today we commemorate the bloodiest day in american history

[lookingland]

september 17, 1862 ~ antietam creek

Estimates vary but center around 23,000 total Americans, Northern and Southern, killed, wounded, or missing during this one days fighting. [T]he count of those who lost their lives because of this single day of battle could exceed 7,000. No other day in American history produced a greater number of casualties. If the battle lasted about 11 hours, 6am to 5pm, that meant on average one casualty inflicted every 1 1/2 seconds. Of those casualties, one man would die for every 5 to 6 seconds of conflict.

The above website is a great tour of the battlefield and what occurred there.

Below: "snow along Bloody Lane"
from fantastic photoblog MidatlanticImages.com



x-posted to uscivilwar

Comments

stunningly horrific

[(Anonymous)]

If ever a place would be haunted, that's it.

m

[gwyn-hwyfar.livejournal.com]

Oh! thank you for this reminder....I hadn't even been thinking about the Maryland battles this week :(

[sparowe]

I should go out there....

[java-fiend.livejournal.com]

I remember the first time I read about Antietam and just being stunned at the loss of life in one single day. I couldn't even begin to imagine what it would be like, standing in the middle of that battlefield as the fight raged on around me. Horrific doesn't even begin to describe it.