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→The bloodiest day
==The bloodiest day==
==The bloodiest day==
[[Image:Antietam0600.png|thumb|200px|right|Antietam at 6 am, September 17, 1862 (Hal Jespersen)]]
[[Image:Dunker Church.jpg|thumb|200px|right|The dead in front of the Dunker Church]]
[[Image:Dunker Church.jpg|thumb|200px|right|The dead in front of the Dunker Church]]
A drizzling rain fell during the night. The morning of the 17th broke gray and misty, but the skies cleared early. As rays of light outlined the fringe of trees about the Dunker Church, restless Federal skirmishers opened fire. A line of rifle fire flashed from the Southern muskets far out in front of the church. Soon, powerful Federal guns on the bluffs beyond Antietam Creek poured a raking fire of shot and shell into the Confederate lines. The first stage of McClellan's plan of crushing Lee—folding up the Confederate left flank—was about to begin.
A drizzling rain fell during the night. The morning of the 17th broke gray and misty, but the skies cleared early. As rays of light outlined the fringe of trees about the Dunker Church, restless Federal skirmishers opened fire. A line of rifle fire flashed from the Southern muskets far out in front of the church. Soon, powerful Federal guns on the bluffs beyond Antietam Creek poured a raking fire of shot and shell into the Confederate lines. The first stage of McClellan's plan of crushing Lee—folding up the Confederate left flank—was about to begin.