Antietam’s North Woods: What Metal Detectors Found Under a Union Staging Area

Union soldier statue, Antietam National Battlefield (NPS).

Archeologists surveyed a quarter of the North Woods at Antietam with metal detectors and found 317 military artifacts. Some of the bullets raise a question: did Confederate troops come closer to the woods than the historical accounts say?

The woods on September 17, 1862

At dawn, elements of General Hooker's First Corps advanced from camps north of the woods, south through the North Woods and past the D. R. Miller farmhouse, toward the Cornfield. Skirmishers at the Miller farm fired on them; the farm supposedly marked the northernmost advance of southern troops. Artillery fired on the advance too: Colonel S. D. Lee's batteries near the Dunker Church to the south, and Major John Pelham's batteries on Nicodemus Hill to the west. Fire grew heavier as the First Corps neared the Cornfield. Through the morning, Union forces held the woods as a staging area for the heavy fighting to the south. In the late morning the woods became a refuge for survivors and wounded of the First and Second Corps returning from the Cornfield and West Woods.

What the survey found

Military artifacts recovered in the North Woods metal-detector survey (NPS).

Archeologists from URS Greiner surveyed 25% of the original North Woods and found 317 military artifacts: 217 from small arms, 83 artillery shell fragments and 17 personal items. Another 50 objects, such as horsetack, may have been used by the military.

Locations of all fired small-arms bullets (NPS).

Fired bullets. Historic accounts say only Union troops held the North Woods, while the Confederates in this part of the field were about 400 yards south at the Miller farm. So every fired bullet found in the woods is attributed to incoming Confederate fire. But fired .69 caliber round balls and various conical .36 and .44 caliber pistol bullets were also recovered. The smoothbore musket that fired the round balls was outdated, with an effective range of about 100 yards. Pistols, carried mainly by line officers for defense, reached even less far. That raises questions about the documented Confederate line of advance.

Locations of all dropped small-arms bullets (NPS).

Dropped bullets. Unfired rounds came from Union troops stationed in or passing through the woods. Unfired Sharps bullets in the western part, along Hagerstown Pike, were dropped by members of the 2nd U.S. Sharpshooters or the 9th Pennsylvania Reserves as they marched south. A cluster of nearly identical .58 caliber conical "Minié balls" in a seemingly sheltered spot is attributed to the 19th Indiana Regiment, which was posted there for several hours.

Union and Confederate bullets

An assortment of dropped Union bullets (NPS).

Both sides generally used similar types of small-arms bullets. But the North Woods evidence suggests Union soldiers were better supplied with conical Minié bullets, which were fired from rifle muskets such as the U.S. "Springfield" and the English Enfield, the most common long arms of the Civil War.

An assortment of fired Confederate bullets (NPS).

The Confederate bullets point to heavier reliance on outdated smoothbore muskets firing .69 caliber round balls. Rifled long arms were also used, as shown by .58 caliber conical Minié bullets such as the southern-made Gardner and the English-style Pritchett (made for the Enfield). A high share of the fired Minié bullets found may be of Union manufacture, possibly taken from the Federal stores captured by General Stonewall Jackson's men at Harpers Ferry just before the battle.

Modified bullets

Soft lead bullets could be carved by soldiers, as an artistic outlet or to ease stress before battle or the tedium of army life (NPS).

Chewed bullets are often attributed to wounded soldiers trying to ease pain by "biting the bullet" (NPS).

A flattened, shaped and drilled bullet pendant, probably worn as a makeshift dog tag, or perhaps a favorite poker chip that never made it to the next game (NPS).

This article is part of the NPS series "Archeology at Antietam: The Effect of Battle on an Agrarian Landscape".

Sources

• National Park Service, Antietam National Battlefield, "Battle in the North Woods" (https://www.nps.gov/articles/battle-in-the-north-woods.htm); rewritten in hubnx's own words.