#79 Antietam



Antietam Battlefield. Photo by Alexander Gardner. Courtesy of the Library of Congress.

 September 17, 1862, was the bloodiest single day of the entire Civil War, or for that matter, any other American fought war since then. 23,100 casualties were inflicted, and of that number, 6,000 were dead. By comparison, 2,000 soldiers died on D-Day during World War II. The heaviest fighting ocurred in a cornfield belonging to David R. Miller, near Dunker's Church. Following the close-quarters, bloody battle, Union General Joseph Hooker stated, "In the time I am writing, every stalk of corn in the northern and greater part of the field was cut as closely as could have been done with a knife, and the slain lay in rows precisely as they had stood in their ranks a few moments before."

Antietam is also known for a sunken road at the center of the battlefield, where confederates struggled to hold and then tried to retreat up a slope, only to be shot down by Union soldiers and canon, their bodies falling back onto the road. Following the battle, the road was aptly renamed "Bloody Lane."

Although the battle's outcome was officially "inconclusive," it was the Confederates who retreated back across the Potomac into Virginia. Nevertheless, Union General George McLellan's failure to use the entire army in a concerted effort rather than a conglomeration of single orders to individual units contributed to his dismissal by President Lincoln the following November. 

Sources:
"Battle of Antietam," Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Antietam#Battle. Accessed 1/11/12.
"The Battle of Antietam," http://www.civilwar.org/. Accessed 1/11/12.
"Antietam," CWSAC Battle Summaries. American Battlefield Protection Program. http://www.nps.gov/hps/abpp/battles/md003.htm. Accessed 1/11/12.