Monuments to Individuals at Antietam
The monument to Confederate General George Burgwyn Anderson at Antietam is along the Sunken Road, or Bloody Lane. (Sunken Road East tour map) It is one of six mortuary cannons commemorating the three generals on each side who were killed or mortally wounded during the battle.
During the battle Anderson commanded a brigade of North Carolina regiments in Major General Daniel Harvey Hill’s division. He was wounded in the ankle during the desperate fighting in the Sunken Road. Almost a month later he would die from his wound.
From the monument:
Brigadier General
George B. Anderson
C.S.A.
motally wounded
235 yards S, 19° W
George Burgwyn Anderson was born in Hillsboro, North Carolina. He graduated from West Point in 1852 (USMA 1852), serving on the frontier in Texas and Kasas and in Utah during the Mormon War.
He resigned his commission with the outbreak of the war and returned to North Carolina where he was appointed colonel of the 4th North Carolina Infantry Regiment. In June of 1862 he was promoted to brigadier general for his bravery at the Battle of Williamsburg. He was wounded at Malvern Hill, but returned to command his brigade at South Mountain and Antietam.
After the battle Anderson was transported across the Potomac to Shepherdstown, Virginia, then to Staunton, Virginia and eventually by train to Raleigh, North Carolina, were his infected foot was amputated. He died on October 16.
Confederate General George Burgwyn Anderson, from an 1862 drawing
Location of the monument to General Anderson at Antietam
The monument to Brigadier General George B. Anderson is north of Sharpsburg on the south side of the Sunken Road (or Bloody Lane) about 235 yards west of the Observation Tower. (39°28’13.5″N 77°44’17.9″W)