Page:Civil War The 42nd Infantry Division of Bedford County Virginia.djvu/18

 The battle of Antietam was fought at Sharpsburg, Maryland on September 16 and 17 of 1862. On September 6, 1862 a ragged host of 55,000 men crossed the Potomac River at White's Ford near Leesburg, Virginia. This was General Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. This was the first Confederate invasion of the North. It was untouched by battle, rich in crops; Maryland being a border state could probably be brought into the Confederacy, General Lee also wanted to get the Federal troops out of Virginia as harvest time was at hand and he could also march into Pennsylvania and cut off rail communication to the North, as well as being a threat to Washington, Baltimore and Philadelphia. Sept. 7 found him at Frederick, Maryland.

Another army under Major General George B. McClellan was forming just north of Washington. This Army was assembling at Rockville, Maryland and was 90,000 strong. General McClellan's orders from President Lincoln were to find and destroy the Confederate army.

General Lee's plans were to split his army, send the 1st Corps under General Longstreet to Hagerstown to hold back the Union forces if possible, General J. E. B. Stewart's calvarycavalry [sic] to hold McClellan's forces east of South Mountain and General Jackson's men to capture the Union garrisons at Martinsburg, West Virginia 2,500 strong and move on down on Harper's Ferry and take that garrison of 12,000 Union troops with the help of General McLaw's troops on the Maryland Heights and General Walker on the Loudon Heights all to strike Colonel D. S. Miles' troops at once on September 15.

This was General Lee's Special Order 191. A copy of which was lost at the camp site used by Lee's men at Frederick, Maryland and found by the Union troops two days later when they arrived. With this in hand General McClellan had a very good advantage.

General Jackson was to accomplish this as quickly as possible and join forces with General Longstreet and General Stewart at Sharpsburg, Maryland. As General Lee had decided not to withdraw across the Potomac, but to stay and fight at Sharpsburg as it offered one of the best places to fight, it had ready made fortifications–outcropping of rocks running parallel to the Hagerstown Pike which his forces would use to their advantage. Also Antietam Creek ran north to south with