"Thoughts on the Reason "Why."" Topic

This is my newest entry on Ramblings of a Military Historian at:

johnmpriest.blogspot.com

Hi JMP,
You spoke of the topography of Antietam. I imagine that 90 pct of visitors to the Sunken Lane drive up and then climb the nearby observation tower for its sweeping panoramic view of the general battlefield.

My friend Kermit and I took a different approach on our (sadly) last visit there. We started from Roulette's farm and climbed the slope up toward the sunken lane. When we neared the crest, I went ahead and took a position in the sunken road facing in the direction of Roulette. Kermit then continued his "march" uphill until I told him I could see his head and shoulders. We then paced off the distance between us – which proved to be about 30-35 yards.

The sunken road position facing Roulette was, in effect, a cleverly masked position which could only be seen within point-blank "can't miss" killing distance. This is not evident even when examining modern topographical maps.

As they say – "The devil is always in the details".

B

I had the opportunity to follow the route of the Irish Brigade to the sunken road (OK, not all the way to the road)with small battalion of reenacters.

From our perspective we saw about nothing until we popped up about fifty paces from the Confederates. From the crowds perspective they saw flags approaching and then all of a sudden us at suicidal close range.

The park ranger's perspective (actual quote) "ing awesome."

Had read a lot of Antietam and could never understand why the Union kept assaulting a position that was clearly well-nigh impregnable. Until I walked the ground like Blutarski and his friend. Made me shiver to think about what they must have felt cresting those final few yards,

The Devil is in the details. Antietam is a very different field from Gettysburg. However, in all fairness, the I Corps was shot to pieces in the morning on July 1 because of ground fog, high humidity, and a lingering haze in the air until the shooting started and then it got worse.

At Antietam at the Bloody Lane, for reasons unknown, the first Union line going in did not, to my knowledge, send out skirmishers. Neither did Sedgwick in his attack on the West Woods.