Burnside's Bridge

Martin Schenck, LL.B. Albany Law School, 1937, is an Albany County Judge. During his World War II private-to-captaincy service, he was well indoctrinated in large-scale müitary operations at the Command and General Staff School, Fort Leavenworth. Less officially he has "reconnoitered " every major battlefield of Lee's A. N. Va. Writings include a biography of A. P. Hül. Burnside's Bridge MARTIN SCHENCK at eight o'clock on the MOBNiNG of September 17, 1862, George B. McClellan, commander of the Army of the Potomac, stood on the steps of a farmhouse near the Boonsboro-Sharpsburg road in Maryland. He had to raise his voice to make himseU heard above the thunder of artiUery a müe or so to the northwest. "Lieutenant Wüson," he said, "a dispatch for General Bumside. Urgent!" He handed the young lieutenant a sealed envelope and abruptly turned and entered the house.1 Lieutenant James H. Wüson jumped into the saddle and dashed down the road toward Antietam Creek. At that moment, Ambrose E. Bumside, commander of the Right Wing of the Army of the Potomac, moodüy looked down from the heights above Antietam Creek at the triple-arched stone bridge that would forever after bear bis name. Slowly he shook his head. To cross the bridge, troops would first have to descend the hül several hundred yards downstream and then move along the road that paralleled the creek. Bumside gazed at the opposite bank. There were no enemy in sight, but he knew that the hülside facing his entire front was honeycombed with Confederate rifle pits and some small cannon. To his right he could hear the roar of battle. He knew that McCleHan's plan called for him to attack that ominously quiet bank across the Antietam, so that the left wing of the 1 McCleHan's report covering the incident of Burnside's Bridge appears in The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1880-1901), Ser. I, Vol. 19, Pt. 1, pp. 63 ff.; cited hereinafter as O.R., followed by the series number in roman numerals, the volume number in arable numerate, the part number (if any), and the page, as O.R., I, 19, pt. 1, pp. 63 ff. The report clearly states that the order was issued at 8:00 A.M. MARTIN SGHENCK HOOKER H0K50N LON 6STREET SHARPSBURG UtS HDQTS. ** MANSF(EU) SUMNER Q M(CLEUAfTS HOOTS¿? AP. HIU BURNSIOe TOOMBS SCA kE~ Burnside's Bridge7 Army could move in support of the right where the corps of Joseph K. F. Mansfield, E. V. Sumner, and Joseph "Fighting Joe" Hooker were in bloody contact with the troops of Thomas J. "StonewaU" Jackson and James "Old Pete" Longstreet. General Bumside looked at the bridge for a long moment and then headed back toward his tent a short distance behind the lines. Just what time it was that the brash young Wilson clattered up to Burnside's headquarters is not clear. Bumside, in his official report, indicates it was ten o'clock.2 Why it should have taken the hard-riding Wüson two hours to cover little more than two mües is difficult to understand . The speed and dash which were soon to mark Wüson's rapid rise to the positions of inspector general under Grant and cavalry corps leader under Sheridan would indicate that he was probably with Bumside by a few minutes after eight. This surmise is fortified by the report of Burnside 's corps commander, Jacob Cox, who states that at nine o'clock he received orders to prepare to cross the stream.3 The precise time, however , is of little consequence. General Bumside took McCleHan's message with a curt nod to the lieutenant. He didn't need to read it His eyes merely ranged over the penned words. He glanced at Wüson who was now impatiently shifting his weight from one foot to the other. "No answer is necessary, Lieutenant." The General sat at his field desk staring vacantly around the tent as the hoofbeats of W...