THE MARYLAND CAMPAIGN OF 1862

THE MARYLAND CAMPAIGN OF 1862: THROUGH ARKANSAS EYES

Manning’s Brigade pulled back and took their wounded commander to a place south of the West Woods.

Many of the other Confederate Brigades had participated in chasing the Union Forces out of the north part of the West Woods. However, due to cannonade by Union cannon positions reinforced by Union Infantry along the west side of the East Woods,Union Cannon Positions north of the North Woods with Hofmann’s Brigade of Doubleday’s Division of I Corps as support and the reformation of Sedgwick’s Division,the Confederate Forces that had been chasing Sedgwick’s Brigades northward had been repulsed and drifted back into the West Woods.

When the Confederates had moved north it created a vacuum. Tyndale’s and Stainbrook’s Brigades of Greene’s Division of XII Corps after stopping Manning’s 3 Regiments moved into a portion of the West Woods created by the vacuum.

The 27th NC and 3rd Arkansas, which had been sent as support for Patterson’s Georgia Battery, now held the gap between the Confederate forces drifting back into the West Woods and Hill’s two brigades and Cobb’s Brigade of McLaw’s Division in the Sunken Road.

The scene of serious battle momentarily shifted to the Confederate Center at the Sunken Road as French’s Division of Sumner’s II Corps assaulted the Sunken Road.

While the fight for the Sunken Road was going on, the left side Greene’s Union Division flushed out Confederates out of the West Woods. However, they ran into opposition from Patterson’s Battery and musketry fromthe 27th and 3rd. The two regiments had been behind a hill to the west of the Hagerstown Pike on which the battery was located. When the battery retired, they moved forward and occupied the north and northeastern part of a cornfield behind a worm wood fence facing the West Wood.

Directed by Colonel Cooke, who was in front of his troops behind a tree and subject to intense fire, the two regiments’ musketry kept Stainbrook’s Brigade, which was the left of Greene’s Line, busy and frustrated any advance. Stainbrook’s men returned fire which resulted in a very spirited duel. The one fallacy in Greene’s moving into the West Woods was his belief that Sedgwich’s Division still held the northern part of the West Woods and covered his right flank. He wouldn’t let his right regiments fire north of their position. A Confederate Force of the 49th NC had positioned itself on their right flank and by noon had been joined by the rest of Ransom’s Brigade plus the 46th NC from Manning’s Brigade. The Confederates struck hard on the Union right flank and one by one Greene’s regiments began to stream from the West Woods over the Hagerstown Pike to the Hill east of the Dunker Church and down into Mumma’s Swale and toward the protection of the Union Batteries near the East Woods.Some of the Union soldiers including General Tyndale had stopped in Mumma’s Swale and were hidden from Ransom’s sight.

However, Colonel Cooke maneuvered 3 of the 27th NC companies into a position for a volley; fired and wounded General Tyndale; and inflicted casualties on a section of Knapp’s Union Battery that had moved into the Swale to ambush Ransom’s Men.Another Union Battery, the 1st Rhode Island Light Artillery, under Captain Owen had come to help reinforce the Union Position. But the push from Ransom and continued volleys routed some of the Union troops that were in the Swale.