Burnside Bridge at Antietam National Battlefield

ANTIETAM NATIONAL BATTLEFIELD TOUR

STOP 8:  BURNSIDE BRIDGE

Allow 20 minutes for a visit
Add 45 minutes to hike the Union Advance Trail
Add 1 hour to hike the Snavely Ford Trail
Add 1 hour to hike the Final Attack Trail

The eighth stop on the Antietam National Battlefield Tour is at the very southern end of the battlefield at the Burnside Bridge. Originally known as the Rohrbach Bridge or the Lower Bridge when built in 1836, the bridge connected Sharpsburg on the west side of Antietam Creek to Rohrersville on the east side. It was used for vehicle traffic up until 1966. At that time it was restored to its 1862 appearance (there are plenty of photos of the bridge from the time of the battle). In addition to seeing the bridge at this tour stop, there are trailheads for three hiking trails in the area: the Snavely Ford Trail, the Union Advance Trail, and the Final Attack Trail.

The parking lot for the tour stop is high above the bridge. From here you have a view from where the Confederates would have been positioned during the Battle of Antietam. Union troops were on the other side of Antietam Creek attempting to cross. A paved walkway, which has stairs, leads down to the bridge, and it is very steep. The stairs are half size, supposedly so that those in wheelchairs can get down them with help. However, dragging somebody down to the bridge in a wheelchair is a very formidable task.

Steep walkway down to the Burnside Bridge at Antietam National Battlefield

There were two ways across Antietam Creek on the southern end of the battlefield: the Rohrbach Bridge and Snavely Ford. As the crow flies, there is three quarters of a mile between the two, but there was only the single division of General David R. Jones left to defend the area. And of these 3,300 men, only 550 Georgians under the command of General Robert Toombs were stationed on the high ground surrounding the bridge. Confederate general Robert E. Lee had moved many of his troops from the south end of his battle line to the north to join in the fighting at The Cornfield and then Bloody Lane during the morning and early afternoon of the battle.

On the other side of the creek trying to get across was the entire Union 9th Corps (11,000 men) commanded by General Ambrose Burnside. Under normal circumstances, it is possible to wade across Antietam Creek near the Rohrbach Bridge, as the water is only waist deep. However, it has a very slippery bottom, and soldiers wearing wool uniforms and primitive shoes—not to mention being shot at—were very likely to fall, and if so, their black powder would be ruined. Thus, crossing via a bridge was the only realistic option for the Union army.

Though the Confederates were highly outnumbered, the bridge was a bottleneck for the Union infantry. Situated on the high ground 80 feet above the creek and with plenty of boulders and trees to use as cover, Confederate muskets and artillery could easily lay into anyone attempting to cross. Furthermore, on the east side of the creek was an open field that offered little cover for those waiting to cross the 12-foot-wide bridge in narrow columns.

Confederate viewpoint of the Burnside Bridge at Antietam National Battlefield

Burnside knew that taking control of the bridge would be costly, so he sent 3,200 men under the command of General Isaac P. Rodman south to Snavely Ford—an area shallow enough to cross on foot—to attack the very end of the Confederate right flank. However, the terrain was very difficult to move through, and Rodman didn’t make it to the ford until noon.

While Rodman made his way south, Burnside sent 450 men of the 11th Connecticut Infantry against the bridge around 10 AM. Within a half hour a third of the men were dead or wounded, and the attack was called off. And keep in mind that the regiment never actually reached the bridge.

A second attack around 11 AM was headed by General George Crook’s brigade. Half his men ended up 300 yards upstream where they got pinned down by Confederate fire, and those who did make it towards the bridge met a similar fate as the 11th Connecticut. This was followed by a third assault around 11:30 AM by General Samuel D. Sturges’ division. The first brigade to attack was that of General James Nagle. Two of his regiments suffered substantial losses and had to pull back, promoting Nagle to halt a third regiment from advancing on the bridge.

A fourth attack by Edward Ferrero’s brigade began around 12 PM. However, by this time the situation had changed. Rodman had reached Snavely Ford and began crossing, and Toombs’s Georgians were running low on ammunition. The 51st Pennsylvania and the 51st New York led the attack and were initially held back, but when word of Rodman’s crossing reached Toombs, he began withdrawing his men. When the Union troops advanced to the foot of the bridge around 1 PM, Toombs ordered a full retreat back towards Sharpsburg.

Burnside Bridge Battle Map

The Union suffered 500 casualties (dead or wounded) during the attempt to capture the Rohrbach Bridge while the Confederates suffered 100 trying to keep it. It took two hours to get the entire 9th Corps across the bridge. When that was accomplished, and Rodman’s men had arrived back from Snavely Ford, Burnside launched a final attack on what remained of the Confederates on the southern end of the battlefield.

After the war, the bridge became known as the Burnside Bridge. Many monuments, mostly Union, honoring those who fought and died in the battle were erected. Nearly all of them are on the west side of the bridge where Burnside’s 9th Corps was stationed at the start of the battle.

Union monuments at the Burnside Bridge, Antietam National Battlefield

The largest monument at the Burnside Bridge is for an individual who didn’t die at Antietam. In fact, he didn’t even fight. Sergeant William McKinley, 19 years old in 1862, of the 23rd Ohio Volunteer Infantry was in charge of the Commissary Department. On the spot marked by the monument, he served coffee and hot meals to the Union soldiers who fought over the bridge, all while under constant fire from the Confederates. It is certainly doubtful that McKinley would have such a grand monument on the battlefield had he not become the 25th president of the United States. The monument was dedicated in 1903, two years after his assassination.

William McKinley Monument near the Burnside Bridge at Antietam National Battlefield

Stop 9: Final Attack | Stop 7: Bloody Lane | Battlefield Tour Home Page

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