8 Sunken Road (Bloody Lane) For nearly 4 hours, Union and Confederate infantry contested this sunken country road, resulting in over 5,000 casualties. Thus the name “Bloody Lane”. Afternoon Phase (1 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.) 9 Lower Bridge (Burnside Bridge) The fighting here was a key factor in McClellan’s failure at Antietam. Called Burnside Bridge after the Union general whose troops were held off most of the day by a few hundred Georgia riflemen, it is the battlefield’s best-known landmark. 10 The Final Attack After taking the Lower Bridge and reforming his corps, Burnside marched his men across these hills toward Sharpsburg, threatening to cut off Lee’s line of retreat. Just as the Federals reached this area, A. P. Hill’s Confederate division arrived from Harpers Ferry and drove them back. 11 Antietam National Cemetery The remains of 4,776 Federal soldiers, including 1,836 unknowns, are buried in this hilltop cemetery near town. Most of the Confederate dead are buried in Hagerstown and Frederick, Md., Shepherdstown, W. Va., and in local church and family cemeteries. The battle of Antietam, fought over an area of 12 square miles, consisted of the three basic phases—morning, midday, and afternoon—shown on the maps at right. During the morning phase, three piecemeal Union attacks drove back Jackson’s line, but did not break it. The midday phase saw two Union divisions break D. H. Hill’s line in the sunken road, but McClellan’s failure to follow it up lost him the advantage that had been gained. In the afternoon phase, Burnside’s slow pincer movement beyond the lower bridge was broken by A. P. Hill’s timely arrival. [Illustration: Morning Phase] [Illustration: Midday Phase] [Illustration: Afternoon Phase] Transcriber’s Notes —Silently corrected a few typos. —Retained publication information from the printed edition: this eBook is public-domain in the country of publication. —In the text versions only, text in italics is delimited by _underscores_. End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Antietam National Battlefield, Maryland, by Frederick Tilberg