The Battle of Antietam was fought on September 17, 1862, near Sharpsburg, Maryland and Antietam Creek. For the locals in the Southern United States, the bloodiest day in the history of American warfare is also known as the Battle of Sharpsburg.
The infamous battle was the first field army–level engagement in the Eastern Theater of the American Civil War, taking place on Union soil. It was the bloodiest single-day battle in American history, with a combined tally of 22,717 dead, wounded, or missing.
Below is a haunting collection of rare photos from the battle of Antietam 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
