September 17, 1862: "America's Bloodiest Day"

[mahatmakanejeeves]

That's a reference to the Battle of Sharpsburg. Or as some call it:

Battle of Antietam

The Battle of Antietam /ænˈtiːtəm/, also known as the Battle of Sharpsburg, particularly in the Southern United States, was a battle of the American Civil War, fought on September 17, 1862, between Confederate General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia and Union General George B. McClellan's Army of the Potomac, near Sharpsburg, Maryland and Antietam Creek. Part of the Maryland Campaign, it was the first field army–level engagement in the Eastern Theater of the American Civil War to take place on Union soil. It was the bloodiest day in United States history, with a combined tally of 22,717 dead, wounded, or missing.

In its aftermath, photographers visited the scene.

David Fahrenthold Retweeted:

Days after the September 17 battle at Antietam, photographers Matthew Brady & A. Gardner visited the battlefield. The dead lay where they fell, as burial details slowly got underway with their gruesome task. Gardner began taking photos.

Link to tweet

One month later, Brady opened a new photographic exhibit in Manhattan, entitled "The Dead of Antietam." For the first time, the American people were shown the horrid, gruesome, and tragic fruits of war.

Link to tweet

The NYT wrote: "Mr Brady has done something to bring home to us the terrible reality & earnestness of war. If he has not brought bodies & laid them in our door yards & along the streets, he has done something very like it." Huge crowds visited the exhibit.

But the war continued.

Link to tweet

Since that time, photojournalists & cameramen have risked their lives to show the American people the face of war, in the hopes that it will provide an honest representation of its horrors and help guide wise policy making.

It all began with Antietam - America's bloodiest day.

Link to tweet

[gopiscrap]

1. Wow

[SCantiGOP]

2. can't remember if the line was original with Eisenhower or Colin Powell

Last edited Tue Sep 18, 2018, 08:08 PM - Edit history (1)

Said that, if government were run only by men who had led men into war, there would be far fewer wars. Just think how easy it was for Bush Sr and Jr to lead us into Mideast wars, and how easy it is for Trump to flirt with nuclear war.

These pictures give some idea of the horror of war before we sanitized it with long distance weapons like bombers, missles, drones, etc.
There was a fence angle at Antietam called the Bloody Corner. They said by the end of the battle men could run across the fence without stopping because of the bodies piled on the ground.

[Nitram]

6. That's right. A bomber pilot ran against Nixon on a peace platform.

A fast boat hero ran against Bush. A PT boat hero ran against Nixon the first time.

[malchickiwick]

3. Making possible the Emancipation Proclamation

Though by no means a decisive victory for the North (really, it was much more of a draw), the outcome of battle nevertheless gave Lincoln enough political capital that he could order the emancipation of all enslaved human beings in those states in open rebellion against the USA. He gave them until January 1.

Also, it has been said that soldiers on their way north again in the campaign that ended at Gettysburg came across the still-unburied corpses of their fallen brothers in arms -- some nine months later!

[magicarpet]

4. The plantation owners used the Confederate Soldiers as cannon fodder...

.... So the rich men would not have to give up their free labor and they could continue to exploit the cotton pickers with the use of slave labor these land owners could become filthy rich.

An equation of self enrichment that only worked if the uncompensated slave labor was allowed to continue and prevail.

The meat headed southern white lower classes fought the Civil War to protect slavery but stood to gain little because the rich plantation owners were the only ones to gain by retaining slavery. But the lower class and poor whites we're able to satiate their hatred of African/Americans and did not want Blacks to be treated as equals so the whites could continue to hate the Black skinned slaves and be allowed to continue to feed their vile racist whims without any limitations or constraints.

Willing to die for the right to hate - the personification of a true Southern Racist American Patriot who cherishes their proudly waving Confederate Flag.

The South Will Rise Again, so will slavery, and so will blatant in your face racism - if they get their way.

[Sneederbunk]

5. Every time Lee left Virginia he was turned back or defeated.