Sculpted by Gary Casteel
 
1863 Signed and Numbered Limited Edition Monument Replicas
 
The 14th Indiana Infantry Regiment played a pivotal role in the Union assault on the Confederate center during the Battle of Antietam on September 17, 1862.  The 14th Indiana reached Keedysville on the 16th of September, 1862, and on the morning of the 17th crossed Antietam Creek, and as the right of Kimball's Brigade, went into action at 8 o'clock a.m.  As part of Colonel William Harrow’s 1st Brigade in the 3rd Division of the Second Corps, Army of the Potomac, the regiment advanced against the heavily defended Sunken Road (later known as “Bloody Lane”).  Numbering approximately 320 officers and men when it entered the fight, the unit positioned itself roughly 70 yards east of and parallel to the road, engaging in a prolonged and intense firefight that lasted about four hours.
 
The regiment faced devastating close-range fire from Confederate forces entrenched in the lane.  Despite sustaining heavy casualties, the 14th Indiana held its ground tenaciously.  Their steadfast defense contributed to the eventual Union breakthrough in the center as Confederate lines in the lane collapsed.  Following the intense morning engagement, the 14th Indiana remained under arms until relieved later in the day, enduring additional artillery fire even after the Confederate retirement from the immediate area.  
 
In his official report after the battle, Col. Harrow wrote that:
 
My regiment went into the fight with sixty rounds of ammunition, and after firing the last one, the enemy were discovered moving in heavy force upon my right flank. At this moment my own regiment and the Eighth Ohio Volunteers, Colonel Lawyer commanding on my left, immediately changed their front and formed at right angles to our original line. The line thus formed was held and the enemy repulsed, our men using ammunition taken from the dead and wounded. After 12 m., the enemy retired and my regiment was not again engaged during the day, but lay upon their arms until night, under a hot fire of shot and shell from the enemy's batteries.  
 
Their gallant performance, part of the broader effort by Kimball’s “Gibraltar Brigade,” helped prevent a successful Confederate counterattack and secured key ground in one of the bloodiest single-day battles in American history.  The regiment’s sacrifices at Antietam exemplified the courage and endurance of Union volunteer infantry in the Maryland Campaign.
 
In the words of Col. Harrow, “My officers and men conducted themselves with courage and daring seldom equalled and never surpassed.  I cannot mention one without naming all.  We went into the fight with 320 men and lost in killed and wounded 181…. General, our record is a proud one, but one which can never be thought of save with feelings of the most intense sorrow for the brave dead and wounded.”  
 
The marker was dedicated on September 17, 1910, and is located on the north side of the Sunken Road.