150 Years Ago Today...

[MichaelWinicki]

The bloodiest single day of the Civil War.

3,654 Americans killed as a result of the fighting on September 17th near Sharpsburg, Maryland.

 

[Phoenix]

3,654 Americans killed as a result of the fighting on September 17th near Sharpsburg, Maryland.

And 36 years ago today the prototype space shuttle Enterprise rolled out.

 

[NorthTexan95]

The bloodiest single day of the Civil War.

3,654 Americans killed as a result of the fighting on September 17th near Sharpsburg, Maryland.

54,787 days.

A lot more than 3,600 guys died. It was about 23,000.

 

[MichaelWinicki]

54,787 days.

A lot more than 3,600 guys died. It was about 23,000.

That's 22,217 total casualties for the 1 day battle, which includes killed, wounded and missing.

 

[burmafrd]

Bloodiest single day battle.

But there were other battles that had much worse total over several days
Gettysburg and Chickamaga for example.

 

[MichaelWinicki]

Bloodiest single day battle.

But there were other battles that had much worse total over several days
Gettysburg and Chickamaga for example.

True.


For those that haven't been to the Antietam Battlefield, for a place that contained so much horror, the battlefield itself is stunningly beautiful.

 

[Kangaroo]

The bloodiest single day of the Civil War.

3,654 Americans killed as a result of the fighting on September 17th near Sharpsburg, Maryland.

Part of the death toll was due to battle tactics not matching the change in weapons with the invention of the Minieball then you add in the paper cartridge and the copper percussion which made easier loading, more accurate weapons and less cleaning. I did an entire paper on it in Highschool. Wish i still had a copy of that dam thing so I would have all my references. I knocked the socks of my JORTC instructor when I did my oral speech and my written part. I was 17 and was giving a speech covering material he was taking in a upper level college history course.

I ought to get back to reading stuff like that again.

Anyways good stuff as always

 

[NorthTexan95]

Part of the death toll was due to battle tactics not matching the change in weapons with the invention of the Minieball then you add in the paper cartridge and the copper percussion which made easier loading, more accurate weapons and less cleaning. I did an entire paper on it in Highschool. Wish i still had a copy of that dam thing so I would have all my references. I knocked the socks of my JORTC instructor when I did my oral speech and my written part. I was 17 and was giving a speech covering material he was taking in a upper level college history course.

I ought to get back to reading stuff like that again.

Anyways good stuff as always

The year I taught 8th grade history I talked about this specific problem with tactics. The department has some toy rifles so I had students hold them and march towards each other to demonstate. I doubt I could get away with that today.

 

[NorthTexan95]

That's 22,217 total casualties for the 1 day battle, which includes killed, wounded and missing.

Ah....

 

[ShiningStar]

bloody mess during a war color me shocked.

 

[ShiningStar]

That's 22,217 total casualties for the 1 day battle, which includes killed, wounded and missing.

what was the goal of said war? paintball?

 

[CanadianCowboysFan]

One could argue the hope for a southern slave nation died that day. Yeah most point to Gettysburg Day 2 as the day it ended, but in reality, losing at Antietam pretty much ensure no recognition by UK and France so the Rebs were on their own.

 

[MichaelWinicki]

what was the goal of said war? paintball?

I don't want to get into the politics of the war here.

There are many places on the web that will give you several different, and many times conflicting points of view on the "why's" of the conflict.

 

[Kangaroo]

The year I taught 8th grade history I talked about this specific problem with tactics. The department has some toy rifles so I had students hold them and march towards each other to demonstate. I doubt I could get away with that today.

I took in actual MinieBalls to class along with an overhead diagram breaking out the bullet changes. My dad owned several old school black powered rifles; i grew up to that stuff. Could you imagine doing that in today's classroom.

 

[DallasCowpoke]

The bloodiest single day of the Civil War.

3,654 Americans killed as a result of the fighting on September 17th near Sharpsburg, Maryland.

CBS Sunday Morning did a good feature on this yesterday MW. It also mentions an upcoming series on deaths as result of the Civil War. Good watch.

 

[WV Cowboy]

A very good friend of mine is a big Civil War buff, .. very knowledgable.

He is related to Stonewall Jackson.

He is at Antietam today.

Safe travel Mike.

 

[MichaelWinicki]

One could argue the hope for a southern slave nation died that day. Yeah most point to Gettysburg Day 2 as the day it ended, but in reality, losing at Antietam pretty much ensure no recognition by UK and France so the Rebs were on their own.

There is that.

They still had a small chance for a military victory in the war after Antietam, but yeah that chance was indeed much smaller after September 17th, 1862.

 

[arglebargle]

A very good friend of mine is a big Civil War buff, .. very knowledgable.

He is related to Stonewall Jackson.

He is at Antietam today.

Safe travel Mike.

I used to play Avalon Hill's Squad Leader against a descendant of Gen. Longstreet. And yes, he usually kicked my butt.

 

[burmafrd]

Actually there was a slim chance afterwards; if Atlanta had held and the east had been kept stalemated there was hope that Lincoln would lose the election and the democrat would look for a armistice. But in reality even if Lincoln had lost the election by the time McClellan had come into office the south would have been done anyway.

Realistically the only chance the South really had was to be recognized by england and france; but the odds of them ever doing that with a country that had slavery was very slim.


It was not so much the minie ball that caused the casualties; it was the fact that rifles were so much more accurate then muskets; and the formations stayed the same. So lots of easy targets.

The large 58 caliber ball or minie ball would destroy any bone it hit; that was the reason for the huge number of amputations. That damage was only able to be repaired in the last 20 years or so.

The shock of that large round hitting the body also caused lots of damage; and of course the fact that medicine had not really progressed that much up to then did not help.

two thirds of the 600,000 that died in the war died of disease; not battle wounds.

 

[MichaelWinicki]

The amount of casualties was staggering for many of the Civil War battles.

But keep in mind it took a tremendous amount of "lead" to actually cause a casualty.

For the most part there was no such thing as "target" practice. Outside of battle the firing of one's weapon was rare, the result being when you combine the stress of the moment along with such things as how far away your opponent actually is along with the black smoke that quickly enveloped everything... The result was casualties occurred at a much slower pace than what you would think, especially after the first few rounds had been fired off.