Antietam National Battlefield (U.S. National Park Service)

GENERAL ROBERT E. LEE'S first invasion of the North culminated with the Battle of Antietam, in Maryland (or Sharpsburg, as the South called it). The battle took place on Wednesday, September 17, 1862, just 18 days after the Confederate victory at Second Manassas, 40 miles to the southeast in Virginia.Not only was this the first major Civil War engagement on Northern soil, it was also the bloodiest single day battle in American history.

Bloody Lane.....During the Battle Of Antietam, Union and Confederate soldiers fought in many different areas of Antietam at many different times. One of these particular battles was fought at a place called Sunken Road or "Bloody Lane". The way this road got the name Bloody Lane is very gruesome yet very interesting. Sunken Road (Bloody Lane) was a clay road that had been worn down through the years by rain and wagons. Farmers used it primarily to bypass Sharpsburg. Major General D.H. Hill was the commander of the Confederate division. He positioned all of his soldiers (about 2600 men) along this road waiting for Major General William French and his division of Union soldiers (about 5000 men) to come over the hill so they could attack. The Union soldiers did not realize that Sunken Road had six angles but was all one road. Hill knew this and hid all his men throughout these angles. When French's men came over the rise, Hill's men staggered them with a powerful volley delivered at a range on less than one hundred yards.


http://www.nps.gov/archive/anti/home.htm