Sharpsburg) Campaign is the eagerly awaited companion volume to Bradley M. Gottfried’s bestselling The Maps of Gettysburg (2007) and The Maps of First Bull Run (2009), part of the ongoing Savas Beatie Military Atlas Series.

Now available as an ebook short, The Maps of Antietam: The Battle of Shepherdstown, September 18-20, 1862 plows new ground in the study of the campaign by breaking down the entire campaign in 7 detailed full page original maps. These cartographic creations bore down to the regimental level, offering students of the campaign a unique and fascinating approach to studying what may have been the climactic battle of the war.

The Maps of Antietam: The Battle of Shepherdstown, September 18-20, 1862 offers one “action-section”:

- The Battle of Shepherdstown

Gottfried’s original maps enrich each map section. Keyed to each piece of cartography is detailed text about the units, personnel, movements, and combat (including quotes from eyewitnesses) that make the Antietam story come alive. This presentation allows readers to easily and quickly find a map and text on virtually any portion of the campaign. Serious students of the battle will appreciate the extensive endnotes and will want to take this book with them on their trips to the battlefield.

Perfect for the easy chair or for walking hallowed ground, The Maps of Antietam is a seminal work that, like his earlier Gettysburg and First Bull Run studies, belongs on the bookshelf of every serious and casual student of the Civil War.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Savas Beatie
• Release date: Sep 11, 2013
• ISBN: 9781611211702

Bradley M. Gottfried

Bradley M. Gottfried served as a college educator for more than 40 years before retiring in 2017. After receiving his doctorate, he worked as a full-time faculty member before entering the administrator ranks. He rose to the position of president and served for 17 years at two colleges. His interest in the Civil War began when he was a youngster in the Philadelphia area. He has written 18 books on the Civil War, including a number on Gettysburg and map studies of various campaigns. A resident of the Chambersburg/Gettysburg, Pennsylvania area, Brad is an Antietam Licensed Battlefield Guide and a Gettysburg Licensed Town Guide.

Book preview

© 2012 by Bradley M. Gottfried

The Maps of Antietam: The Battle of Shepherdstown, September 18-20, 1862

All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

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

ISBN-13: 978-1-61121-170-2

ePub ISBN:9781611211702

First Edition, First Printing

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To my darling wife, Linda

Contents

Introduction

Foreword by Thomas G. Clemens

Map Set 21. Aftermath: The Battle of

Shepherdstown (September 19 - 20, 1862)

Map 21.1: The Federal Artillery Arrives (September 19)

Map 21.2: Pendleton is Pressed (September 19: Noon - 3:00 p.m.)

Map 21.3: Federal Infantry Crosses the River

(September 19: 3:00 - 7:00 p.m.)

Map 21.4: Stonewall Jackson Prepares to Attack

(September 20: 6:30 - 8:00 a.m.)

Map 21.5: Barnes and Lovell Move into Position

(September 20: 8:00 - 9:00 a.m.)

Map 21.6: The Federal Retreat Begins (September 20: 9:00 - 9:30 a.m.)

Map 21.7: The 118th Pennsylvania’s Ordeal (September 20: 9:30 - 10:30 a.m.)

Appendix 1: Orders of Battle

Appendix 2: An Interview with Author Bradley M. Gottfried

Endnotes

Bibliography

Index

Introduction

What 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 series—a 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 Napoleon’s 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 Lee’s 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.

As I have written in previous introductions, the plentiful maps and sectioned coverage make it much easier to follow and understand what was happening each day (and in some cases, each hour) of this complex campaign. The various sections may also trigger a special interest and so pry open avenues ripe for additional study. I am hopeful that readers who approach the subject with a higher level of expertise will find the maps and text not only interesting to study and read, but truly helpful. If someone, somewhere, places this book within reach to refer to it now and again as a reference guide while reading other studies on the campaign, the long hours invested in this project will have been worthwhile.

And now, a few caveats are in order. The Maps of Antietam is not the last word or definitive treatment of the campaign, the various battles, or any part thereof—nor did I intend it to be. Given space and time considerations, I decided to cover the major events of the campaign and battles, with smaller transition sections to flesh out the full campaign story. As a result, many aspects of the campaign are purposely not fleshed out deeply. For example, I included a light overview of the loss and discovery of General Lee’s Special Orders No. 191, but not a detailed explanation of how