9th Corps Commander: Maj. Gen. Ambrose E. Burnside
Brig. Gen. Jacob D. Cox
2nd Division Commander: Brig. Gen. Samuel D. Sturgis
1st Brigade Commander: Brig. Gen. James Nagle
The 1st Brigade consisted of the following regiments
2nd Maryland
6th New Hampshire
9th New Hampshire
48th Pennsylvania
Background:
The 6th New Hampshire was a veteran unit having already seen action at Camden, Groveton, Second Bull Run, Chantilly, and South Mountain. Burnside was given the task of taking the stone bridge that crossed Antietam Creek. Across the creek and above it was Lee's right flank sparsely held by D. R. Jones' 50th Georgia Infantry.
Burnside's Attack
About 10 A.M. Burside received McClelland's 9:10 A.M. order to attack the stone bridge. The 11th Connecticut was assigned the task of feeling out the enemy strength. The 11th got down to the creek and formed a skirmish line along the bank, but the Rebels begin to pick them off and losses mounted steadily. One company attempted to wade across the creek, but was cut to pieces and returned. Col. Crook and his Ohio regiment were given the job of assaulting the bridge but became disoriented in the terrain and wound up 350 yards upstream from the bridge where they became pinned down. The following excerpts are from "Landscape Turned Red - The Battle of Antietam," Stephen W. Sears, Book of the Month Club, New York: 1994:
General Sturgis was given the next turn at the stone bridge and he called on James Nagle's brigade. No one could get lost this time, for the assault was to be made at the double-quick on the Rohrersville road that ran alongside the creek straight to the target. The 2nd Maryland was picked to lead the charge in a column of fours, followed by the 6th New Hampshire. The rest of brigade was positioned to provide covering fire in the hope of keeping the Rebels' heads down. There would be more artillery preparation this time, too, and every Federal gun that would bear opened a thunderous barrage on the bridge defenders. The 300 men in the assaulting column were lined up in the plowed field next to the Rohrbach lane, and as the barrage lifted the order was given to fix bayonets and advance.
With the Maryllanders' Lieutenant Colonel Jacob Duryea at its head, the column charged onto the road and toward the bridge 250 yards away. It was immediately hit in flank and front by a withering fire from across the creek and by a hail of shells from the Confederate batteries on the high ground beyond. Dr. Theodore Dimon, a surgeon with the 2nd Maryland, was watching the charge. Colonel Duryea looked back, Dimon wrote, and "saw the Regiment shrinking and elbowing out under this tremendous fire and just ready to break...He demanded, "What in hell are you doing there? Straighten that line there! Forward!" Under this spur they kept going, but dozens of men were now being knocked down at every step by the scything vollys, particularyly from the Georgians crowded into the old quarry on the hillside. Finally the Yankees could take no more of it and the column disintegrated, the men ducking and running for whatever cover they could find. In these few minutes the 2nd Maryland suffered casualities of 44 percent.
At 12:30 P.M. the 51st New York and the 51st
Pennsylvania were sent straight down the hill to the bridge, 670
strong. The rebels hit them hard and the officers, seeing that
the men would not be able to carry the bridge, pulled them off
to the left and right. After a time, the Rebels had been firing
for three hours, ammunition ran low and the Rebels began to pull
back in twos and threes. The Pennsylvania regiment responded to
the slackening fire and charged and carried the bridge. The rest
of Sturgis' troops crossed the bridge and drove the Rebels back
on the town of Sharpsburg.