Burnside's Bridge

Burnside's Bridge is a landmark on the U.S. Civil War Antietam National Battlefield near Sharpsburg, northwestern Maryland.

The three-arched, 12-foot (3.7 m)-wide, 125-foot (38 m)-long bridge provided a passageway over Antietam Creek for farmers to take their produce and livestock to market in nearby Sharpsburg.

The bridge's three arches are constructed of locally quarrried coursed limestone, masonry walls contain the roadbed and are surmounted by parapets.

[2] Crossing over Antietam Creek, the bridge played a key role in the September 1862 Battle of Antietam during the American Civil War when around 500 Confederate soldiers from Georgia under General Robert Toombs and Henry Benning,[3] for several hours held off repeated attempts by elements of the Union Army's IX Army Corps, whose leader was Major General Ambrose E. Burnside, to take the bridge.

[citation needed] Finally, the 51st New York Volunteer Infantry and the 51st Pennsylvania Infantry, from Brigadier General Edward Ferrero's brigade, attacked from the field on the Union side of the creek, stopped briefly at the walls near the bridge to duel with the sharpshooters, and then charged the bridge and seized it, but not before the attack had been delayed for several hours beyond what had been expected.

Charge of the 51st New York Infantry and 51st Pennsylvania Infantry regiments across Burnside's Bridge, by Edwin Forbes .
Confederate guns on the hill above poured fire into the Union ranks at Burnside's bridge. Photo taken just after the Battle of Antietam, 1862.
1937 commemorative half dollar