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The Civil War, a brother against brother battle, nearly destroyed the United States

By Tom Carpenter
The Daily Cougar

GETTYSBURG, Pa. -- The names roll like thunder across the pages of American history: Harper's Ferry, Fort Sumter, Antietam, Gettysburg.

With American troops fighting and dying in Afghanistan and Iraq, there's no better way to celebrate our nation's birthday than by paying tribute to the millions of Americans that fought and died so their vision of America could live. 

And what better place to honor those warriors than to visit the battlefields and cemeteries of the Civil War, preserved and maintained today as national monuments and museums.

The solemn requiem of facts and figures about the war -- 600,000 Rebel and Yankee soldiers killed and estimates of as many as three million total casualties -- paint a canvas of incredible carnage and annihilation.

Against this sorrowful backdrop of destruction and social upheaval glimmer precious jewels of information from each battlefield, some humorous, some ironic that allow a visitor to achieve a more intimate portrait of the men and women who participated in our nation's greatest crisis.

An official estimate in 1879 placed the cost of the Civil War at $6.2 billion. By 1906 the federal government spent an additional $3.3 billion on pensions to the Civil War veterans.

How much of that money was spent on gunpowder remains shrouded in history. To put it in perspective, more than three million rifle rounds of .50 caliber or more was fired during the three days of fighting at the battle of Gettysburg.

It's amazing that under such a deadly hail of bullets, the only civilian killed during the battle was Jennie Wade, 19, a resident of Gettysburg. An errant bullet penetrated two doors and struck Wade in the back, piercing her heart as she baked bread for the Union soldiers.

It's ironic that the first person killed during abolitionist John Brown's assault on the federal armory at Harper's Ferry on Oct. 16, 1859 was Dangerfield Newby, a freed slave who wanted Brown to free his family still enslaved in the South.

The bloodiest day in American history occurred on Sept. 17, 1882 at Antietam Creek, near Sharpsburg, Md. By twilight more than 23,000 Americans were killed or wounded. 

An important turning point in the battle occurred at the stone bridge that crosses Antietam Creek, now known as Burnside's Bridge.

At 9 a.m. Yankee Maj. Gen. Ambrose E. Burnside hurled his four divisions against the Georgia defenders who were hunkered down in rifle pits and behind stone walls on the west bluff of the creek.

Four hours after the assault began and hundreds of casualties later, the Rebels ran out of ammunition and quickly retreated. Burnside's troops captured the bridge and the Union soldiers were finally able to pour across the creek to rout Lee's army.

Neither side claimed victory, but, as one historian said, "after Antietam, Lee began the long retreat to Appamatox."

The South lost one-fourth of its army that day and the Confederate invasion of the North failed.

Shortly after the Battle of Antietam, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation and eliminated slavery in the United States.

A few weeks after the battle Lincoln visited the site and spoke with Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan, commander of the Army of the Potomac.

Dissatisfied with McClellan's effort, Lincoln relieved him from the command of the army because the general held back about a third of his army during the battle. 

Two years later Lincoln defeated McClellan for the presidency and a year later the war ended.

With its end, our nation became, for the first time in its history, the truly United States of America.
 

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