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6 unusual facts about Antietam Creek


17th Georgia Infantry

Toombs' Brigade performed well, defending the right flank of Lee's army and preventing the IX Corps of Ambrose Burnside from readily crossing Antietam Creek.

34th New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment

At 7:30 on the morning of September 17, 1862, the Thirty-fourth Regiment left camp near Keedysville, crossed the Antietam Creek and marched westward into the East Woods, now extinct.

Antietam Creek

Communities in the watershed include Waynesboro in Pennsylvania; and Boonsboro, Funkstown, Hagerstown, Mount Aetna, Sharpsburg and Smithsburg in Maryland.

Burnside's Bridge became a major focus of combat as Union forces under General Ambrose Burnside repeatedly tried to capture the bridge from Confederate forces guarding the crossing from a high bluff overlooking the creek.

Funkstown, Maryland

The plan for a village named “Jerusalem,” bounded on three sides by the Antietam Creek, was unveiled by Jacob Funck in 1767.

Henry L. Benning

At the Battle of Antietam, Benning's brigade was a crucial part in the defense of the Confederate right flank, guarding "Burnside's Bridge" across Antietam Creek all morning against repeated Union assaults.


Jacob Eugene Duryée

At the Battle of Antietam, Duryée stalwartly led his regiment from the front as the men tried to take the infamous Burnside's Bridge over Antietam Creek in the face of withering fire from Georgia regiments on the hills on the opposite bank.

Sharpsburg, Maryland

During the American Civil War, the Battle of Antietam (or Battle of Sharpsburg) was fought on what is now Antietam National Battlefield, in the vicinity of Antietam Creek.


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