Firsthand Accounts

The United States has endured many&nbsp;different battles, terrorist attacks, and conflicts throughout the decades. But there is one day that has held the title for&nbsp;the bloodiest day in US history for nearly 159 years: the Battle of Antietam.&nbsp;

The day was September 17, 1862. In just 12&nbsp;hours, <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/american-civil-war/battle-of-antietam" target="_blank">close to 23,000 soldiers were wounded</a> or killed.&nbsp;

So, why did the Battle of Antietam happen in the first place? It boils down to an (attempted)&nbsp;sneak attack by the Confederate army, only to be thwarted by secret plans found by Union soldiers.&nbsp;This discovered information led&nbsp;Union General George McClellan to face his troops off against&nbsp;Confederate General Robert E. Lee&#39;s army&nbsp;along Antietam Creek near Sharpsburg, MD.

According to Battle of Antietam eyewitness accounts, the battle began at dawn and was relentless for hours, <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/staged-photos-from-civil-war/nicky-benson" target="_blank">with bodies covering the ground</a> of the cornfield they fought in.&nbsp;

But the soldiers fought gallantly, as they knew the significance of the Battle of Antietam. If&nbsp;the North lost, they could lose control of Congress, and other nations&nbsp;could begin to side with the Confederates. If the South lost, they would lose their progression and fail to win a&nbsp;battle on Northern soil.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

While many soldiers gave their lives fighting for their cause, many others were left remembering the horrors of the day. The Battle of Antietam quotes are heartbreaking and haunting, telling of a day many of them would rather forget.&nbsp;

Eyewitness Accounts From The Bloodiest Day In US History That Still Haunt Us

General

Battle of Antietam Eyewitness Accounts That Still Haunt Us Today

Emily Mast

From 1861 to 1865, The Union faced secessionists in 11 Southern states grouped together as the Confederacy and waged war against America. It was the bloodiest conflict in U.S. history.

North vs. South

Lists about the period of United States history that allowed for human enslavement, from early colonial days until the ratification of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution in 1865.

American Slavery

Civil War

There's no question: the Civil War was about slavery. Denying the central role that slavery played in the Civil War goes against all the facts. And yet some still cling to the revisionist history argument that the South wanted independence or&nbsp;lower taxes, or fought for states' rights. But history shows that states' rights meant the right to own slaves.How did slavery cause the Civil War? For decades before the war, Americans became increasingly polarized over the question of slavery, as the number of slaves increased in the South and decreased in the North. Westward expansion created a new battleground over slavery, with slave states promoting the expansion of the &quot;peculiar institution&quot; into new territories like Missouri, Kansas, and California. Abraham Lincoln predicted that slavery would split the country, and a <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/map-that-convinced-lincoln-to-end-slavery/genevieve-carlton" target="_blank">shocking map</a> convinced him&nbsp;that slavery had to end. Finally, the abolition of slavery was a condition of the <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/what-happened-right-after-civil-war-rebel-surrender/cheryl-adams-richkoff" target="_blank">Confederate surrender</a>&nbsp;at Appomattox.History before, during, and after the Civil War proves that the war was about slavery.&nbsp;Anyone who still doubts what the Civil War was really about should&nbsp;listen to the words of Confederates and former slaves -&nbsp;both groups agreed on this point.

The Civil War Was About Slavery, And Leading Confederates Of The Day Said So

The Civil War Was Definitely About Slavery And Saying It Wasn't Is Revisionist History

Genevieve Carlton

US History

The Civil War was the bloodiest in US&nbsp;history: more Americans perished in five years than in all other conflicts combined. What was it like to fight?&nbsp;Soldiers, <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/civil-war-photos-of-child-soldiers/brenden-donnelly" target="_blank">some of who were merely children</a>, faced new technology on the field, like rifle-muskets that could cut down dozens of men in a single volley. Military tactics didn&#39;t catch up with technology, men were ordered to line up and march toward gunfire, and even those who survived the field often <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/whoa-civil-war-facts/pierce-nahigyan" target="_blank">succumbed to&nbsp;infected amputations or diseases.</a>

New technology didn&#39;t simply shape life on the field;&nbsp;it affected how we understand the conflict. <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/photos-from-civil-war-battles/aaron-edwards" target="_blank">Rare photos</a>&nbsp;that captured the horrors of clashes remind us that&nbsp;the battle between the Union and Confederacy&nbsp;was the first major US conflict fought after the invention of photography. Images spread across the country, capturing the devastating losses. Soldiers struggled to survive on meager rations, writing home about the <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/civil-war-hygiene/setareh-janda" target="_blank">terrible conditions they faced</a>.

What It Was Actually Like To Fight In The Civil War

In 1859, Congressman Daniel Sickles shot and killed the man sleeping with his wife. After escaping a prison sentence,&nbsp;Sickles disobeyed orders in the Civil War and lost a leg. After the war, General Dan Sickles donated the leg to the Army Medical Museum. And that&#39;s just the start when it comes to the wildest general in the Civil War.

Born in 1819 to a wealthy family, Sickles rose to political power thanks to Tammany Hall, the political machine in New York City. Just like the <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/north-south-spy-stories/setareh-janda" target="_blank">Civil War spies</a>&nbsp;who changed the course of the conflict, Sickles risked his life for the Union. But Sickles didn&#39;t have any military training -&nbsp;he only became a general because of his political connections.

At 33 years old, Sickles married a 15-year-old girl -&nbsp;and later shot her lover. Sickles didn&#39;t hold himself to the standard of monogamy, though. He asked a famous brothel madam to accompany him overseas on a diplomatic assignment, and later had an affair with Queen Isabella II of Spain. Throughout his life, scandals&nbsp;followed Sickles everywhere - even into his 90s.

Meet Dan Sickles, The Wildest General From The Civil War

It&#39;s one thing to read about history in books, but it&#39;s something else to get <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/touching-grandparent-ww2-stories/gordon-cameron" target="_blank">stories and folklore</a>&nbsp;from people whose ancestors were there.

Whether receiving stories and private papers from their forebears, or chasing down their own genealogy, these folks from Reddit shine an intimate light on the experiences of their great-great-great-grandparents (plus or minus a &quot;great&quot; or two) in the US&nbsp;Civil War.

People Share Their Ancestors’ Civil War Stories

People Share Ancestors’ Civil War Stories

Gordon Cameron

Whoa Facts

War <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/warfare-stories-that-sound-fake-but-are-true/jim-rowley" target="_blank">drives people to extremes</a>. Occasionally, the people engaged in the war are able to verbalize their experiences so succinctly, so dramatically, that a novelist or poet could hardly say it better.

It gives a strange thrill when we&nbsp;see the actors on the stage of history doing justice to the import and drama of the very events they&#39;re making real, and doing so not in retrospect but as it happens.&nbsp;Here are some Civil War quotes that would be hard for anyone to improve upon.

Savage Civil War Quotes That Sound Made Up, But Aren't

Camp Sumter, also known as Andersonville&nbsp;prison, housed 45,000 captured Union soldiers during the Civil War. Conditions at Andersonville were so horrific that 13,000 soldiers perished, many from overcrowding, starvation, and exposure. After the conflict, the Andersonville commander was put on trial for war crimes.&nbsp;

Andersonville was originally built in 1864 after the <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/american-civil-war/andersonville" target="_blank">Civil War prisoner exchange system</a> broke down. When Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, the Confederacy responded by declaring they would <a href="https://www.thoughtco.com/civil-war-prisoner-exchange-104536" target="_blank">no longer return captured Black soldiers</a> to the North. Lincoln ordered a halt to all prisoner exchanges until the Confederacy treated Black captives&nbsp;equal to white POWs. The Confederacy hastily built the Andersonville&nbsp;facility using Black slave labor&nbsp;to house 10,000 POWs. Instead, more than three times that number were shoved onto just 16 acres of land, with no fresh water, no housing, and barely any food. Described as &quot;hell-upon-earth,&quot; Andersonville claimed the lives of thousands of Union soldiers.

What Was It Like To Be A Prisoner At Camp Sumter, A Terrifying Civil War Prison?

What Life Was Like At Civil War Prison Camp Sumter

History

For most people, the name Cassius Clay is associated with one man and one man only: Muhammad Ali. Perhaps the most famous athlete of the 20th century, Ali famously rejected the name Cassius Clay when he joined the Nation of Islam and refused to answer to what he had dubbed &quot;my slave name.&quot;

This bold move had the intended effect and cemented Ali as a crusader for equality and African American rights, but ironically, the name Cassius Clay was taken from a man who had fought for abolition his entire life. So who was the original Cassius Clay? The simple answer is that he was a prominent abolitionist politician in the mid-1800s. He served in the Kentucky House of Representatives and was&nbsp;appointed ambassador to Russia by Abraham Lincoln.

But that&#39;s not the whole story. Known as the Lion of White Hall - named after the estate and plantation he owned and grew up on - he was also one of the toughest politicians ever to walk the halls of Congress. He won duel after duel, and his physical exploits are legendary. Not only that, he was an open and vocal advocate for the abolition of slavery in the 1840s, in Kentucky of all places.

He was bombastic and charismatic, but could also be vicious and cruel. His boundless energy brought him close to&nbsp;Lincoln, even as his ambition alienated the president. He embodied the volatile, contradictory spirit of his age, and in the end Cassius Marcellus Clay went down as perhaps the most larger-than-life figure of the day.

Duel-Happy Abolitionist Cassius Clay Was The Most Metal Politician In American History

Who Was Cassius Clay? Duel-Happy Abolitionist Was The Most Metal Politician

Quinn Armstrong

From 1861 to 1865, the Civil War battered <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/what-civil-war-life-was-like/genevieve-carlton" target="_blank">American life</a> and became one of the country&#39;s deadliest conflicts. Due to some of the country&#39;s bloodiest battles, civilian unrest, and fatal outbreaks, the Civil War was a theater for some of the darkest moments in American history.

The Civil War took the lives of more than 620,000 Union and Confederate soldiers. Some of them didn&#39;t survive high-stakes battles like Gettysburg or <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/firsthand-battle-of-antietam-accounts/emily-mast" target="_blank">Antietam</a>, while others perished from disease.

Not all of the Civil War&#39;s darkest moments happened on battlefields. The war came into everyday people&#39;s lives in unexpected and unwelcome ways, too, such as violent raids against civilians.

Though the Civil War was <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/how-slavery-caused-civil-war/genevieve-carlton" target="_blank">undeniably about slavery</a>, African American soldiers and civilians alike suffered disproportionately during the conflict. Confederates targeted Black troops and freedpeople, and formerly enslaved refugees were often subject to the whims of a government that still didn&#39;t see them as free and equal human beings.

As a reckoning of America&#39;s soul, the Civil War was a violent crucible in which suffering happened on an epic scale.

The 14 Darkest Moments In The American Civil War

Setareh Janda

Old Stuff

Survival during war is often about more than just time spent on the front lines. During the Civil War, finding sufficient, edible&nbsp;food&nbsp;was challenging on account of a devastated landscape, insufficient labor&nbsp;after farmers went off to fight, as well as blockades and barricades preventing access to much-needed provisions.&nbsp;

Much like <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/gross-food-that-american-settlers-ate/melissa-sartore" target="_blank">settlers headed out West</a> during the expansion of the United States or millions of <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/food-during-the-great-depression/kellen-perry" target="_blank">poverty-stricken individuals</a> impacted by the Great Depression, Civil War soldiers and their civilian counterparts resorted to whatever they could find to eat. Sometimes the results were&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/disgusting-conditions-in-historical-meatpacking-plants/laura-allan" target="_blank">gnarly and out of the norm</a>&nbsp;when viewed through a modern lens.

The following&nbsp;<a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/disgusting-conditions-in-historical-meatpacking-plants/laura-allan" target="_blank">recipes</a> reflect the creativity men and women undertook in the kitchen and at the campfire. From alternative forms of coffee to cakes of all kinds, you may not believe some of the things people actually ate.&nbsp;

Unconventional Foods People Ate To Survive During The Civil War

Melissa Sartore

As dawn broke over Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, on July 1, 1863, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Battle-of-Gettysburg" target="_blank">the fate of the United States</a> teetered on a razor&#39;s edge. The Confederate Army of Virginia, commanded by General <a href="https://www.legendsofamerica.com/ah-robertlee/" target="_blank">Robert E. Lee</a>, had just won a massive victory at Chancellorsville, Virginia, and was now marching through Union territory. The Union Army of the Potomac was the only thing standing&nbsp;between Lee and the Union capital, Washington, DC. Commanding the Union forces&nbsp;was newly promoted General George Meade, who replaced General Joseph Hooker after his defeat at Chancellorsville.

The Confederate cause was <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/american-civil-war/battle-of-gettysburg" target="_blank">on the brink of success</a>. A victory in Union territory would leave DC exposed and had the potential to cause France and Great Britain to recognize the Confederacy internationally. These factors, combined with strengthening sentiment in the North to end the conflict, could ultimately force&nbsp;Abraham Lincoln to concede the independence of the Confederate States. It seemed that, with a single victory, the South could win the conflict.

On that sunny, summer morning, Meade was attempting to keep his troops&nbsp;between Lee and the capital. He sent his cavalry, led by&nbsp;General John Buford, ahead to scout. Meanwhile, Lee&#39;s troops, <a href="https://www.nps.gov/gett/learn/historyculture/confederate-commanders-at-gettysburg.htm" target="_blank">organized into three corps</a>, were attempting to meet at South Mountain, where they would be in a strong position to either defend or attack. The three corps&nbsp;were led by&nbsp;General Richard S. Ewell,&nbsp;General A.P. Hill, and General James Longstreet. The Confederate Cavalry was led by General J.E.B. Stuart, and had gone on a raid behind the Union troops. The two opposing forces&nbsp;would meet at Gettysburg, where over three days of intense battle, history would be made.

By the time the dust settled on the fourth day, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/the-battle-of-gettysburg-ended-today-1863-2017-7" target="_blank">11,000 men had perished</a>, 29,000 were wounded, and 10,000 were missing. However, the Union troops remained, and the Confederate troops were retreating back to Virginia. How did Meade&#39;s Army of the Potomac manage to win this crucial victory over a Confederate force&nbsp;led by one of the most brilliant generals in American history?

Why Did The South Lose Gettysburg, The Most Decisive Battle Of The Civil War?

Why Did The South Lose The Battle Of Gettysburg?

Christopher Myers

Explainer

One image did more to end slavery in the United States than any other. It was the map through which Abraham Lincoln saw&nbsp;slavery, and it changed the way he thought about the Civil War.&nbsp;

President&nbsp;Lincoln&rsquo;s map of slavery was the <a href="https://www.loc.gov/resource/g3861e.cw0013200/?r=-0.404,0.008,1.989,0.739,0" target="_blank">1861 U.S. Coast Survey Map</a>. It drew on census data and used groundbreaking cartographic techniques for the era to visually depict the four million Americans held in bondage in the Southern states. The map revealed which counties had the highest concentrations of slaves, as well as&nbsp;which parts of the Confederacy might be the least committed to the institution.

Lincoln relied on this snapshot map of slavery before the Civil War to decide how to propose abolition. The map pushed him to issue the Emancipation Proclamation, and it drove Union support for ending slavery during the darkest days of the Civil War.

The Map That Helped Convince Lincoln Slavery Had To End

In April of 1865, after four long years of bloodshed, the Civil War finally came to an end when General Robert E. Lee formally surrendered the Confederate Army to Union General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House.The president of the newly-reunited United States, Abraham Lincoln, was allowed just a few short days to celebrate the victory and begin implementing <a href="http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/lincoln-issues-proclamation-of-amnesty-and-reconstruction">his two-year-old plan for the Reconstruction</a> of the country. Then, on April 15, 1865, Lincoln was gunned down in Ford’s Theater by John Wilkes Booth, a man sympathetic to the defeated Confederacy. In the years following the end of the Civil War and Lincoln’s assassination, his successor Andrew Johnson proved utterly incapable of unifying a fractured nation. Under Johnson, everyday life during the Reconstruction was a <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/racism-kept-alive-post-civil-war/setareh-janda">gauntlet of simmering hatred</a>, short supplies, and an <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/how-did-the-freeing-of-the-slaves-work/kellen-perry">onslaught of new means for oppressing African Americans</a>.When the Civil War ended, what should have been a moment of triumph, instead marked the beginning of nearly a decade of failed attempts to undo the damage caused by the war. The disastrous effects of the Reconstruction period that followed would <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/photos-of-racial-segregation-in-america/rylee_en">shape the future of the Southern United States</a> for the next century. Here’s a glimpse of how those policies and the inherent hatred they fed off impacted daily life during the Reconstruction period.

What Was Life Actually Like In The South During Reconstruction?

What Was Life In The South Like During Reconstruction?

Justin Andress

For fifty years, Houston resident Robin Stanford quietly amassed <a href="https://wjla.com/news/local/library-of-congress-acquires-rare-collection-of-civil-war-images-112719" target="_blank">a collection of Civil War-era&nbsp;photos</a>. In 2015, she sold her collection to the Library of Congress, which swiftly set about digitizing the images.

Originally meant to be displayed in a stereoscopic viewer that would create an illusion of depth, the photos document a wide range of sights - from the Lincoln funeral processions in Philadelphia and New York to the just-liberated plantations of South Carolina. These latter images show African Americans just at the historical moment when they were transitioning out of generations of slavery. St. Helena Island, off the coast of South Carolina, had been captured by the Union in 1862. The slaves were liberated and one of the first freedman&#39;s schools was established on the island by abolitionist educator Laura Towne.

Other items include the crew and commander of the famous ironclad ship Monitor, a battle-scarred Fort Sumter, and Richmond&#39;s famous Tredegar Iron Works, the most important site of Confederate munitions production during the war.

The Robin Stanford collection, <a href="/list/colorized-photos-of-us-civil-conflict/kellen-perry" target="_blank">like these colorized Civil War photos</a>,&nbsp;provides a striking glimpse into a lost world.

An 87-Year-Old Woman Spent Decades Collecting Civil War Photos And They're Truly Fascinating

An Unseen Treasure Trove Of Unseen Civil War Photos

Many enslaved people escaped the North Star to freedom, crossing hundreds of dangerous miles until they reached Canada. But thousands&nbsp;also traveled the underground railroad to Mexico, swimming across the Rio Grande to earn their freedom. Mexico outlawed slavery in 1829, declaring that anyone who reached Mexican soil was automatically free. For enslaved people in the Deep South and Texas, reaching Mexico was often easier than traveling to Canada -&nbsp;though both routes promised danger to those who were caught.

Mexico actively helped&nbsp;slaves who escaped, refusing to sign a fugitive slave agreement with the United States.&nbsp;Angry slaveholders ignored the law and hired bounty hunters to cross the border into Mexico to hunt down former slaves. Just like the <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/escaped-slave-maroons-in-great-dismal-swamp/amandasedlakhevener" target="_blank">fugitive slaves in the Great Dismal Swamp</a>, escapees made a new life in Mexico. One former slave even became a millionaire and moved back to the US, claiming to be Mexican.&nbsp;

Brave Americans and Mexicans shepherded escaped slaves&nbsp;across the southern border. <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/how-did-the-freeing-of-the-slaves-work/kellen-perry" target="_blank">Enslaved people</a> risked their lives to float across the Rio Grande on bales of cotton. And one former enslaved person even joined the Mexican military to defend his freedom.

The Other Underground Railroad Where Freed Slaves Escaped To Mexico

History Of The Underground Railroad To Mexico

It was the war that pitted brother against brother&nbsp;and threatened to collapse the great American experiment a mere century after its founding. The bloodiest conflict in US history, the <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/civil-war-hygiene/setareh-janda" target="_blank">Civil War</a> is a fascinating and tragic chapter in the nation&#39;s&nbsp;story.

Facts about the Civil War are easy to come by, at least for students who were schooled in America. But there are still plenty of weird Civil War facts that slide under the general radar, such as the naval duel fought off the coast of France, Lincoln&#39;s heartfelt letter to the people of Manchester, or the science behind the mysterious &quot;Angel&#39;s Glow&quot; at the Battle of Shiloh. Vote up the <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/civil-war-battlefield-surgery/nida-sea" target="_blank">Civil War facts</a> you just learned today.

Facts About The US Civil War That Made Us Say 'Really?'

Pierce Nahigyan

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