The second, or mid-day, phase of the battle of Antietam, September 17, 1862. This farm lane served as a breastwork for the Confederate center. For about three hours 2,200 Confederates, later reinforced by additional troops, held off the attacks of a combined Union force numbering nearly 10,000. Finally, just after noon, this thin gray line collapsed and fell back several hundred yards to the Piper farm. Union attackers had suffered too many casualties to pursue their advantage. Seeing the dead in the road, an observer wrote, "They were lying in rows like the ties of a railroad, in heaps like cordwood mingled with the splintered and shattered fence rails. Words are inadequate to portray the scene."

via Flickr http://flic.kr/p/vnzWqH