The Witness Tree

Antietam

The Witness Tree at
Burnside Bridge

This sycamore tree has survived over one hundred forty years since witnessing the fight for the Burnside Bridge on September 17, 1863.

CW1831

 

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Brigadier General Samuel Sturgis, commanding the Second Division of the Ninth Corps: “Meantime orders arrived from General Burnside to carry the bridge at all hazards. I then selected the Fifty-first New York and the Fifty-fist Pennsylvania from the Second Brigade, and directed them to charge with the bayonet. They started on their mission of death full of enthusiasm, and . . . rushed at a double-quick over the slope leading to the cridge and over the bridge itself with an impetuosity which the enemy could not resist, and the Stars and Stripes were planted on the opposite bank at 1 o’clock p. m., amid the most enthusiastic cheering from every part of the field from where they could be seen. Having crossed the bridge, the Second Brigade field to the right, the First Brigade to the left, and both moved up and occupied the high ground at once. . . .” -- from Sturgis’ battle report, in War of the Rebellion: Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, series I, volume 19, part 1, page 444

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Fine Art Photography of Civil War Battlefields by Dan Jenkins