After our relatively short journey of 75 miles to Brunswick, MD we decided to visit the Antietam Battlefield. It was with some reservation since our visit to Gettysburg several years ago was quite disturbing, but this battle was a turning point in the Civil War. It lasted one day, September 17, 1862, but was the bloodest of all the battles fought. The Confederate army had crossed the Potomac into Union territory. By this time, the Confederacy had a slight, winning edge in the War. Lee felt a win on Northern land would convince the English and French to recognize the CSA and throw backing (money, resources, even men) to help win the War.
The Union Army commanded by George McClellan was determined to push Lee back. Lee was out numbered 2 to 1, but his army were some of the best soldiers in the Confederate Army. McClellan had 100,000 men at his disposal for this battle, compared to Lee’s 40,000. But, McClellan’s army was inexperienced, 20% were right out of boot camp and this was the first battle for half of the rest. At end of the day, which started at 5:30AM, over 23,000 men were dead or wounded, that’s more than 1 per second!! And worst of all’ neither side could claim a victory. Lee retreated back over the Potomac late that night with what was left of his army.
The nitty-gritty of each battle can be found in books and on line so we will not go into detail here. A few pictures follow.
The building in the background is Dunkers Church. This area saw intense fighting.
This sunken farm lane was one of the bloodest battles fought that day. Over 5,000 men from both sides died in 3 1/2 hours of fighting.
You can imagine the carnage left in this area after the battle was over. In this sunken lane it was described as bodies piled across like railroad ties and stacked like cordwood. The Union soldiers were buried where they fell. Only a few Confederates remained behind to bury their dead, as Lee hastily retreated. We were told by a ranger, they found a body (skeleton) on the battlefield in 2008. Eventually the Union bodies were reinterred in a cemetary in Sharpsburg. The Confederate soldiers ended up in Hagerstown and Frederick. They would not allow them to be buried with the Union soldiers.
Look at the number of headstones! This gives you a sense of the human loss here. Yes, this place was also troubling to us on so many fronts. Now we have only visited two battlefields, but to us, it seems interesting that we have NEVER seen the people visiting for which these battles were fought. The warfare tactics were suicidal and the leaders were inept. This war cost the United States 500,000 lives, 2% of its population at the time, mostly young men in their prime, leaving farms, businesses, and broken families. It is unbeliveable that a resolution could not be reached that would have avoided this.
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