Antietam Battlefield

                         Sunset Report: An arc of light after a humbling day

Karen mentioned yesterday that she wanted to make popovers this morning, which is something Dad used to do on Sunday mornings - a specialty, in fact - Karen broke all the rules and baked us up a beautiful batch! Pop would've been proud!! Scrambled eggs and bacon, too! I took a picture of breakfast ad lib - wished I'd arranged it a little because the popovers were SO incredibly beautiful, but the two bacon strips look like just one piece of bacon in the picture!! Delicious breakfast, Sis!! Duppy and Dexter thought so, too!

Our plan today was to go to the Antietam Battlefield - neither of us have been there before, but again, "Antietam" is a word I know without knowing why. That seems to happen a lot lately, and I wonder how it is I can't recall any background knowledge about something that sounds so familiar. The thing that struck me the most is that the battle for Antietam was the single deadliest day in American military history - EVER! At Gettysburg, the same approximate number of soldiers were killed in three days. Not one day! Yikes!


Casualties include three categories: 1) dead; 2) wounded; and 3) missing or captured. In general terms, casualties of Civil War battles included 20% dead and 80% wounded. Of the soldiers who were wounded, about one out of seven died from his wounds. Over 2/3 of the 622,000 men who gave their lives in the Civil War died from disease, not from battle.

Antietam Casualties

Approximate Numbers	Union	Confederate	Total
Killed	2,100	1,550	3,650
Wounded	9,550	7,750	17,300
Missing/Captured	750	1,020	1,770
Total	12,400	10,320	22,720

Because of the catastrophic nature of battle, exact numbers of casualties were virtually impossible to compile. The sources for these figures are The Official Records of the War of the Rebellion and the Antietam Battlefield Board. Tough to imagine. Another noteworthy fact is that Antietam was the first battleground to be photographed before the bodies were removed. I'm not posting the pics here, but you can Google Images yourself. They were taken by a guy who worked for Matthew Brady - forget his name as I sit here. Another startling fact about the battle was that six general officers - three per side - were killed. I don't believe that has happened anywhere, ever in the history of the world. Karen and I did the driving tour of the battlefield which was about eight miles long, and steeped in reverence. Dunker church, Bloody Lane, Burnside Bridge - this battlefield was six miles long and two miles wide, and the site of one of history's bloodiest battles. 50,000 Artillery rounds were expended in a day! Artillery Hell.

I bought Antietam: A Documentary Film, which is narrated by James Earl Jones, to complement the Gettysburg tour CD. Mom and I are going to have a ball when we get together!! My brother-in-law, Mike, made us a copy of the entire Ken Burns' Civil War PBS series and the movie Gettysburg. Big thanks for that, Mikey!

It occurred to me today that I don't know where Valley Forge is, and I've never been to Mount Vernon, though Karen says I have. I feel compelled to do something about that. We had a very interesting day, and Karen is a wonderful playmate for both Duppy and me. We went to an all-you-can-stand Chinese buffet on the way home where Duppy was not only greeted, but welcomed openly. The Chinese waitresses really fussed on him, brought him his own dish of chicken and laughed in delight when he put his feet on the edge of the table and drank out of a glass on the table. (I was mortified!) Talk about getting away with murder! We gave her a big tip!!! I back away from my earlier supposition that you can be too cute. Duppy's got it nailed.

Virgina Beach and hooking up with Donny has been put on temporary hold as he has a full-time agenda to find a place to live and get moved in quickly. He's in VA Beach, which is not conducive to guys with campers who need secure parking arrangements, like me. I hope that Dave can still find his way here next weekend - maybe we can find somewhere to set the camper up. I know I've camped in Virginia Beach before, but can't remember where. Anyway, Dave, no worries. Come on down and we'll figure out the details as need be! Bring ALL the Boyz and sleeping bags!!! I've got everything needed to be the host with the mostest and I LOVE your tribe!!

To my blog followers, I thank you for following. I have about 100 views per day on my blog each day from twelve countries - oftentimes even more!! It seems my family and friends are the only ones who leave me comments, but I do welcome your notes when you feel inclined to leave them.

All for now!
Doug and the Dup