Review - " Artillery of Antietam: The Union and Confederate Batteries at the Battle of Antietam " by James Rosebrock

[Artillery of Antietam: The Union and Confederate Batteries at the Battle of Antietam by James A. Rosebrock (Press of the Antietam Institute, 2023). Hardcover, 28 maps, chapter notes, appendix section, bibliography, index. 442 Pages. ISBN:979-8-218-18099-7. $44.95]

Perhaps more than any other major Civil War battlefield of comparable size, Antietam was made for artillery. With expansive sight lines across vast swaths of the battlefield, rifled artillery (especially the heavier Union guns deployed on the heights across Antietam Creek) had ample opportunity to enfilade defenders, smash counterattacks, and significantly disrupt both lateral enemy redeployments and reinforcements rushing forward. Countless Confederate accounts spoke of their inability to escape the reach of federal guns. The power of the long arm at Antietam was so pronounced that Curt Johnson and Richard Anderson, taking their cue from Confederate artillery battalion colonel S.D. Lee's famous description of the battle, titled their classic study of the subject Artillery Hell. But the terrifying effects of flying solid shot and shell at Antietam weren't all one sided. As detailed most recently, and arguably more vividly than anywhere else in the literature, inside Scott Hartwig's monumental history of the battle, I Dread the Thought of the Place, there were several desperate moments at Antietam when (in the absence of available infantry reserves) scratch concentrations of Confederate artillery were indispensable to holding the line.

Though it has stood as the standard reference work on the subject for decades, it is nevertheless true that Johnson and Anderson's Artillery Hell is quite limited in scope. You certainly can't say that about NPS certified battlefield guide James Rosebrock's Artillery of Antietam: The Union and Confederate Batteries at the Battle of Antietam, which provides military historians and artillery enthusiasts with all the information they could possibly want. Released by the Antietam Institute's publishing arm, this is the artillery companion to 2021's Brigades of Antietam.

According to the foreword, Rosebrock's book examines 135 batteries in total (72 Confederate and 63 Union). However, the volume does not have defined sections for each battery. This might appear odd at first to readers but, upon reflection, is appropriate to the org progression precedent set by its aforementioned infantry and cavalry companion volume edited by Bradley Gottfried. Being the book structure's lowest-level order of battle scale presented in standalone fashion, narrative and data sections are created for Union divisional and corps (unattached and reserve) artillery and, for the Confederates, artillery battalions and army reserve formations. For those seeking information about a single battery of interest, it takes little enough effort to tease that out of the higher order section of the book in which it belongs. The index helps in that regard as well.

Artillery of Antietam is a thick, 8.5" x 11" hardcover with double-column text. In overview fashion, Union corps and Confederate Wing sections summarize artillery organization, engagement, and casualties on the various battlefields (in addition to Antietam and Shepherdstown, the artillery fighting at Harpers Ferry and the South Mountain passes are covered). More intensive examination begins at the divisional artillery, reserve, and battalion levels. In those parts of the book, component batteries are introduced (with battery composition, strength, and loss data provided at the top) and followed throughout the 1862 Maryland Campaign. With information drawn from a large and diverse research body of primary and secondary source materials (all documented in the chapter notes), descriptive text in regard to battlefield positioning and fighting experiences is impressively thorough and vividly enhanced through seamless integration of abundant participant quotes and perspectives. Suitable attention is paid to the battlefield context of each battery's contributions, and the highlights are well summed up in each section's concluding recap.

Grouped together near the front of the book are 28 maps created specifically for this volume. According to the cartographer's note, these are the product of cross-referencing map data from historical maps with modern aerial photography and surface scans. Utilizing that process to both pinpoint period features and assist in brushing out postwar changes, the end result is an 1862 Antietam landscape, presented at a self-described "high level of precision," upon which to place the batteries. The maps are time stamped and also include nearby infantry units for additional context.

Enhancing the main text's already tremendous reference value is a substantial appendix section. It houses full artillery orders of battle for both sides, strength and casualty tables for each battery, armament tables for each battery, and a reproduction of Army of the Potomac artillery chief Henry Hunt's Sept. 12, 1862 order instructing his subordinates how to better manage their commands.

James Rosebrock's Artillery of Antietam is a perfect example of the type of grand-scale reference tome that readers and researchers dream about, but rarely get, for their favorite topics. This is a must-have new addition to every serious Maryland Campaign bookshelf.