The Anniversary That Changed America, Now Largely Forgotten

Less than a week ago, the world remembered the seventeenth anniversary of 9/11 and no matter the radio station, TV program, or sporting event all took time to pause and remember and even New York’s upcoming Fashion Week will pay tribute. I believe it is well and good that we honor the day, the lives lost and how it changed each of us. I still can remember that tragic day, the shock and horror of the attacks coupled with the heroism of those who rushed in where everyone was trying to run out plus those who fought back high over Pennsylvania. Now today is another anniversary in American history. It is a day that changed the country forever, cost more lives than 9/11 and yet it is unlikely anyone will see one news story about it, no sporting events will make a moment for reflection and certainly, no fashion show will remember it. One hundred and fifty-six years ago in the countryside of Maryland outside of the small village of Sharpsburg along the banks of Antietam Creek, 113,000 men fought a battle that changed the United States forever.

The sketch is from Battles and Leader of the Civil War 1887, p. 687 and the cornfield as it is today from the New York Monument. ©LHS

It all started at close 5:30 am on the right-hand side of the Union line when Northern soldiers advanced on Southern positions believed to be just beyond a fully grown cornfield near a small white church. This church was the gathering place of a German-American pacifist denomination, called the “Dunkards” by locals, as the congregation would dunk new members in the Antietam. The church looks more like a schoolhouse than church as this sect believe a steeple immodest. As the Union lines advanced towards the cornfield, officers noticed the shiny glint of bayonets among the corn stalks and the epic battle began. The fighting seesawed back and forth with each side charging, taking positions and then being forced back when the other side countercharged. By 10 am little territory had changed hands but the armies on both sides in this area were spent and this section of the battlefield grew quiet. While this part of the battle lasted just four and half hours, over 13,000 men were casualties. A soldier after the battle said the corn stalks were cut down with bullets and shell so close to the ground that one could not have done it better with the sharpest of knives.

The Sunken Road ©LHS

As the roar of war died down to their right, the Union soldiers positioned near the center of the battle line prepared to enter the fray. The area where this fighting occurred is compact in size, roughly eight soccer pitches in size. Here the Southern troops had taken a position along an age-old wagon road that years of rain and use wore away the earth causing the road to be five feet below ground level. This “sunken road” offered ideal concealment and the Union troops attacked in wave after wave. Each attack melted away as snow does when it falls on the warm ground. Eventually, remnants of the famed Irish Brigade who were trapped on the battlefield by the murderous Southern position found a way to bring their guns to bear on the sunken road creating such carnage this section of the battlefield is called Bloody Lane today. One of the small ironies is that the Northern troops who fought here were Irish and the Southerners in the Bloody Lane were Irish as well. The Union forces were able to finally capture the sunken road but like before, they were not able to hold the positions gained. By 1 pm this area of the battle was growing calm and both sides were back in the positions they were when the fighting started and causalities now numbered over 19,000.

The stone (Burnside) bridge over Antietam Creek ©LHS

While the battle for Bloody Lane was concluding, on the far left, Union General Ambrose Burnside (best known for his unique facial hair that created a fashion trend, sideburns) set about forcing the Southern forces facing him to retreat. Although the Union had a great numerical superiority in men (12,500 to 3,500), the defenders were located on a hilltop with Antietam Creek between them and Burnside’s men. The creek is deep and the only way the Union troops could cross was on a stone bridge just over twelve feet wide. Even though they knew what they were facing, the Union men formed their lines, marched to, and attempted to cross the bridge while shot and shell rained down from the hill. For three long and horrific hours, the Union tried and retried crossing the stone bridge with each attempt ending in failure. Finally, enterprising soldiers discovered a shallow section of the Antietam downstream shielded from view allowing them to wade across and finally capture the hill. This success was short-lived as Southern reinforcements arrived and pushed the nearly victorious soldiers of Burnside’s command back to near where their day started.

It is now just after 5:30 pm and the battle has essentially ended. After nearly twelve hours of bloodshed, the battle has left 3,650 dead, 17,300 wounded and 1,770 missing for a total of 22,720 casualties. Twenty percent of the men that went into battle this day were wounded or dead. The story does not end here for those unlucky souls who were wounded as ‘modern medicine’ required the amputation of limbs when an arm or leg was struck by a bullet. The ammunition used at the time was soft lead, unlike the modern steel jacketed rounds that ‘clip’ bone possibly allowing leg/arm wounds to heal, the soft lead destroyed bone and tissue leaving the surgeons no choice but to amputate. Those who received wounds to their arms or legs were far luckier than those who received a wound to their core.

That same soft lead that would destroy bones would severely damage internal organs and the doctors did not yet have the knowledge or tools to repair such trauma. Soldiers at the time called it being “gut shot” and knew it was a death sentence (often a painful and slow process). This is why if you see photographs of Civil War dead, it will often look as though someone has rummaged through the dead soldiers clothing in search of valuables. This was actually the wounded men themselves ripping away their clothing frantically looking and hoping the wound they received would not mean certain death. Since even state of the art medical care then was crude and unsterile, twenty-two percent of those wounded later died of their wounds. When the dead on the field of battle is combined with those soldiers whose battle for life ended in the hospital, this day cost 7,456 lives.

This battle produced three significant impacts that touch every American even today. First, the American Civil War occurred as the art of photography was developing. Alexander Gardner, a Scottish immigrant, became well known as well as connected because he managed the famed photographer Matthew Brady’s Washington DC gallery (In fact many of Gardner’s Civil War photographs were originally credited to Brady). Through his connections, Gardner became the staff photographer for the Union Army that fought at Antietam. While the cameras of this era did not have fast enough shutters to capture ‘action’ photographs, Gardner’s proximity and the wagon he converted into a traveling darkroom allowed him to record the first photographs of the war that the public had ever seen. Until these photographs were exhibited, the only images of war seen by the lion’s share of people were products of artists’ imaginations which often glorified combat. Starting with Antietam, images of war would no longer be from imaginations but would be told through the lenses of photojournalists on the frontlines.

Here are some of Gardner’s images from Antietam including the iconic photo of Bloody Lane. He was able to gain access to the battlefield on September 19, 1862 two days after the battle.

Below is Alexander Gardner’s famous “Bloody Lane” photograph

Another outcome of this battle is Union victory kept the worlds super-powers (England and France) from meddling in the conflict. Until this point in the war, all the major battles fought in the Eastern Theater, roughly meaning near Washington DC, (Antietam is less than an hour and 1/2 drive from Capitol Hill even with notorious D.C. traffic) had resulted in Confederate victories. These repeated victories caused the governments of England and France to strongly considering recognizing the South as an independent country, just as France had done for the Colonies during the American Revolution. They were considering this action primarily to get their massive textile factories producing again and bringing large numbers of their citizens back to work. The South’s cotton was the raw material that drove huge mills and the Union blockade of the South had cut this flow off. Because of a lack of cotton, these massive mills were shuttered with their employees out of work. There was no unemployment insurance at the time and the politicians had a large number of their constituents demanding Confederate recognition so they could work and feed their families. However, the resolve of the Union to repel General Lee’s invasion lead to England and France withholding recognition. Without this, the South would struggle to acquire the provisions needed to wage war as well as develop and grow a civilian economy. The failure to secure diplomatic status as a separate country was a death blow to hopes for Southern independence.

Most Americans today when asked what caused the Civil War, will answer slavery and that is not a completely accurate answer, as, with most momentous events, simple one-word answers sound great but there is much more to the rest of the story. Slavery was a cause for some and always an emotional undercurrent to the conflict. However, if you asked the average Southerner what they were fighting for they would share that they were fighting for states’ rights and in the North, the majority of the public felt they fought to preserve the Union. This view can be seen in President Lincoln’s letter to newspaper editor Horace Greeley who had attacked him for not ending slavery:

My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union. I shall do less whenever I shall believe what I am doing hurts the cause, and I shall do more whenever I shall believe doing more will help the cause.

One quick note about this letter to Greeley, Lincoln wrote it on August 22, 1862, exactly one month after he had decided to issue the Emancipation Proclamation and was waiting for the correct time to release it. The pundits of the era attacked him for this saying it showed a lack of commitment to abolition when the reality is he was subtlety informing the public that when he released the proclamation it was part of the plan to save the Union and preserve the coalition of Unionist and Abolitionists in Congress working together.

On July 22, 1862, Abraham Lincoln summoned his cabinet for a meeting, which was a surprise to its members. At this meeting, the President announced he had made up his mind to issue an Emancipation Proclamation and this was not up for debate. William Henry Seward, the Secretary of State, offered a piece of advice by suggesting that Lincoln wait until the Army had achieved a major victory because “such a proclamation ought to be borne on the bayonets of an advancing army, not dragged in the dust behind a retreating one”. Issuing the proclamation without achieving a substantial victory would give the English and French governments the impression Lincoln’s government was grasping at straws to retain power. Antietam was the victory that Abraham Lincoln needed to release the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation. The repulse of the invasion of Maryland provided him the victory needed. Just five days after the victory at Antietam, President Lincoln announced the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation and that it would be formally issued on January 1, 1863.

“. . . on the first day of January . . . all persons held as slaves within any State, or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free.” President Abraham Lincoln, preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, September 22, 1862“

So as we go through our normal lives today, take a second and remember the battle that changed the world for the better. Because of the Battle of Antietam, one hundred and fifty-six years ago, photography gave us images of war’s terrible price for the first time, England and France stayed at arm’s length from the American Civil War, and allowed Abraham Lincoln to transform the war from a conflict about states’ rights/preserving the Union to a struggle to end slavery.

“I am naturally anti-slavery. If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong.”

Abraham Lincoln