17 September 1862: The Bloodiest One-Day Battle in American History

Saturday, 17 March

Winter skipped us this year.  We have no complaints on that score since we’ve had our share of tough winters.  If this past week, with temperatures reaching into the mid 80F (27-29C) range is any indication, spring plans to do the same thing.  That’s where I draw the line.  After all, it’s my favorite time of the year.  I hope we get to enjoy a bit of the ‘freshness’ that comes with spring before the heavy, humid months of summer descend on us.  In the meantime, we’ll make the most of Mother Nature’s unexpected bounty to enjoy as many weekend outings as we can fit into our schedule — which is what we did today.  Our destination: Antietam National Battlefield, located 66 miles (106 km) away in Sharpsburg, Maryland.

Civil War sites feature prominently in this area; only three are marked on this map.

We didn’t get on the road until 9:00a — Mui wanted to first get the tires on the toad rotated at Costco when the shop opened at 7:30a.  The Saturday traffic was light and we arrived at Antietam about an hour later.  Normally, we check out the visitor center and watch any documentary movies first.  Since we wanted to see the hour-long documentary — shown only at noon — we switched gears this time and went for a stroll in the immediate vicinity instead.  Then, with time on our hands, we had a quick snack on the porch behind the visitor center before going into the theater.

Four of the 500+ cannons that thundered across the landscape for over 12 hours on 17 September.

The porch overlooks the once blood-soaked grounds of the battlefield.

The good news: the documentary was very informative.  The bad news: a large group of boys of all ages filled the back of the theater, tittering every time they heard or saw something they thought was funny.  What they found worthy of a laugh is beyond me!  Luckily, once we were out touring, we didn’t cross paths with them again.

At the end of the day, of the nearly 100,000 men that engaged in battle at Antietam,
over 23,000 lay dead or wounded.

I’m having trouble finding the right adjective to describe our day at Antietam.  After all, how can I say that we ‘enjoyed’ the site of the bloodiest single-day battle of not just the Civil War, but the entire American history too.

It was certainly an educational and eye-opening day as we strolled and drove around the site, furthering our knowledge about a dark time in this country’s history.  It was a fascinating day, too, as we struggled to understand how the two armies could continue to fight in the face of such devastating losses.  Especially curious to us were scenes depicting the two sides doing their utmost to kill each other one moment, and shaking hands and sharing tobacco the next.

ABOVE: The  sketch by well-known Civil War artist Alfred WauD depicts truce between opposing sides in front of Dunker Church on 18 September 1862.

Sunken Road — aka Bloody Lane — is one of the most moving places we’ve ever visited.
In the words of an observer who saw Sunken road in the aftermath of the battle: "They
were lying in rows like the ties of a railroad, in heaps like cordwood mingled with
the splintered and shattered fence rails.  Words are inadequate to portray the scene."

A note about Bloody Lane (collage above).  The land on either side of this rural road is all farmland.  As such, the smell of ‘eau de manure’ was quite strong.  I know my senses were on overload and playing a trick on me, but the odor made me think of congealing blood and decaying body parts — the smell that one might associate with a slaughterhouse.  It wasn’t pleasant, but it seemed gruesomely appropriate as I walked a portion of the Sunken Road, contemplating all the while the answer to what drives mankind to fight so viciously.  I still don’t have an answer; I doubt I ever will.

For anyone who wants to learn more about the battle that played out at Antietam, there’s plenty of information on the National Park Service (NPS) website I linked to in the first paragraph.  Who fought; who led; who attacked from what direction; who won (or did anyone win).

As for me, I am going to take a different approach with this post and share with you our scavenger hunt at Antietam.  This wasn’t a hunt for things, but rather for answers to questions I downloaded from the NPS website.  (Answers are supposed to be available at the visitor center, but the duty ranger was unable to find a copy.  Good thing there’s the Internet!)

We knew some of the responses from our general knowledge of the Civil War; most of the rest we found during the 8½-mile (17 km) auto-tour, which winds through the battlefield.  (The route is marked in blue on the map above.)

So here goes — in two parts since this would otherwise be an inordinately long post … even by my standards.

1.  The general who commanded the Union Army of the Potomac was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in December 1826.  He graduated from West Point in 1846.  What was his name?

2.  The general who commanded the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia was a native Virginian who was born in Westmoreland County in January 1807.  He was an 1829 graduate of West Point.  What was his name?

This one was easy since the scavenger hunt document included their portraits.  What I didn’t know was that McClellan’s Union Army of the Potomac had about 80,000 men at Antietam to Lee’s 40,000-strong Confederate Army of Northern Virginia.

The answer to #1 is George B. McClellan (left); the answer to #2 is Robert E. Lee.

3.  The German Baptist Brethren are better known by what nickname?  Hint: The church in which they worshipped is one of the most famous landmarks on the Antietam Battlefield.

I remembered this one from our 1993 visit to the battlefield, so the response was quick to come.  What I didn’t recall was that they were nicknamed “Dunkers” for their practice of fully immersing (dunking) — three times — their baptismal candidates in streams.

Dunker Church is perhaps one of the most famous churches in American military history.
After the original church built in 1852 was destroyed by a storm in 1921, a
reconstruction was built on its foundations in 1962, 100 years after the battle.

4.  Which monument near the visitor center pays tribute to both Union and Confederate soldiers?  Approximately 20,000 people attended the dedication on Memorial Day, May 30, 1900.  General James Longstreet, Henry Kyd Douglas and many veterans of both the Union and Confederate armies were all present for the ceremony.  President William McKinley, also a veteran of the Battle of Antietam, was the keynote speaker.

(The next part of the question asked for the eight units honored on the monument to be identified.)

We didn’t get this one right initially, because we weren’t aware that Maryland had soldiers fighting for both sides in the Civil War.  Also, we thought (at first) that the second part of the question, which was accompanied by a picture of the monument, was a separate question.  Once we realized our mistake, the answer was easy.  (Yes, teacher, take the time to read the question carefully; it pays off in the end!)

The Maryland State Monument is a tribute to soldiers from both sides of the Civil War.

And that’s it for this post; part II of the Scavenger Hunt coming soon to a blog post near you.  Stay tuned …