[carlo3b]

Emancipation Proclamation

The new beginning, may have ended on an American blood stained battlefield in Maryland, the official Emancipation Proclamation was issued on January 1, 1863, during the second year of the American Civil War and was Abraham Lincoln's declaration that all slaves in the states which had seceded from the Union, and which were not at the time under Federal control, were considered free. This action had little immediate effect, since it was impossible for the Federal government to implement it in those regions where it actually applied--namely the states in rebellion that were not under Federal control. Slaves in the states which remained loyal to the Union were not affected, and remained in slavery until the ratification of the thirteenth amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1865. Thus the impact of the proclamation was more symbolic than real. William Seward, Lincoln's Secretary of State, commented on this by remarking, "We show our sympathy with slavery by emancipating slaves where we cannot reach them and holding them in bondage where we can set them free."

However, Lincoln believed he had no constitutional authority to free the slaves except in those states where it was deemed a military necessity in order to suppress the rebellion, and freeing slaves was still a risky political act given that there were still slave states loyal to the union, and the initial war aims were centered on preserving the union rather than freeing slaves. As such, the proclamation was a military order issued by Lincoln in his capacity as Commander-in-Chief. The Emancipation Proclamation also allowed for the admittance of freed slaves into the (then-segregated) United States military, an unusual opportunity taken by nearly 200,000 black men, many of them former slaves.

[carlo3b]

Our honorable heritage, had a humble and tragic start.. so many, lost in a struggle for the love of all.. it was not in vain!

[azhenfud]

Just recalling a scene from G&G.

Beau Regards,
Az

[UB355]

I had the opportunity to visit Antietam a few years ago. Quite a place.

[netmilsmom]

Mr. Carlo, you never cease to amaze me.
My mom, may God Bless her, was so very much into the history of the civil war. She was very pro-south. We traveled with my dad, who was a salesman, during the 70's. His territory was the eastern states down to SC and over to OH. We went to Antietam before it was as commercialized as Gettysburg and visited many battle sites.
You have again brought tears to my eyes, remembering my mom.
Thanks!
xxoo

P.S. I'm saving this as a homeschooling lesson as well, but I think my hubby must handle it. I may not make it through.

[Pompah]

Many,Many books have been written on the subject of this battle known as "The Bloodiest Single Day" of the Civil War. For the Finest definitive account on this God Awful fight in the fields,and lanes around Sharpsburg Maryland find a copy of Stephen W. Sears Landscape Turned Red. The Battle of Antietam. If you're like me, You'll read most of the book with your mouth agape. Thanks for the Post. Pax-Aye

[ijcr]

From http://www.carman.net/antietam.htm

With the first skirmishes out of the way, the two armies now took positions near the town of Sharpsburg along the Hagerstown Pike, just 35 miles south of Gettysburg, along the small creek there named Antietam. McClellan divided his army into three groups there. On September 16th General Lee had spread his army out 4 miles long parallel to the Hagerstown Pike.

The 13th Pennsylvania was first to engage, finishing off a skirmish from the night before, for they were eager for revenge - their Colonel had been killed the night before, but they soon ran out of ammunition and withdrew. The 107th Pennsylvania now took the field and Confederate artillery opened up with Shells and Solid Shot rounds. Scores of Union troops were taken out in less than 5 minutes. At 6am Colonel Abram Duryea's 1,100 man Brigade, made of two New York Regiments and one Pennsylvania took the field.

Regiment after Regiment now took the field, each in turn wilting under the cross-fire the Confederate cannon had established with ruthless precision. Among them the 12th Massachusetts who were chewed to bits within minutes by the Louisiana "Tigers" and only 32 men of 334 who took the field returned with the Regimental colors. The Union artillery now concentrated on the Louisiana troops and caught them in their own cross-fire - it was now about 7am. The 12th Massachusetts had now gone into history taking the highest casualties of any Federal Unit that day - 67%. The Louisiana Tigers suffered 61% casualties including every one of it's Regimental Officers.

The 6th Wisconsin now took the field along with the 2nd and 7th Wisconsin and 19th Indiana. They met an unseen line of Confederate troops hidden in a pasture who jumped up and opened fire - men by the dozens were knocked out of the ranks. The 84th New York was added to the fray. The combined units of Wisconsin, Indiana and New York now fused into one unit facing three Georgia regiments. The Georgians began to break, when 1,150 men from the remaining Confederate brigades reinforced them and now the Union troops swayed. But the price was annihilation from a three point cross fire of Federal sharpshooters, artillery firing case shot, and musket fire from the pasture. - Captain R. P. Jennings of the 23rd Virginia was the only survivor of his entire Company, and he was wounded.

The Rebels were now so close to the union lines that the Federal artillery in and around the Corn Field took to shortening the fuses on their shells so they would go off only one and one-half seconds after leaving their muzzles. They could not fire canisters, as their were scores of wounded under the front of their guns.

The 90th Pennsylvania, with half its strength dead or wounded left the field and withdrew. The color bearer walking backwards the whole way out of the cornfield, believing that a gunshot in his back would be the ultimate disgrace on the battlefield. An entire Union Division was now effectively out of operation.

The battle now became an artillery duel. Guns were firing at each other from distances of less than 200 yards. Guns took to firing double canisters ( a canister was something like a #10 can filled with hundred metal balls, and fused to explode in the face of the enemy). At the end of the battle the survivors found piles of dead, one on top of the other, from the carnage.

The 1st Texas foolishly followed a retreating Union unit and within twenty minutes lost two complete companies. Four out of every five men of the 1st Texas was killed or wounded. - it was now 7:30am.

Of the three Confederate brigades commanded by General Lawton, one out of every two men had been killed or wounded. Stonewall Jackson's old Division had taken 30% casualties. When General Hood was asked where his Division was, he replied "Dead on the field." - He had taken 60% casualties. Union losses were no less. General Hooker's Corp had taken 30% casualties. Of the 3,150 men General Rickett's took on the field, about 300 remained.

The 128th Pennsylvania took the field and out to the Corn Field - a newly organized unit with green troops, they quickly broke in the withering fire. By the time they were reorganized enough to get them off the field they had taken 118 casualties. The Confederate troops still had smooth bore rifles. And now with the fighting at close range they took to using "buck and ball" loads (a cartridge which beside the standard musket ball also contained 3 buckshot) - the result was multiple wounds from one round fired. Two thousand fresh Union troops were put into the line to bolster the attack. Pennsylvania and Ohio companies were now engaged in hand to hand combat among the tramped cornstalks. The 6th Georgia now had 24 men left of it's 250 it had started the morning with. There were now nearly 8,000 casualties - and it was only 9am.

The Pennsylvania "Philadelphia Brigade" took the field and was swept off in a swell of retreat from a flanking movement near the Dunker Church. They lost 550 men in about ten minutes. The 42nd New York on the left flank was also swept away taking 181 casualties. The 15th Massachusetts took 318 casualties, many from friendly fire when they were mistaken by a green New York Regiment for Confederate in the smoky-haze of the battle. Captain Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. of the 20th Massachusetts witnessed one of his troops firing into the rear of the line hit him with the flat edge of his sword and cursed him to stop firing on his own men, only to learn a minute later that the man knew what he was doing. The 20th Massachusetts had been flanked and the enemy was now behind them! About 2,300 casualties, mostly Pennsylvanians, were taken in a ten to fifteen minute period in the confusion. - it was 9:45am.

The 2nd Massachusetts and the 13th New Jersey now were ordered in. The Massachusetts men were veterans, but the the 13th New Jersey under Colonel Ezra Ayres Carman was a green unit never having loaded their muskets in battle before. They were sent into the Cornfield. Approaching the Hagerstown Pike they were met by Confederates lying in prone position behind a ledge of limestone at the edge of the woods. Colonel Carman wrote "The men were being shot by a foe they could not see, so perfectly did the ledge protect them." The 2nd Massachusetts flag took twenty new holes from the fire before the two units recognized the impossibility of this attack and the two units about-faced and marched back the way they came "in perfect order".

At 10am the Confederates advanced. Union troops waited until they were within 70 yards and opened fire. One soldier of the 102nd New York wrote in his diary "it seemed as if whole companies were wiped out of existence." Indeed the 30th Virginia lost 160 of the 236 men they started out with.

The Union now attempted a bayoneted charge across a ridge. The Confederates were waiting for them. In five minutes the Union Brigade took more than 450 casualties. General Longstreet now ordered a counterattack and Union artillery chewed them to pieces. But another Union Division was spent with 1,750 casualties. The 63rd and 69th New York each lost 60% of their number. Most within the first few minutes of battle. - it was now 10:30am.



The Sunken Road was later renamed "Bloody Lane" by the Veterans of Antietam. James Hope of the 2nd Vermont made sketches during the battle and later made them into a large oil paintings. Over 5,600 dead, Union and Confederate filled the road by 1 pm of that fateful day.



The 9th Alabama was now ordered to charge across the Cornfield. The 5th New Hampshire was waiting for them, kneeling among the dead on the Sunken Road. The 5th New Hampshire would hold the distinction of having the highest casualty statistics of any Union unit during the Civil War, one-third of them being inflicted at Antietam. The Confederacy took 2,600 casualties trying to take the Sunken Road that day, and still failed. The Union lost nearly 3,000 defending it. In total nearly 18,500 Confederate and Union casualties had been taken in about seven hours of the battle. - it was now about 1pm. The battle lines were now shifting to the stone bridge under siege by General Burnside. The carnage continued. By sunset the fighting began to subside. While not a Union victory, it was not a Union defeat and General Lee thought best to withdraw from the field.

The total casualties of the Battle of Antietam will never be known, because of a lack of Confederate record keeping. The best estimates are for the Army of the Potomac: 2,108 dead, 9,540 wounded and 753 missing (most more than likely killed) for a total of 12,401 men. Twenty-five percent of all Union troops who stepped into battle that day. Confederate casualties are estimated as 1,546 dead, 7,752 wounded, and 1,018 missing for a total of 10,318 men. Combined casualties for 12 hours of fighting were 22,719.

[SwinneySwitch]

Roll Call
Nathaniel Graham Shepherd (1834-1888)
Stanza 2, 5, 7 and 10

"Cyrus Drew!" --- then a silent fell;
This time no answer followed the call;
Only his rear-man had seen him fall:
Killed or wounded --- he could not tell.

For the foe had crossed from the other side,
That day, in the face of a murderous fire
That swept them down in its terrible ire;
And their life-blood went to color the tide.

"Ezra Kerr!" --- and a voice answered "Here!"
"Hiram Kerr!" --- but no man replied.
They were brothers, these two; the sad wind sighed,
And a shudder crept through the cornfield near.

'Twas a victory, yes; but it cost us dear:
For that company's roll, when called at night,
Of a hundred men who went into the fight,
Numbered but twenty that answered "Here!"

[austingirl]

When I visited Antietam, I got goosebumps. There is a sacred air about the place where so much blood was shed. It was truly moving.

[Vinnie]

Coming back from wedding in NY several yrs. ago, my wife and I stopped at Gettysburg.
I was amazed at the effect that had on me. Such a solemn site.
The next day we visited Antietam, another 'must see'.
When we pulled out of the parking lot we turned right instead of left. That put us on the old Harper's Ferry Rd.
What a drive. A narrow country road, very winding.
The road comes out on the Potomac River then follows the river to the opposite side of the river from Harper's Ferry. A canal system and locks are still there on that side of the river. Apparently horse drawn barges plyed the river.
There are old buildings on the opposite, apparently the landing from Harper's Ferry. And likely originals

I don't remember exactly how we got on the main highway but it was not difficult.
Then we visited the old Harper's Ferry. It probably looks exactly as it did 130 yrs ago.
Anyone visiting Antietam and planning to go to Harper's Ferry , Take the Old Harper's Ferry Road. You won't be sorry.

A fantastic 2 days of history.

[Timmy]

September 17, 1862 was the bloodiest DAY in U.S. history. However, July 1-3, 1863 were the bloodiest DAYS in U.S. history.