I Found the Enemy in Great Force

About 9:30 a.m., the battle shifted from the north end of the battlefield toward the Sunken Road. Two divisions from the Union Second Corps moved across the Mumma and Roulette farm fields. Initially, more than 5,000 soldiers commanded by Gen. William H. French assaulted the Confederate position after French was ordered to press the enemy with all of his force, and they became locked in a bloody and costly struggle against Confederates positioned in the well-worn sunken farm road. Approximately an hour later, Gen. Israel Richardson's division of more than 4,000 men moved in to support them. Gen. Nathan Kimble, whose men advanced across this ground, recalled finding the enemy in great force in a narrow road running parallel with his line and forming a natural rifle pit between his line and a large cornfield; as his line advanced to the crest of the hill, a murderous fire opened from the entire force in front, checking the advance, and for three hours and thirty minutes the battle raged incessantly without either side giving way. French's division led the assault moving across this ground from left to right in front, and seventy percent of his men had never been in a battle, with many having enlisted only two weeks before Antietam. During the battle this field was planted in corn, the trees along the fence line were not there, and the ground to the south of the fence was open pasture. Confederates under commanding Gen. D.H. Hill were strongly positioned behind stacked fence rails in the Sunken Road.

Keedysville, Maryland · United States