Sharpsburg, MD

Gun smoke lingers in “The Cornfield” on the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Antietam. Dawn, Sept. 17th 2012

150 years to the minute a group of volunteer living historians in the impression of the Union Army’s famed Iron Brigade formed a skirmish line and began firing their muskets as they made their way through the famed “Cornfield” here on the Battlefield at Antietam. The gun smoke lingered in the corn and mingled with the still morning air.

At dawn on September 17th 1862 fighting broke out between Confederate and Union forces in this innocuous cornfield and raged for five hours leaving in its wake 13,000 casualties from both sides lying in this cornfield.

The fighting around Sharpsburg continued unabated for another eight grueling hours eventually adding another 10,000 “dead, wounded, or missing” to the list of casualties on both sides making the Battle of Antietam the single bloodiest day in American history.

Image and text by Michael Falco