Roulette Farm Antietam

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Antietam - II Corps Attacks, The SunkenRoad

September 17, 1862

Daniel Harvey Hill's division had already intervened in the fluid battles near the East Woods, so even though it held a strong position in a sunken road, the division was somewhat weakened. The two remaining divisions of Sumner's corps were approaching the battlefield, and the sunken road would soon become the Bloody Lane. General Lee arrived to investigate and was told by Col. John B Gordon of the 6th Alabama that, 'The men are going to stay here, General, till the sun goes down or victory is won!' By the end of the fight, Gordon was wounded six times, knocked out, and fell into his hat, which was filling with his own blood. Gordon would survive only because a hole had been blown into the hat, allowing the blood to drain.

Significance: The Roulette farm is significant both as an example of the area's early architecture and due to its relationship to the Civil War Battle of Antietam. The Antietam barns are forebay Pennsylvania bank barns. Built by German and Swiss settlers in the mid-Atlantic states in the 19th century, the barns have a recessed stable wall on the first level, while the main barn level extends above the stable wall by about 8 to 10 feet. The stable wall, typically built of stone, is called a forebay. The Battle of Antietam on September 17, 1862 was the bloodiest day in American military history. Over 22,000 Americans were killed, wounded or captured on this day near the small farming community of Sharpsburg, Maryland. The fighting had started to the north of the farm owned by William and Margaret Roulette but made its way onto their land. Sunlight obscures detail to the far right, but the stone Observation Tower, probably the best place to take in the battlefield, juts out. In the middle is the farm lane leading to William Roulette's barn (in the far distance), which was used as a field hospital during and after the battle, and farm house.

Lee and DH Hill moved to higher ground behind the Sunken Road, where they were joined by Longstreet. Lee and Longstreet dismounted from their horses to inspect the enemy without drawing unnecessary attention. DH Hill, however, was recovering from an incident earlier in the day when a horse had been shot from underneath him, and he declined to a request from Longstreet to dismount. Longstreet asked the difficult General Hill to keep his distance - and prudently so. A flash came from Union artillery across Antietam Creek, and in a few seconds the two front legs of Hill's horse were blown off. A sore Harvey Hill struggled to extricate himself from the animal.

The three divisions of Sumner's II Corps approached the battle separately. Lagging behind Sedgwick's division, which had met disaster in the West Woods, was the division of French, followed about an hour later by that of Richardson. The confusion was so great that French had no idea where Sedgwick was, even after arriving at the East Woods. As he was separated from Sedgwick and Sumner, he took up position on the left of Greene's division of the XII Corps near the Smoketown Road. French's division ended up advancing along the axis of the lane from the Mumma farm, the one prominent here, and along the lane connecting the Roulette farm to the sunken road. The 5,700 men of the Union division were heading into a strong Confederate position manned by just 2,500 men. The Yankees had the advantage of numbers, but it would be a difficult fight.

From the Observation Tower

This is the view down the Sunken Road from the Park Service observation tower. French's division deployed generally between the Mumma and Roulette sites and advancedon the the Sunken Road. The Sunken Road beyond the bend at the group of trees was defended by Rodes' brigade. George Anderson's brigade defended the sunken road further to the right, closer to the foreground.

French Repulsed

Weber's brigade attacked and took a devastating volley at under 100 yards, then fell back behind the crest of the hill. A Confederate counter-attack, including one on the Union right flank from near the Visitors Center - the 8th SC of Kershaw's brigade - was beaten back. Morris's brigade in support continued the attack but made no progress. French committed his final brigade, that of Kimball. It, too, was repulsed. French's division lost 1,750 that day, around 30% of its strength, making it incapable of further attacks.

Richardson and Anderson Arrive

French's division had been repulsed in the fields beyond the fences on the left of the panorama. Now, the final division of Sumner's corps, the 4,000 man command of Richardson, was arriving. On the Confederate side, Lee's final reserve, the 3,400 men of R.H. Anderson's division, was also arriving. Anderson extendedthe line to the base of the modern observation tower, while some of the men deployed in acornfield behind the sunken road so they could fire over their comrades'heads. Richardson's division arrived to the left of French, generally between the lane to the Roulette house and the modern observation tower. Already, George Anderson had been mortally wounded, Gordon was knocked out and nearly drown in his blood, and Richard Anderson was wounded leading his men through heavy fire from the Piper Farm toward the battle.

Irish Brigade Attacks

Meagher's Irish Brigade was the first of Richardson's brigades to attack, just to the left of French. After pushing back Confederates trying to flank French's division, an attack on the sunken road was repulsed. Newly arriving Confederate units counter-attacked, but they, too, were repulsed. The Irish Brigade was badly cut up and was sent to the rear. Its placewas taken by Caldwell's brigade. Caldwell had been on the extreme left of the line,overlapping the Rebel flank, but his movement to thecenter prevented any turning of the strong Confederate position.

Confusion in the Sunken Road

Caldwell pressed the attack. By that time, the sunken road had become too crowded with southerners to maintain order. Col. Carnot Posey ordered his brigade from the road to the rear to relieve the congestion. Confusion, however, was the result, with all of R.H. Anderson's division following them to the rear, then George Anderson's brigade also fell back - all of them taking heavy casualties in the process. Only two regiments were left in the right half of the sunken road. Francis Barlow, in command of the 61st and 64th NY, moved to get an enfilade fire on the two remaining Confederate regiments then advanced and captured around 300 men.

Rodes' Brigade In Confusion

On the left half of the Confederate sunken road line there was similar confusion. In the area on the right of this panorama, you can see how the road rises to nearly the level of the surrounding ground, making it vulnerable to Union fire. The road also turns slightly to the right, forming a salient. This area was held by the 6th Alabama, now under the command of Lt Col Lightfoot since the wounding of Gordon. Lightfoot explained the situation to Rodes, his brigade commander, and he was ordered to move the vulnerable men to the shelter of a lower portion of the sunken road. Misunderstanding this, Lightfoot ordered his men to the rear. Like the situation on the right flank with Posey, the retreat spread, with Rodes' entire brigade falling back and taking heavy in the process casualties.

The Confederates had lost the Sunken Road, leaving a pile of bodies in the process. The center of Lee's army was in confusion, and disaster was looming for the Southern cause.

Union Views:

These are views from in front of the Sunken Road - views only available in the cold season when crops are not being cultivated.

Cooke's Counterattack

Greene's division near the Dunker Church (between the visitors center and the West Woods) had been unaware of Sedgwick's disaster and remained in place. Greene was flanked on both sides and pushed back to East Woods. Cooke's brigade of 675 Confederates was ordered by Longstreet to advance to the Mumma farm to relieve pressure on the sunken road. Rodes' brigade was meant to cooperate but by this time it had already fallen back. So Cooke continued in a hopeless attack, capturing stragglers that they didn't take the time to disarm. Part of French's division, including the 14th Connecticut, and even some of Richardson's division, countered the move. Cooke was forced back, and during the retreat his men had to endure fire from their rear from their Federal prisoners. Cooke's Confederates formed line on the Hagerstown Pike.

To the Rear of the Sunken Road From Observation Tower

D.H. Hill managed to scrape together several hundredConfederates and some artillery near the Piper Farm. The artillery threw backRichardson's infantry with canister shot, and Hill with 200 infantry advancedtoward the modern tower to flank the Federals in the Sunken Road. Althoughthis attempt failed, it bought enough time for Longstreet to bring up enoughartillery and infantry to hold the line at the Piper Farm. Richardson reorganized to continue the attack, but he was mortally wounded and a serious attack never took place. The Yankees had lost 3,000 men near the Sunken Road compared to southern losses of 2,600 men from a much smaller force. A continued Union effort here most certainly would have succeeded and destroyed Lee's army.
McClellan now had the 10,000 men of V Corps and Pleasonton's3,500 cavalry in reserve near the Middle Bridge. The location of thesereserves was a mile from the Sunken Road and is in the area visible on the left ofthe picture in the distance. These men could have advanced over thehill with the town cemetery and the national cemeteryand into Sharpsburg almost unopposed. McClellan could have easily destroyed Lee's army, but fearing that Lee had much greater numbers than he actually did, Mac would not commit the reserve.

Chamberlaine Gun

The Confederate situation was desperate enough that Longstreet and his staff helped serve the guns at the Piper Farm. Here along the Hagerstown Pike at the intersection with the lane to the Piper Farm, Lt William Chamberlaine found an abandoned gun with a single wounded horse. Chamberlaine organized some fellow infantrymen to serve it, firing down the lane at Yankees near the Piper buildings. Finding more help, Chamberlaine moved the gun up the hill on the left of the panorama. There, they had a much wider field of fire.

Chamberlaine's New Position

From the new position Chamberlaine saw a Union attack on the Dunker Church. With a good shot down the attacking Union line, Chamberlaine pitched in with his gun. Soon, however, the Yankees would threaten him directly. Confederate infantry from the Sunken Road action rallied at some nearby rock outcroppings, likely the ones visible here. Union pursuers were hot on their heels. The Yankees went right for the gun, but the inexperienced gunners did effective work, repulsing three attacks and protecting the vital north/south Hagerstown Pike.

From Piper Barn

This is the view from near the Piper barn, with the house visible on the right. Desperate fighting continued in the orchard between the Piper's and the sunken road. (You can see the stone tower marking the location of the Sunken Road.) Eventually, though, Confederate artillery convinced the Yankees to withdraw behind their hard-fought gains at Bloody Lane. A great opportunity to puncture the Confederate line and drive Lee into the Potomac had been lost. But the battle wasn't over yet, and Burnside's IX Corps had not yet made a major effort. Despite lost opportunities, prospects for Union victory were still bright.

Like witnesses standing sentry, the barns spread across Antietam National Battlefield rise up from the corn and soybean fields that make up the 3,000-acre national park in Sharpsburg. Now the barns are being preserved, giving visitors a glimpse into 19th-century farm life as well as a look at buildings that played a key role in nursing surviving soldiers back to health.

The Battle of Antietam was the bloodiest one-day battle ever for American troops, with 23,000 killed, wounded, and missing on Sept. 17, 1862. Many of the 15,000 wounded soldiers were treated initially in these and other barns that surround the town of Sharpsburg.

The large, airy, well-ventilated bank barns made for ideal hospitals under trying circumstances. Hundreds of soldiers could be treated in some of the largest barns, and they didn’t need to travel far to get care. Nearly every barn, along with churches and some homes, functioned as hospitals for months after the battle.

Roulette Farm Antietam Museum

For the past 20 years or so, National Park Service staff at Antietam have been restoring the barns, repairing and rehabilitating what they can save, and replacing what they can’t. The park restored the Poffenberger Barn in the early 2000s. More recently, the park has restored the Newcomer and Parks barns, and the Roulette barn should be completed next spring.

The barns tell a story, not only of the battle, but of the farm families who lived there before and after. They tell a story of 19th century agriculture and a way of life that has largely disappeared.

The Antietam barns are forebay Pennsylvania bank barns. Built by German and Swiss settlers in the mid-Atlantic states in the 19th century, the barns have a recessed stable wall on the first level, while the main barn level extends above the stable wall by about 8 to 10 feet. The stable wall, typically built of stone, is called a forebay. Four bays, or openings, are cut into the stone.

Newcomer Barn

Work on the Newcomer Barn began about 2014, said Doug Gaylor, who worked with fellow NPS staffers Travis Divelbiss and Andrew Michael to restore the Newcomer and Parks barns. “Each barn has their own details that make them stand out,” said Ben Wagner, chief of facilities. The Newcomer Barn, built in 1831, is the largest barn on the battlefield, and one of the tallest. It stands out to drivers who pass it on Md. 34 east of Sharpsburg. The barn overlooks Antietam Creek.

The NPS acquired the Newcomer Barn in 2003. Before work could begin, the building needed to be assessed and stabilized. Funding shortages meant restoration couldn’t begin until 2014. “We were jumping back and forth between several jobs,” Gaylor said.

The workers started with the foundation. Good foundations keep a barn standing, and all three barns were on eroding foundations, Gaylor said. They were built on stone, not concrete footings. Manure, termites, and farm use rotted much of the foundation. Gaylor and his crew dug down and installed 3-foot footers in several areas to reinforce the foundation. Gaylor then covered the modern concrete with dirt to hide the 21st-century changes.

The barn’s original ground-level stone wall was crumbling. Gaylor photographed and numbered each stone so they could be reassembled in the right order. Clay Elliott, of the NPS staff at Antietam, did much of the masonry work, aided by Jason Runk and Patrick Godwin. They repeated this process in restoring the Parks Barn.

New stable doors were made for the Newcomer Barn, along with strap hinges and pintle bolts made to look as though they were forged. “We had to replace all the posts and sills in the barn,” Gaylor said. Those also had to be replaced in the other barns. The thick-beamed wooden sills and posts sit on the old stone foundation, which caused them to rot.

The 95-foot by 48-foot barn is the battlefield’s largest, with the exception of the Pry Barn in Keedysville. It also has the steepest roof pitch, Gaylor said. The exterior siding was replaced with similar white oak. Half the floor joists were re-placed, and 60 percent of the rafters. The barn doors to the upper floor were replaced with quarter-sawn oak, which keeps the wood fibers straight and strengthens the doors. A new shingled roof was built.

“Everything we did went back to the original,” Gaylor said. In a few months, the barn will be whitewashed.

Parks Barn

This 65-foot by 48-foot barn sits along the Three Farms Trail a quarter-mile from Md. 34. Sometimes called the Cunningham Barn for the last family to live on the farm, the whitewashed barn also has new siding, many new floor joists, new barn doors and new rafters.

Roulette Farm Antietam Trail

The forebay wall and stone foundation walls got new mortar. Part of the original stone wall had been removed, and it was restored with stone from a Keedysville barn. The barn’s load-bearing summer beam was salvaged. Signs of its use as a dairy barn remain.

“You’ll see a difference with the Roulette Barn,” Wagner said. “These are rehabilitations. The Roulette Barn is a preservation. In some areas of these barns, we were taking off newer components. In the Roulette Barn, we’re preserving the historical components of what’s there.”

Roulette Barn

NPS’s Historic Preservation Training Center is taking the lead on the Roulette Barn preservation. Mark Segro, project lead, is an exhibit specialist. “Our mission is to provide hands-on training,” he said. NPS staff and apprentices learn historic building techniques.

Roulette Farm Antietam Golf Course

The 90-foot by 40-foot Roulette Barn, built about 1855, has outsheds on either side of the barn’s main floor entrance. The barn was built with wood recycled from late 18th-century farm buildings. The stable level has a mix of old posts and metal posts, added probably in the 1940s. The older posts are being preserved with new sections added where the bottoms rotted.

Roulette Farm Lane Antietam

Concrete block walls, stanchions, and a grain bin remain from the barn’s mid-20th century role as a dairy barn. If Antietam ever opens the barns for tours, they will give a picture of Washington County farm life through the ages.

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