PURPOSE
What EMOTIONS does
the artist/photographer
want you to feel as you
observe each image?
VALIDITY
Do you think that images
of war can ever be
“neutral” or do you think
that they will always carry
some kind of biased
viewpoint?
IMPACT
How do you think the
American public felt about
each war after seeing these
images?
Antietam
September 17, 1862
The Battle of Antietam
was
THE BLOODIEST
ONE DAY
Battle
Confederate Losses
Union Losses
Killed-1,512
Killed--2,108
Wounded--7,816
Wounded--9,549
Captured/Missing--1,844
Captured/Missing--753
Total casualties: 22,720
The Setup…
• After the disaster at Bull Run, President
Lincoln put his hopes in General George
B. McClellan.
• For the next year (61-62)
the Union (North) kept
losing battles.
• Robert E. Lee felt that it was
finally time to take the fight to the North
The Story…
• In September of 1862, the Confederates
moved into Maryland in order to take
Washington D.C.
• A STROKE OF LUCK! A Union soldier
found a copy of Robert E. Lee’s battle
plans wrapped around three cigars.
• The two armies met at Antietam Creek
near the town of Sharpsburg.
Antietam
So what
happened at
the battle?
http://www.civilwar.org/battlefields/antietam/maps/antietam-animated-map.html
September 17, 1862
• Battle began in the morning and lasted all
day. Back and forth fighting.
• Each side tried to hold the ground near the
cornfield, the church, and the old stone
bridge.
• McClellan had 4 divisions of men that he
refused to use.
• He could have won, but the battle was a
draw
Antietam (or Sharpsburg)
Casualties
•23,100 / one day
State
• Maryland
Aggressor:
• Union
Commanders:
• Gen. George B.
McClellan [US]
• Gen. Robert E. Lee
[CS]
HISTORY MYSTERY
Central Historical Question:
What effects did the
Battle of Antietam have
on America?
The living that throng Broadway Street care little for the dead at Antietam, but
we believe they would jostle less carelessly down the great road, saunter less
at ease, were a few dripping bodies, fresh from the field, laid down along the
pavement.
Mr. Brady has done something to bring home to us the terrible reality of war.
If he has not brought bodies and laid them in our dooryards and along
the streets, then he has done something very much like it.
-New York Times October 20, 1862
These photos came to be called “The Dead at Antietam”
TWEDYAOD?
IT IS GOOD FOR
AMERICANS TO SEE
IMAGES OF THEIR
DEAD AND WOUNDED
SOLDIERS.
TWEDYAOD?
IT IS NECESSARY FOR
AMERICANS TO SEE
IMAGES OF THEIR
DEAD AND WOUNDED
SOLDIERS.
Key items to remember from today’s lesson
• The Battle of Antietam was the single bloodiest day in
American history.
• McClellan could have won the entire war at Antietam.
He chose not to pursue…
• The Union “victory” at Antietam allowed President
Lincoln to issue the Emancipation Proclamation.
• Matthew Brady’s pictures of Antietam changed how
Americans viewed the war.
• Great Britain and France remained neutral and did not
enter the war on the side of the Confederacy.