Deadliest Day in American History is September 17 – Antietam By the Numbers

War History Online ^ | 17SEP18 | Guest Blogger at warhistory online

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Today marks the 156^th anniversary of Antietam, arguably the pivotal battle of the Civil War. Had the South won on that September day, Robert E. Lee could have marauded through Union territory, European powers might have intervened on behalf of the Rebels, Maryland might have flipped its loyalty to the Confederacy.

What we know as America might be two separate nations today. Instead the Union was victorious, banishing Lee’s army from the North, paving the way for the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed the slaves.

So much was at stake — the fighting rose to a pitch that was heretofore unimaginable. Antietam still holds the grim distinction as the day with the highest death toll in American history. But it was more than a mere bloodbath. The battle featured the debuts of Jonathan Letterman and Clara Barton, medical pioneers who transformed the way care is delivered to wounded soldiers.

Overview of the Battle of Antietam.Photo: Hal Jespersen CC BY 3.0

Alexander Gardner ranged over the field taking a landmark series of photographs that awakened people on the home front to the realities of war. Today is a solemn anniversary, no question. It’s an occasion to contemplate the horror and loss of that long-ago day.Pioneering photographer Alexander Gardner (here in a 19th century selfie). Photo: Library of Congress

But it’s also an opportunity to celebrate the many ways the battle changed the world for the better. What follows is a series of numbers—alternately terrifying, shocking, and uplifting— related to Antietam, that most consequential of battles:

1,000,000

The estimated number of shots fired during the battle

More than 20,000 soldiers were killed or wounded by a bullet, some being hit multiple times. For example, Union men counted 28 bullet holes on the backside of a dead Rebel, frozen in the act of climbing a fence. So let’s say each casualty was hit five times on average, a very generous estimate.Union soldiers surge across Antietam Creek in this 1878 lithograph by Kurz & Allison. Photo: Library of Congress

That means 100,000 bullets found their mark. That also means 900,000 errant shots. This laughable hit rate speaks to the inaccuracy of the era’s muskets. Even more so, it gives a flavor for the panic that prevailed that day. Picture broad lines of men facing one another at close range, loading and aiming in a veritable frenzy, trying to kill lest they be killed. That’s how you get 900,000 missed shots.

12

Number of hours the battle lasted.

Antietam began at daybreak, officially clocked in at 5:43 AM that day. It lasted until around 6:00 PM, when evening was drawing near and the shadows lengthened across Antietam Valley. As the sun pressed on the horizon, journalist Charles Coffin spotted some Union artillerists on a knoll, noted the way the men and their cannon stood out in black silhouette against the swollen red disk. He described it as a “lurid sunset.”Multiply this Antietam cannon 500 times and you get “artillery hell.” Photo: Library of Congress

8

Number of women that supposedly fought in the battle, dressed in drag as soldiers

Rebecca Peterman, a plucky 16-year-old from Ellenboro, Wisconsin, represented her state’s 7^th regiment, and viewed Antietam as an opportunity for adventure.

Meanwhile, Mary Galloway enlisted in hopes of meeting up with her boyfriend (Lieutenant Harry Barnard of the 3^rd Wisconsin) on the battlefield. Instead she got shot in the neck. Galloway was carried to a field hospital, but she resisted the treatment offered by male doctors.

Naturally, they assumed she was a male soldier. Fortunately, Clara Barton happened by and was able to attend to her fellow female. Later, Barton helped reunite Galloway with Barnard, who was laid up in a hospital in Washington, DC. The couple married and had a daughter named Clara.Clara Barton gave medical treatment to a wounded woman who had slipped onto the operating table dressed as a male soldier. Photo: Library of Congress

500

Number of cannons deployed at Antietam.

Because the Confederates had a knack for capturing cannons during battle, also because they manufactured knockoffs of Federal designs, both sides had pretty much the same models, though the Rebels had fewer of them.

At Antietam, the cannons launched a frightening variety of shots and shells. For example, case featured an iron casing (hence the name) that exploded midair raining sharp fragments down onto soldiers.6-pounder gun at Antietam battlefield. By Muhranoff – CC BY-SA 4.0

Canister consisted of a tin can stuffed with sawdust and 27 plum-size iron balls. On firing, the engorged can couldn’t clear the end of the cannon muzzle, but sufficient momentum was achieved to send the balls tearing through the flimsy tin, whereupon they’d spray out in all directions. Canister, used for close-range targets, turned a cannon into a giant shotgun. Not for nothing was Antietam known as “artillery hell.”

6

Number of major generals killed at Antietam

Three from each side fell. Isaac Peace Rodman was racing downhill on horseback in a desperate bid to warn his Union charges about a pending sneak attack. A sharpshooter’s bullet pierced his lung. He tumbled from his horse, was carried from the field, and died two weeks later.Rodman (leaning against tree) with Col. Ambrose E. Burnside and officers of the 1st Rhode Island

Confederate George B. Anderson, struck in the ankle by a mini ball during the Bloody Lane fighting, set off on a medical circuit, Shepherdstown to Staunton, Virginia, to his home in Raleigh, North Carolina. There, the wound became infected, and a doctor amputated his foot. Anderson died on October 17, 1862, exactly one month after the battle.

The other major generals killed at Antietam: Joseph Mansfield and Israel Richardson (Union) William Starke and Lawrence Branch (Confederates).Joseph Mansfield was one of six major generals killed at the battle.

95

Number of Antietam photographs taken by Alexander Gardner“A Lonely Grave”; title chosen by photographer Alexander Gardner for his shot of Union soldiers standing near a comrade’s grave at the battlefield of Antietam, September 1862

Gardner, an associate of the famous Mathew Brady, traveled to Antietam hoping to capture images of war. Due to the long exposure times of the era’s cameras, live action shots would have been blurry beyond recognition. After the battle ended, however, he was able to range freely over the field in his mobile horse-drawn darkroom, known as the What’s-it Wagon.

Gardner documented such classic Antietam landmarks as the Burnside Bridge and the little Dunker Church, riddled by shells but still standing. However, his focus was dead soldiers. This made eminent sense: Dead men don’t move so they don’t blur photos.James Hope’s panoramic paintings capture the scope of Antietam. “A Crucial Delay” depicts the action at the Burnside Bridge. Photo: Antietam National Battlefield

Gardner knew he’d captured something spectacular. His collection “The Dead of Antietam,” was exhibited at Brady’s Manhattan gallery. The wide-eyed romanticism of Walter Scott or Arthurian legends was nowhere to be found in Gardner’s stark images; they forever changed the way the public viewed warfare.

55,000

The number of Union soldiers on the field when the battle began

Recent scholarship by Daniel Vermilya makes a convincing case that the Union opened the battle with 55,000 men. This represents a substantial downward troop-strength adjustment; in the past it’s sometimes been claimed that as many as 80,000 Federals were present at the outset.Battle of Antietam by Thulstrup

However, an additional 12,000 Union troops would arrive by noontime. By contrast, the Rebels entered the fight at a severe numerical disadvantage, no question. Best estimate: 35,000 men.    

0

Number of confirmed bayonet stabbings

Infantrymen on both sides carried bayonets. Throughout the day, both Union and Confederate soldiers were given the “fix bayonet” command, meaning: withdraw the blade from your scabbard and attach it to your musket. Yet despite rumors of crazed combatants jabbing and slashing with abandon, there’s no evidence that any bayonets were actually used in the battle. (In this regard, Antietam was like other Civil War battles where bayonet use was an extreme rarity.)Union soldier’s bayonets attached to the guns, as they were a very important force multiplier during the war.

Truth be told, bayonets were unrivaled at sowing psychological terror, but soldiers found it too intimate and too gory to stab someone, even a sworn enemy. What’s more, withdrawing the blade from a victim proved time-consuming, eating up critical seconds during which a soldier could be dangerously exposed to enemy fire.

Better to shoot someone from a distance. When forced into close proximity with the enemy, the preferred option was to deliver a swift clubbing with a musket butt—forget the bayonet.

24

Number of days since the 16^th Connecticut was mustered into service

On August 24, 1862, the 16^th Connecticut was organized in Hartford, Connecticut. When the regiment took the field at Antietam, it was all of 24-days old. The men had never drilled, scarcely knew how to form a battle line. This would have grave implications.

For inexplicable reasons, during the Federal final assault, the 16th occupied the far edge of the mile-wide battle line. Incredibly, a greenhorn regiment represented the flank of Union commander George McClellan’s entire army. The 16^th made halting progress up the hillside leading to Sharpsburg, eventually getting hung up in a cornfield.General George B. McClellan.

That’s when disaster struck. A.P. Hill arrived on at the field, 2,500 fresh Rebels in train, having made his famous 17-mile march from Harpers Ferry. Wasting no time, the Rebs slammed into the 16^th Connecticut—an epic mismatch. Thus, began the Federal skedaddle back down the hillside, one that would result in the battle ending as a tactical draw.

2

Number of Robert E. Lee’s hands that were bandaged during the battle

At Antietam, both of Lee’s hands were swaddled in bandages, the result of a fall he’d suffered a few weeks earlier after Second Bull Run. This was a supreme indignity in the eyes of the Confederate commander. While monitoring the battle’s progress, he couldn’t grip his horse’s reins; Traveller had to be led by an orderly.

Due to an injury, Lee couldn’t grip Traveller’s reins

Nevertheless, the Rebel commander proved more mobile and adventurous than McClellan, his Union counterpart, who didn’t make an appearance on the battlefield proper until roughly 2 P.M.

5,500

Number of soldiers who died as a result of Antietam

The battle’s official death toll is 3,650. But roughly 2,000 more soldiers succumbed to their injuries in the weeks and months following the battle. Even years later, Antietam was claiming victims.

Early in the morning of September 17, while conducting reconnaissance on horseback, Union Brigadier General George Hartsuff was struck by a shell fragment that lodged in his left hip. He went woozy from loss of blood, and had to be carried from the field. Complications from the old wound would contribute to his death twelve years after the battle.Memorial at the Antietam National Battlefield, in northwestern Maryland. Photo: iotrus / CC BY-SA 3.0

1

Number of nations where once there were two, thanks in great measure to the outcome at Antietam

Today is September 17, so this will be the final installment in guest blogger Justin Martin’s countdown to Antietam. Martin’s posts have featured little-known episodes he learned about while researching his new book, A Fierce Glory: Antietam—The Desperate Battle That Saved Lincoln and Doomed Slavery (Da Capo Press).

You can order the book here and here is Justin Martin’s website.Fierce Glory by Justin Martin

Read another article from us – Snipers Created Confederate Chain-of-Command Crisis at Antietam

War History Online would like to thank Justin Martin for preparing these insightful stories about one of the pivotal battles in America’s most devastating war. We encourage you to check out A Fierce Glory for yourselves.

[hanamizu]

The weapon of choice was the rifled musket which as you say was made possible by the Minie ball. This combined the loading speed of the musket and the accuracy of the rifle. 57/58 caliber created horrific wounds. Doctors were called ‘sawbones’ because the big, slow Minie ball shattered bones so a wound to the arm or leg usually called for amputation.

I can’t imagine the horror of charging into a cornfield. Between the smoke of battle and the corn itself, you wouldn’t really be able to see the enemy, yet the corn would offer no protection from enemy fire.

Generals who had learned their trade in the era of the limited range of muskets took too long to take into account the much longer effective range of rifled muskets. The same thing happened in WWI. One reason why both wars were so bloody.

[x]

Some battles are draws or ties on the field, but counted as victories or defeats in the larger context.

Stopping a larger strategy may be more important than clearly "winning" the battle of the field and carrying the day.

Lee went back to Virginia afterwards, so it does count as a Union victory.

I don't know whether Lee actually won the Seven Days' Battles outside Richmond earlier that year, but McClellan withdrew, so the Confederacy claimed the victory that time.

[Paul R.]

I’m inclined to agree with some that while Antietam (Sharpsburg) was a tactical draw, it was a strategic victory for the North because Lee had to withdraw and end his invasion of the Union.

I doubt anyone can disagree about the ghastly aspect of it all... :-(

[Albion Wilde]

It’s a hauntingly beautiful site and well worth visiting. The museum and lecture is very good. Plus, they have several events during the year, inclluding a great 4th of July celebration with live music, a flyover, cannon and fireworks.

[TMN78247]

Pardon me for pointing out that about 15-25% of long-arms on both sides were SMOOTHBORES & sometimes even Brown Bess & CHARLEVILLE flintlocks were used in combat & loaded with “buck & ball”.

Btw, all the “smoothies” weren’t old/military surplus arms. = BOTH sides of the WBTS built new smoothbore muskets using “up to date” parts.

The CSA’s NAVY & MARINES very much liked BROWN BESS muskets, converted to percussion, for on-board & boarding party use.
(BOTH maritime forces had plenty of rifled arms.)

Yours, TMN78247

[jmacusa]

BS to that! We’re one nation and one people with one flag, The Stars And Stripes. My ancestor didn’t serve in the Army Of The Potomac to see his service be for nothing. I don’t want to live in a Balkanized country. If that’s what you want move to Europe.

[zeestephen]

Re: “If that’s what you want move to Europe.”

LOL!

Is that "Europe" as in the "European Union?"

28 countries and 513 million people?

It's un-governable - just like the USA, which has 50 states and 330 million people.

What exactly is your plan now that "one nation and one people" have become a permanent Democratic Party majority that will soon control the White House, the Congress, and the federal Judiciary?

[Hardastarboard]

No dispute here. In particular the South didn’t have a lot of manufacturing capability, and had to beg and buy guns. I’m sure they used anything that was available.

[jmacusa]

Aren’t you getting ahead of yourself here?

[TMN78247]

The Union Army (especially the STATE & VOLUNTEER units) used whatever arms that they could beg, borrow, buy or pick-up off the battlefields.

[TMN78247]

WHERE is your EVIDENCE that GEN Lee “had to withdraw”?? = SORRY but what some alleged “expert” believes/says is UNCONVINCING absent PROOF.

The period documents indicates that the CSA withdrew “not under enemy pressure” to resupply AND because the tactical objective had been met.
(Fyi, WINNING is NOT the same thing as “occupying terrain”.)

GEN Lee (& in general the CSA’s forces) intended to simply NOT lose the war.= Overthrowing the government of the USA was NEVER the goal.

Yours, TMN78247

[central_va]

This laughable hit rate speaks to the inaccuracy of the era’s muskets.

Clearly this person knows nothing about the springfield rifle or the enfield rifle of the time. Both were deadly accurate, even by today's standards.

Civil War Enfield (Caplock)

[zeestephen]

The Democrats have enough LEGAL voters to win every presidential election IF they get their core voters to the polls.

Example: Mitt Romney got more votes in Wisconsin in 2012 than Trump got in 2016 - and Romney LOST the state.

The House and Senate are more complicated elections.

However, since America imports 3,000 LEGAL immigrants EVERY DAY, and since 80% of those folks will vote Democrat when they become citizens, it is only a question of time before we permanently lose Congress, too.

[jmacusa]

We have Ted Kennedy to thank for this mess, that bastard. He was the one who wrote the immigration bill in 1965 that basically opened the borders. Prior to that year we only admitted 300,000 a year. We need to go back to that system.

[TMN78247]

FYI, when a 17YO cousin from (what is now) Miller County Arkansas wanted to join the one of the AR volunteer units/CSA, he was told to ARRIVE with a functional rifle or musket or TO STAY HOME.

His father bought him a Brown Bess (in good shape) & off “Ramey” went to Ft. Smith to be a Partisan Ranger.
(About 7 months later, he wrote a letter home that said that Ramey had “picked up” an a “near new” Harper’s Ferry rifled musket “off the field” & that he had given the Bess to a new recruit, who had no firearm.)

Ramey’s letters home are preserved/treasured by the AR part of our extended family, up there.

Note: Another of his letters stated that he was “pleased to have gotten” a new pair of boots from a Union SGT’s body.
(Soldiers of both armies routinely took equipment, good-quality boots & uniform items from “those who no longer needed them. Overcoats were considered a “PRIZE” by 1963.)

Yours, TMN78247

[Paul R.]

It is simple numbers. Lee was outnumbered just over 2 to 1 before Antietam. After the battle, Lee was outnumbered 2.7 to 1. At the relative rates of loss, if the invasion had continued, at the point where McClellan had approx. 43,000 soldiers left, Lee would be down to around 2,000 soldiers. (Obviously, Lee would have been in deep, deep trouble, long before that.)

Lee’s intention with this particular offensive was to inflict enough pain on the Union, and invade deep enough into the North to make fear of such invasion effective enough, that Lincoln would lose political support to the point the Union would not pursue the war. Lee failed.

Yes, I know what the Confederate propaganda of the time said.

[TMN78247]

PITY that you don’t evidently KNOW (or are IGNORING) that it takes 400-500 “front line troops” to effectively deal with ONE talented, armed guerrilla fighter.

Had GEN Lee NOT been so gentlemanly, he could have DESTROYED the Union army in PA & MD & decimated the civilian areas with numerous fires & explosions.

The Unionists of 1860-65 should be GLAD that there were FEW trained “counter-guerrilla” armed forces members OR experienced “Indian fighters”, who wore the GRAY & who were quite willing to destroy MD & PA by “fire & sword”, using “hit & run” tactics, as Francis Marion did in the AWI & COL Quantrill & other Partisan Rangers did in the Trans-Mississippi Theater..
(IF you know how to fight guerrillas, you can effectively fight AS a guerrilla.)

Yours, TMN78247

[Paul R.]

Irrelevant (as well as somewhat of an overstatement in most situations, once a real army has decided they’ve had enough of the irregulars, and takes appropriate action. See below.) You yourself point out that overall, the South did not have large numbers of trained guerrillas in the East. Further, Lee was an honorable man and could have no more directed his army to become guerrillas, so long as his opponents stayed largely “within the rules”, than he could have held his breath to off himself. It was not in his nature, and, besides, he surely had thought out the below:

For one thing, guerrillas need time to attrite their foe, and are usually not too effective for long if they lack support from a considerable portion of the local citizenry. Such support was largely lacking in Union territory (States) in the East.

There were of course considerable numbers of bushwhackers and partisan rangers who primarily operated in the Southern states and also contested areas mainly in the West (Missouri, Kansas, etc.) In contested areas, often the Jayhawks kept them busy much of the time (and vice versa). In the East, Col. Mosby’s “Cavalry” (partisan “rangers”) and others were quite effective at harassing and demoralizing Union forces for a couple years. Quantrill was effective, and brutal, too. However, note they and others did NOT destroy the Union armies or stop them for long, even though these irregulars were largely fighting on their own turf & with civilian support - significant advantages.

What DID happen, as Lee surely foresaw, was that all the Confederates’ efforts could not keep Union forces off of Southern lands, and eventually the Union got fed up and went scorched Earth. That incapacitated Southern civilians’ ability to effectively support, well, anybody. Sherman’s letter to the mayor of Atlanta addresses this very point. (Atlanta was lucky: Sherman was relatively honorable too. Many in the Union armies came to hate ALL Southerners because of the guerrillas. Without the discipline of Sherman and his command staff, the March Through Georgia could have been 10x as bloody for Southern civilians.)

IF you know your history objectively (seems doubtful), you also know that toward the end of the Civil War, the guerrilla movement lost much of its civilian support and largely died out.

[TMN78247]

PITY that you know so little about what the actual beliefs of the leaders of the CSA, other than GEN Lee were. = Jackson, for just one of many, was willing & EAGER to fight under the Black Flag.

Once the word got out in the South about the MASSIVE war crimes being committed in the Union DEATH CAMPS like Point Lookout & Camp Douglas, the “gentlemanly attitude” of the CSA’s leadership was OVER.

By the way, our family lost 4 members, who were murdered in cold-blood at Point lookout & another one slaughtered at Camp Douglas.

IF you bothered to read anything but Unionist drivel, you would sound more educated.

Yours, TN78247

[Paul R.]

Point is, Lee WAS in charge of the Confederate Army, including Jackson. Most followed his orders (some more competently or diligently than others, of course), and did not go “Black Flag”, excepting a relatively small number of renegades and semi-renegades. Actions, ultimately, speak louder than words.

Maybe someone should have knocked Lee off and we’d still be fighting the bloody “hot” war today. /s

Good God, it was bad enough, from and for BOTH sides, as it was...

You are obviously too close to the horror (family members murdered) to have a dispassionate view. That’s understandable, but it colors your arguments. All my life, I’ve lived in areas where the locals were nearly evenly divided, back then, with plenty of murders both ways. So, I am used to it, from both sides. Luckily, most can “step back”.

Additionally, I read both sides. I ended up more or less “in the middle.” There is plenty of “drivel”, and there were even more horrors to be repulsed by, all around.

FWIW, I lean toward thinking the war was unnecessary. But, that’s a whole ‘nother discussion. On the rest, we’ll just have to agree to disagree, as I’ve spent well over 3x the time I should have on FR, the last week. (Elderly parent obligations are calling, for one.)

Have a good day.