Thursday, May 23, 2013

Update on Traveling Clara Barton - Antietam National Battlefield



Traveling Clara Barton from Antietam National Battlefield
Traveling Clara Barton from Antietam
National Battlefield.
This has been a busy week for Traveling Clara Barton! I have gotten back yet another stamp for my Traveling Clara Barton. This time it is from Antietam National Battlefield.

This one was pretty boring too. I just got my stamp back in an envelope. It makes me appreciate the people over at Andersonville and Missing Soldiers Office a lot more for taking that extra step to make our correspondence more meaningful, lol. :) I kinda wonder where it has been though because it was folded up in half too…which I didn’t do… weird.
Traveling Clara Barton stamp from Antietam National Battlefield
Stamp from Antietam National Battlefield

Anyway, I am getting very close to finishing my Traveling Clara Barton. I just have to wait for Fairfax Station to get back to me and then I can send everything out to Clara Barton NHS for the last stamp and the badge.

One step closer to the Clara Barton Civil War 150th Anniversary Junior Ranger badge. Four down, two to go! :)



About Antietam National Battlefield

This site honors the Battle of Antietam, a twelve-hour campaign which occurred on September 17, 1862 in which 23,000 soldiers were left dead, wounded or missing. The Battle of Antietam ended the first invasion of the Confederates into the North; it also led to President Lincoln’s issuance of the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, which effectively launched the war into its new purpose: ending slavery.

For those Junior Rangers keeping track, you can get a Junior Ranger badge and certificate from Antietam National Battlefield; the book is available online.


The Antietam Campaign: The Bloodiest One-Day Battle in US History


Fog over Sunken Road (aka Blood Lane) at Antietam
Fog over Sunken Road (aka Bloody Lane) at Antietam.
Photo Courtesy nps.gov
On September 17, 1862, just as dawn’s first light peeked through the fog, cannons and rifles began to fire in what would be a twelve-hour long savage campaign on the rolling farm fields of western Maryland. This battle would change the course of the Civil War and ensure the freedom of over four million Americans. It would also devastate Sharpsburg, and is still considered to be the bloodiest one-day battle in US History.

General Robert E Lee
Photo Courtesy nps.gov
Considered to be the climax of the Maryland Campaign of 1862, the Battle of Antietam was the first invasion of the North by General Lee and the Northern Virginia Armies, as the war began to shift northward. After Lee’s victory at the Second Battle of Manassas in August, he wrote to Jefferson Davis, the Confederate President, about his ideas for the next stage of the war. Lee wanted to keep the offensive and secure independence through victory in the North; influence the mid-term elections that were soon happening in the fall; obtain desperately-needed supplies; move the war out of Virginia; and to liberate Maryland from the “tyranny” of the North by appealing to the slave-owners’ sympathies.

Upon arrival in Frederick, Lee aimed to capture the Union garrison which was stationed at Harpers Ferry: a vital location on the Confederate lines of supplies and communication to Virginia. The 12,000 Union soldiers stationed there were a threat to the Confederate’s link with the south. Stonewall Jackson and half of Lee’s army were sent to capture Harpers Ferry, while the rest of the troops moved toward South Mountain and Hagerstown, Maryland.

Major General George B McClellan
Photo Courtesy nps.gov
President Lincoln called Major General George B McClellan to protect the capital and respond to the imminent invasion. He reorganized the Potomac Army and advanced toward the awaiting Lee. The armies first fought on South Mountain, a campaign where the Confederates tried to block the Union Soldiers at three different mountain passes; however, the Confederates were unsuccessful and retreated.

After this defeat at South Mountain, Lee considered returning to Virginia; however, when he found out that Jackson had successfully captured Harpers Ferry on September 15, Lee decided to begin a campaign at Sharpsburg. The Confederate army led by Lee positioned themselves on the high-ground west of Antietam creek, while other commanders maintained positions on the left, center and right. Though there was strength in this position, there was also a weakness: with the Potomac River at their backs, there would be only one way to return to Virginia.

Meanwhile, the Union soldiers, led by McClellan, positioned themselves on the east side of Antietam. The idea was to drive Lee away from Maryland by attacking the left, then the right, and then eventually advance in the center when the flanks receded.

Major General Ambrose Burnside
Photo Courtesy nps.gov
The battle began at dawn on September 17. During the first seven hours, the Union led three major attacks against the Confederate left. McClellan’s plan soon disintegrated into a mess of uncoordinated Union attacks. This savage combat was fought on the areas known as the Cornfield, East and West Woods, and the Sunken Road; Lee’s men struggled against each of the Union’s advances. Entering hour eight of the battle, the Confederate army was pushed back, but not defeated. At this point, over 15,000 soldiers had been killed or wounded.

Burnside Bridge at Antietam
Burnside Bridge, Antietam National Battlefield
Photo Courtesy nps.gov
As the Union attacked the area of Sunken Road, General Burnside and his men attacked the Confederate’s right flank. His goal was to capture the bridge in the area. It took three hours for him to take the bridge. It was now 1 p.m., and Burnside and his troops regrouped and strategized for two hours before they decided to move forward. This delay cost them the advantage, as at that point, reinforcements led by Confederate General AP Hill had arrived from Harpers Ferry and forced the Union soldiers back.

The Confederate army’s flanks never collapsed far enough for McClellan to advance his center attack as he had planned, which left many Union soldiers alive since they never entered the battle. Both McClellan and Lee held their ground as the sun set; neither side admitting defeat.

The next day, September 18, both armies roamed the battleground gathering their wounded and burying the dead. Of the 100,000 men that engaged the battle, there were over 23,000 casualties. That night, Lee’s army withdrew back to Virginia, effectively ending Lee’s first invasion into the North. This provided President Lincoln the critical and long-awaited opportunity to issue the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation. An act which launched the war into its new purpose: Ending Slavery.



The Clara Barton Connection

Clara Barton on Conflict and Aiding Soldiers

Clara Barton, 1865

 
Dr James Dunn Quote about Clara Barton
Clara Barton was at the ready to aid the wounded soldiers during the Battle of Antietam on September 17, 1862. It took longer to arrive at the battlefield than she anticipated because her wagon was delayed behind the army’s massive supply line. Undaunted, she prodded her teamsters to drive the mules all night to get closer to the front lines. 

She arrived at the “Cornfield” battle area around noon. The medical surgeons stationed there were desperately dressing the soldiers’ wounds with corn husks, as the army’s medical supplies were slow in arriving compared to the quick-moving troops at Antietam. At her arrival, she delivered a wagon full of bandages and medical supplies she had personally collected over the course of a year.

She immediately settled into work. Her first surgery was performed at Antietam; she removed bullet from a soldier’s face, using—get this—her pocketknife. There was a woman there who dressed as a man to become a soldier in the army, and Barton also attended to her wounds. She prepared food for the injured soldiers and brought them water.

Her work at Antietam marked the first time she worked during a battle—and it was almost her last. As the battle raged on around her, she brought an injured solider a cup of water for him to drink. Kneeling down to give him the drink, she felt her sleeve shudder slightly. She later described the incident in these words: “A bullet sped its full and easy way between us, tearing a hole in my sleeve and found its way into his body.” (She never mended the bullet hole in her sleeve.) The soldier that was struck died in her arms, and the tough and valiant Clara Barton left him and moved on to the next soldier to continue working. It continued on-and-on like this until dark. The surgeons were hindered by the darkness; however Barton had brought lanterns with her in the wagon of supplies, so the doctors were able to continue their efforts through the night.
Clara Barton Memorial at Antietam
A Memorial to Clara Barton
stands at Antietam

Photo Courtesy nps.gov

After the Confederates retreated, the wagons of extra medical supplies were moved into Sharpsburg. Barton collapsed from sleep-deprivation and an onset of typhoid fever. She returned to Washington exhausted and delirious; however when she regained her strength, Clara Barton again returned to the Civil War battlefields, undaunted by her harrowing experiences at Antietam, to aid those who needed help the most. Famously, she said: “I may be compelled to face danger, but never fear it, and while our soldiers can stand and fight, I can stand and feed and nurse them.”

Explore On, Junior Rangers! :)


Source: nps.gov

Photo Credit: Clara Barton, 1865.
Courtesy of redcross.org

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