Sys, I envy you your actual visit to the battlefield. I have got to go and visit so I can gain your personal perspective. I have the "West Point Atlas of American Wars" and it shows on a straight line the distance from the Burnside Bridge to the North Woods is about 3 miles. The Confederate line there overlapped about one half mile and the Confederate line overlapped at the Burnside Bridge about one mile, so Lee's lines in aggregate were about four and one half miles. The Gettysburg front was about 8000 yards for the Confederates. The Union fighting on interior lines was much shorter. In the atlas, after the Union gained control of Bloody Lane, the narrative states, " The last Confederate regiment north of Sharpsburg had been committed. Lee's artillery, though still fighting back gamely, had been overwhelmed by the mass of expertly handled Federal guns. Sharpsburg was filled with demoralized soldiers; famous commands, like Hood's Texans, were completely shattered; most of the left and center was held only by devoted handfuls, hanging on by sheer courage. One more vigorous Federal attack and the Army of Northern Virginia would face destruction." IX corps under Burnside did not attack until about 3 PM and had gained the outskirts of Sharpsburg by 4 PM where Hill's light division crashed into their flank, drove them back toward the creek and the battle was over. I bought the two volumes of the the atlas many years ago. One day, talking to retired Lt. Gen. Hal Moore who co wrote the book "We Were Soldiers Once and Young" and who the movie was about, I mentioned I had those books and he told me they were text books at the Point when he attended. If you have a chance to buy them, I think they are invaluable.