The Battle of Antietam, also known as the Battle of Sharpsburg, particularly in the Southern United States, was fought on September 17, 1862, near Sharpsburg, Maryland and Antietam Creek as 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 and is the bloodiest single-day battle in American history, with a combined tally of 22,717 dead, wounded, or missing.
Here is a collection of rare and haunting photos from this battle in 1862.
It was the first field army–level engagement in the Eastern Theater of the American Civil War to take place on Union soil and is the bloodiest single-day battle in American history, with a combined tally of 22,717 dead, wounded, or missing.
Here is a collection of rare and haunting photos from this battle in 1862.
 |
| Lonely Grave, Antietam, Maryland |
 |
| Lt. Col. Charles B. Norton at headquarters of Gen. Fitz-John Porter, Antietam, Maryland |
 |
| Lt. Rufus King, Lt. Alonzo Cushing, Lt. Evan Thomas and three other artillery officers in front of tent |
 |
| Main Street in Sharpsburg, Maryland, September 1862, after the Battle of Antietam |
 |
| Maj. Allan Pinkerton, Secret Service Department and friends, Antietam, Maryland |
 |
| Newcomer's mill |
 |
| President Lincoln with Gen. George B. McClellan and group of officers |
 |
| Signal tower overlooking Antietam battlefield, Elk Mountain, Maryland |
 |
| Straw huts erected on Smith's farm used as a hospital after the battle of Antietam |
 |
| U.S. President A. Lincoln, between his bodyguard Major A. Pinkerton (left) and General J. A. McClernand, visiting the Union camp at Sharpsburg, Maryland, October 3, 1862 |
 |
| 93rd New York Infantry, headquarters Army of the Potomac |
 |
| A Calvary orderly |
 |
| Abraham Lincoln and George B. McClellan in the general's tent at Antietam, Maryland, October 3, 1862 |
 |
| Allan Pinkerton ("E. J. Allen") of the Secret Service on horseback |
 |
| Seated: R. William Moore and Allan Pinkerton. Standing: George H. Bangs, John C. Babcock, and Augustus K. Littlefield, Antietam, Maryland |
 |
| Battlefield on the day of battle |
 |
| Blacksmith shoeing horses at headquarters, Army of the Potomac |
 |
| Bodies in front of the Dunker church |
 |
| Bodies of Confederate dead gathered for burial |
 |
| Bridge on the Sharpsburg-Boonsboro turnpike |
 |
| Burying the dead Confederate soldiers |
 |
| Captain J.M. Knap's Penn of Independent Battery 'E' Light Artillery |
 |
| Col. John S. Crocker, Lt. Col. Benjamin C. Butler, and adjutant of 93d New York Volunteers |
 |
| Col. Turner G. Morehead, 106th Pennsylvania Volunteers |
 |
| Confederate dead along Hagerstown Pike |
 |
| Confederate soldiers as they fell near the Burnside bridge, Antietam, Maryland |
 |
| Dead of Stonewall Jackson's Brigade by rail fence on the Hagerstown pike |
 |
| Dead soldiers on battlefield |
 |
| Ditch with bodies of soldiers on right wing used as a rifle pit by Confederates |
 |
| Federal buried, Confederate unburied, where they fell |
 |
| Forge scene at General McClellan's headquarters |
