Longstreet's Command

On September 17, 1862, Kershaw's Brigade of McLaws' Division in Longstreet's Command, under Brig. Gen. J.B. Kershaw, with the 2d, 7th, 3d, and 8th South Carolina Infantry, crossed the Potomac at Blackford's Ford about daybreak and halted in the western suburbs of Sharpsburg until nearly 9 a.m. It then crossed the fields and took position in the open ground southwest of the Dunkard Church, from which, supported by Walker's Division and Early's Brigade, it attacked the 34th New York Infantry of Sedgwick's Division, Second Corps, and the 125th Pennsylvania of the Twelfth Corps just west of the church, causing them to retire. Efforts to drive Greene's Division and the Federal artillery from the ridge east of the Hagerstown Pike were repulsed, and the brigade fell back beyond the western limits of the West Woods. Later in the day it moved to the northern part of the West Woods, where it remained until the night of the 18th, when it was withdrawn and recrossed the Potomac.

Maryland · United States