On September 17, 1862, between the town of Sharpsburg and the Antietam Creek, was an enormous engagement of Union and Confederate forces. The Battle of Antietam, also known as Battle of Sharpsburg, was fought between the Army of Northern Virginia, under General Robert E. Lee, and the Army of the Potomac, under General George B. McClellan. The day that battle was fought was the day of the United States greatest tragedy. It was the bloodiest day in American history. More Americans died in that single day than in any other day in the nation’s military history. More than attacks on September 11 2001, Japanese raid on Pearl Harbor, or the invasion of Normandy in World War II.
One source that reported the casualties during while the war was on going is from The New York Times. According to an article on the battle it was, “impossible to accurately estimate the losses on either side.” However, it is written, “In the opinion of those best capable of judging, our (Union) loss will not exceed 10,000” (The New York Times). In the article it’s claimed that, “rebel officers” supposedly said their losses to be, “as high as 30,000 men.” Modern day sources give different numbers. One source gives a total of 22,700 killed, wounded, missing, and captured from both armies. In the newspaper article it also says, “The loss of the enemy was necessarily much larger than ours” (The New York Times). 2,100 Union troops were killed, the Confederates lost 1,550. The historian, Eric Foner, wrote that, “In a single day of fighting, over 4,300 men were killed and 18,000 wounded (2,000 of whom later died of their injuries).” He goes on to describe the horrible outcome saying, “…more American soldiers perished as Antietam than in all the other wars fought by the United States in the nineteenth century combined” (Foner p. 488).
Private Alexander Hunter Confederate unit suffered high casualties during the battle. In his personal account he mentions constantly seeing men under fire, wounded, dying, or already dead. He compares the conditions of the different units he belonged to before the battle with the conditions during the battle:
“Our brigade was a mere outline of its former strength, not a sixth remaining. Our regiment, the Seventeenth, that once carried into battle eight hundred muskets, now stood on the crest, ready to die in a forlorn hope, with but forty-six muskets. My company, that often used to march in a grand review in two platoons of fifty men each, carried into Sharpsburg but two muskets (the writer and one other)” (Hunter).
However, these aren’t the final number of troops remaining. After another clash with Union troops and having been captured his remaining unit of 46 men had suffered another loss of 35 casualties. While marching back to Union lines he saw so many dead troops that, “…the dead lay thick all around.”
Another person who gives a personal account of the horrors of the battle is through Isabella M. Fogg. In 1981, Fogg followed her son, a member of the 6th Maine Regiment, to Washington, D.C. She volunteered to work for the Maine Camp and Hospital Association, an organization staffed by civilians but supported by Maine. She worked at the hospitals in Washington, but she eventually went on to aid the soldiers on the field. In a letter she gives an account of her work with the Camp and Hospital Association during the aftermath of the battle around Sharpsburg, the area where the battle took place. This report gives an insight into what appalling conditions sick and wounded and soldiers had to go through since the battle. Anyone who had experience what she went through would be horrified. This must be especially hard for Fogg who has a son fighting, and who might be going through a similar environment.Her descriptions show that the men were suffering from lack of food, shelter, clothing, and diseases. Those who cared for them were also suffering; from lack of supplies, volunteers for aid, and being exposed to outbreaks of illnesses.
In one hospital Fogg visits she describes the conditions as, “miserable…the men complain very much…the effluvia arising from the conditions of these grounds is intolerable, quite enough to make a man in perfect health sick, and how men can recover in such a place is a mystery to me.” She describes these conditions to every where she visits, some in more appalling settings, few in better circumstances. For example she says, “…visited the RussellSpringHospital, found them comparatively comfortable with only three Maine men” (Fogg). However, right after that line she continues with, “Again we went to Smoketown, hoping to find them in a more comfortable condition than we were last there, but how sadly were we disappointed” (Fogg). In many cases the medics and civilian aids are overwhelmed with soldiers in need of help. In one visit she wrote, “We visited the sick of the 19th in care of Dr. Hawes, asst. surgeon, he has upwards of 50, does all in his power for their comfort” (Fogg).
Probably the worst conditions Hogg saw had seen was at the LoudinValley, where she wrote, “…the condition of several hundreds, who had been sent the day previous without preparation. We found them lying on the ground, in all directions…no surgeons, nurses, or cooks were on the ground and hard bread their only food” (Fogg). She also describes the outbreaks of diseases, “…he told us he was sick, thought he had the measles…we supposing it to be a case of small pox…The exposure has been such that diphtheria has broken out among them…nearly every case fatal. One of our poor Maine boys who had been very diligent in looking up for us those belonging to Maine, at our last visit had been seized suddenly with diphtheria… lived but two or three hours” (Fogg).
The soldiers in Sharpsburg even have to deal with a snow storm, many of them who are lacking clothing or any layer of warmth. “You could have seen the poor fellows huddled together…their rents connected by flyes, the same as erected in the heat of summer, many without walls and no stoves…And all I may say, almost without exception with thin muslin shirts on” (Fogg). The only joy she gave was when a box, “contained upwards of a hundred flannel shirts, with some other useful articles” (Fogg). was found to keep warm up the freezing troops.
Fogg best summarizes the situation in Sharpsburg when she wrote; “…there were plenty to take their names but few to relieve their wants” (Fogg). The Battle of Antietam was fought in a single day, yet men continued to suffer. With 4,300 dead and over 18,000 wounded, captured, and missing in a single day it was the single bloodiest and darkest day in The United States history.
Fogg, Isabella M. to Hathaway. Nov. 10, 1862. Records of the Maine Soldier's Relief Agency in the Maine State Archives; and Self-Imposed Work of Mercy: Civil War Women of the Maine Camp and Hospital Association, 1861-1865. Maine
Fogg, Isabella M. to Hathaway. Nov. 10, 1862. Records of the Maine Soldier's Relief Agency in the Maine State Archives; and Self-Imposed Work of Mercy: Civil War Women of the Maine Camp and Hospital Association, 1861-1865. Maine
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