What Happened to the Union & Confederate Dead of Antietam??? | History Traveler Episode 256
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 1 มิ.ย. 2024
- Antietam was the single bloodiest day in American history. After the smoke cleared from the battlefield, the dead of September 17th were buried in hastily dug graves as the soldiers who survived moved on. But the dead of the battle couldn't just stay in those temporary graves. So where did they end up? That's the question that we're exploring in this episode.
This episode was produced in partnership with The Gettysburg Museum of History. See how you can support history education & artifact preservation by visiting their website & store at www.gettysburgmuseumofhistory...
Check out @VloggingThroughHistory to see the other side of the collaboration that we did at Antietam.
Battle maps in this series provided courtesy of @AmericanBattlefieldTrust. Check out the full battle map here: • Antietam: Animated Bat...
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- "Dead on the Field": Walking Antietam's Bloody Cornfield | History Traveler Episode 248: • "Dead on the Field": W...
- Where the Battle of Antietam REALLY Started History Traveler Episode 247: • Where the Battle of An...
- The LOST ORDER That Led to ANTIETAM!!! | History Traveler 245 Lost Order: • The LOST ORDER That Le...
- The Terminator of Antietam at THE BLOODY LANE | History Traveler Episode 251: • The Terminator of Anti...
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Really injoyed all this history wish I had of listened more in school. I live just below the Chickamauga Battlefield. My son lives in Chickamauga which is a very interesting town
I live in Lafayette Georgia 23 miles from Chattanooga and I have been to the National Cemetery alot and attended several funeral services there. I am always amazed the way the cemetery is laid out. My ex husband will be buried there.
The changing of the guard is so interesting. I have watched them. I was there when President Kennedy was buried I was 13. Also so the Vietnam Wall and traced my 1st love name.
@@wandacarrgreen336 My great grand father's farm was near Pond Spring or from what I can tell, part of the battle field. He was with the 39th Georgia and would have been fighting in his home town.
Actually the supposed bloodiest battlefield was Gettysburhg. Besides, there is proof that the majority of the battles during the Civil War were actually staged. There weren't that many dead on these battlefields.
Great video JD. I've been told by people before that the confederate dead didn't deserve to be buried. I feel it doesn't matter which side, the dead deserves respect. I'm sure I'll get hammered for saying that but that's how I personally feel. May God shelter them now. 🙏 🙏 🙏
In 1866 the US Army went through the Wilderness Battlefield collecting the remains that had been left on the battlefield in May 1864. Their orders were to only retrieve Union remains. I doubt after almost 2 years they could really tell the difference.
They were still Americans who believed in the cause they were fighting for. The average Confederate probably didn't have slaves because of the cost but they were fighting for their homes and families against what they may have perceived as an invader.
@@BigLisaFan My family fought for the confederacy but never owned or believed in slavery. They were just protecting their home. The majority of people today just refuse to accept that.
@@jefferyfowler7860 Exactly.
For those that say they didn’t deserve to be buried, should they all rot in hell.
It's a comfort to be be buried with your most loving and faithful companion, your beloved dog ❤
My heart dropped when you showed the confederate cemetery. My they rest in peace. They were someone's child, husband, loved one.
Who fought and died defending their homes, lands, and dear ones from an illegal and unconstutional Federal invasion led by Constitution trampling tyrant.
Same here. Such a shame and travesty they treated these men this way.
Not so sad as many others. It’s a nice space, within one of the best cemeteries, and despite the official narrative, there were plenty of southerners in Western MD then even. They would take care of them. Even one of our locals rides by Rose Hill a lot checking on it. After the BLM endless mass riots you have to watch out. In Frederick the destroyed monument and individual KNOWN graves in Mt. Olivet. Problem with Rose Hill is the Confed is literally along a main road, so easy access to vandalize.
@@bkras483Some were Confederate but most were Union ! Western Marylander here! MD was a border state during the Civil War! So was Kentucky and Missouri!
@@InnocentPotato-pd7wi my grandmother grew up in LaVale/Cumberland and her son my uncle ended up there as a doctor on the Mason-Dixon Line for some 50 years now, I practically grew up there in the ‘70s and ‘80s. Also have a very Confederate, very active friend in Cumberland whose organization finds plenty of sympathizers in the town and honors a local family graveyard which included Southern spy. Maryland may have been 2 to 1 Federal sympathy, but that 1/3 is a significant minority. Having been heavily involved in graveyard preservation and general history a very long time and a native of central MD, it’s not as overwhelming “Union” as pushed.
I was a soldier once, and I shed a tear when I think of these brave men who never went home again!
Thank you for your service! We have to give these guys credit because they were pretty freaking brave. As are all of our service men and women
Me too, brother.
I was also, and I feel the same way
"This world is not my home. I'm just a passing thru. My treasures are laid up... somewhere beyond the blue. "
@@Mr.No-wo2cp Yes, indeed.
I'm actually very surprised you did not mention Clara Barton. She took on the largest task of identifying soldiers and contacting families She created and spearheaded the entire process. in Civil War history to identify fallen soldiers. She petitioned President Lincoln and he assigned her. Later on, Clara Barton became the founder of the American Red Cross. Here's an excerpt from the National Parks archives: During the Civil War there was no official system in place to document missing or dead soldiers. As the war ended Clara Barton, the "Angel of the Battlefield" who had achieved fame as a nurse during the war, took it upon herself to fill this void. She began to receive letters from family members trying to find out the fate of their loved ones who had not returned home. Each of these letters led to a painstaking process of researching the whereabouts of these missing soldiers and responding to the family members' inquiries. Women need to be honored for their contributions and place in history.
Talked about her a bit in another video. Going to revisit her story again at some point.
Absolutely!
OMG yes. What a woman, and her story!
EXACTLY! Lots of men like to leave out the contributions of women line Clara Barton . What many people do not know is the 8 Women, dressed as soldiers fought at Antietam ! 7 fought for the UNION , two as young as 15 years of age . S dead Confederate woman was found in the Cornfield by a Massachusetts Burial party! Hidden history you NEVER learned about!
I'm a Vietnam vet. My great great Grandfather was a Confederate soldier served under Col. John Mosbys Rangers God Bless The CSA
I can’t even imagine being a resident of Antietam and be faced with burying dead soldiers in their fields. I’m sure the sights, sounds and smell haunted them forever.
I haven't been to Antietam, but I've been to Gettysburg. We were there right after sunrise. The hair on my neck went straight up, as did the hair on my arms. There were no other live people where we were. We were being watched the whole time we were there. It wasn't the first time I've had paranormal experiences, but the feeling of extreme sadness and melancholy stayed with me for a long time. There wS was a thick fog over the area even though it was broad daylight. I've never been to a sadder place.
No matter the side, as a mother, I can't fathom not knowing where my son was buried. It would haunt me.
Great video. Regardless of which side they fought for or which side a person believes was right, all the soldiers fought for what they believed in and deserve respect!
As a mom of an only son who serves and has been deployed before, this absolutely breaks my heart. I can't imagine the grief of never knowing where his body was. I just can't 💔😭
dont pass your children threw the fire to moloch,, do some research
And in a perfect world you shouldn't.
I agree, it saddened me to my core. I was speechless, and shed a few tears at how the dead soldiers were disrespected.
Thank you for your service and your son's service to our Country. God bless you both.
@@outdoorsforachange thank you❤
Makes me cry..... My family served under General Granville with the Texas 6th Volunteers. God Bless them all.
These people deserve to be remembered, they were humans doing what they felt was the right thing.
If TH-cam didn't exist and these videos were not available I would have never heard nor seen any of this......... Thank You for all the effort you put into these
videos.👍👍👍
TH-cam has been good, but their censorship is getting worse. There are a lot of good historical and other documentaries shown on other sites like Bitchute, though they seem to be starting in with the woke nonsense. I hope to see more competition for TH-cam as they seem to think they have a monopoly on video content. They don't.
History is not taught this time
The differences in these cemeteries is so striking and so melancholy. Thank you for visiting these sites. The Confederate Row is just so sad but I think they would be glad they were buried together, brothers in arms.
Amen.
I'm a son of the American revolution and a son of the confederacy. Thank you for this! I hearts my heart that they have no head stones 😢
Did you know that Thomas Paine, author of COMMON SENSE wanted to free the slaves and give women the right to vote in 1776? Too bad the Founding Fathers didn't listen to him ! The Southern colonies refused to sign the Declaration of Independence if those two things were accomplished! They preferred to start a bloody 4 year war that killed over 750,000 soldiers! So "Pro-Life " of those Southern states! It is 2024 , and we are still having problems with these Southern states! Sad but true!
My heart breaks for the soldier who gave his life but also for his dog who loved him. Its sad to see the Confederate soldiers not given proper burial at some locations. Despite the tragedy of war these men were soldiers.
no they were not, they were traitors and deserve to be treated as such
@@jamesgollan8602 troll
@@georgiapines7906 a troll, so someone who considers that acts that betray the constitution to be a troll..wow Thank you for the compliment
@@jamesgollan8602 You are most welcome.
@@jamesgollan8602 a lot of talk about the constitution, hope you’re not a biden supporter.
That is eerie to see that confederate cemetery with no headstones. Very sad story about Werner and his faithful dog.
I had over 40 ancestors who fought for the Confederacy and it just crushes my soul to know that Southern men wasn't given the same decent burial . one of my particular ancestors that was killed at Beans Mill, was buried on the battle field and is now covered in water due to the near by river being damed.
So sad that so many of the Confederate soldiers were unidentified.
Also extremely sad that so many brave horses died, so very cruelly, being faithful to their duties.
@@idapullen8782
I TOTALLY agree with you.....on both subjects.
To know that these Southern men, as well as many boys, died defending their homeland.
Obviously, any war is horrible. But many wars that were fought
in history of God's creation of the planet Earth were nessessary... tyrannical
governments and tyrannical men being the cause of most wars. But the War Between The States, or, as most true Southerners call it, The War Of Northern Aggression, was fought for basically nothing..... nearly
three quarters of a million American soldiers dead.
And for what?
And the loss of livestock....hogs, chickens, turkeys, ginnys, cattle, and other animals that were a food source.
But particularly the loss of thousands, if not millions, of horses
was devasting to not only the southern states, but to the north
as well.
Thank God for his great gift of the horse...... where would
man be without that wonderful gift.
My last great dane, General, we kept his ashes after he passed and when it's my time there are instructions to mix our ashes together. We had a bond that I've not had with another dog. He was truly special.
I have a dog named Beau. He was like a son to me. I spent 17k trying to save him and couldn't. I loved him more than life itself and sadly had to say goodbye. When I reach heaven, after seeing Jesus's face, I will search for him next.
The beautiful story of the Newfoundland staying with his master had me in tears. Such loyalty! Thank you for sharing stories such as this.
That dog story got to me. I do hope when re-interred they were together. The Confederate burials without headstones is saddening. Thank you for this video!
👍🏻
Rebels should not be treated as equal they made the fight necessary
@@Thomas-dp2mf - “With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds;”
@Thomas glad that you are well educated at the school of ignorance. Maybe you should actually step out of the fog that your teachers stuck you in and search out the actual truth about the Civil War.
@@Thomas-dp2mf
Even the Southern families that didn't own slaves..... and obviously there were
many families that DID
NOT own or use slaves.
Thousands of Southerners that had
nothing to do with slavery died trying to stave off an invasion of their homeland.
The fact that they kept such good records about the burials and where they were from is fascinating. I am glad they honored the soldiers in such a way. The story about the dog was touching. My Belgian Mal would be the same, he would not leave me.
Years ago my family and I were the first ones there on a misty morning. We walked down The Sunken Road at Antietam, and we could feel the presence of those men who died there. It was quite moving.
At one point I was driving frequently through Fauquier County, VA still rural in many places- in the morning mists I could feel Mosby’s Raiders.
Antietam is one of the saddest places I've ever visited. It brought tears to my eyes to know what happened there. You can sense the fear, pain and death that took place on the fields. The cemeteries in the area are a real eye opener.
I've been to most every battlefield from Gettysburg to Petersburg. Grew up in Hanover county. Used to skip school in High School and swim in the North Anna at Lee's apex of the inverted V long before I knew what happened there. Sharpsburg had the most tangible "feel" to it. I could almost "feel" the battle happening at the Bloody Lane. Gettysburg was close but not like Sharpsburg.
As far as how they treated the dead, I guess it's a good thing the South didn't treat the Yankee dead in such a manner. Just goes to show the difference in quality of people.
cmon people!! 4600 views but only 693 thumbs ups. Lets do JD a small favor for all the work he puts into these video's
Of all the videos I've seen from JD, he will never get a 👎 from me. They are all so informative and well put together. He will always get a thumbs up from me. Always
👍👍 👍.
@@edwardaustin740 I give a like before I even watch them (so I don’t forget) because I already know in advance that I will.
I try not to 👍, in fear of getting more videos in this style.
👊🏻
Thank you for this video. I have only recently delved into my family history and have, to my surprise, found over 30 Confederate soldiers on both sides. My parents and grandparents new very little of their own history and I can understand the pervasive grief and loss that was never discussed after their families came west. One great grandfather fought with the 8th Florida, survived the war but not the peace. His father with the 11th Florida, died of disease and is probably in an unmarked grave in So. Carolina, no trace, like so many I fear in unmarked graves from Manassas to Murfreesboro, Chickamauga to Union prison camps in Missouri. Their bones lost but living in my DNA.
Very good definitely need to remember these young men who fought valiantly.
God bless Elliott for recording the burials.
Modern radar could find anyone overlooked.
Has radar survey of the listed burial grounds been conducted?
Washington Confederate Cemetery with all its Unknown Soldiers is indeed sad, and very much like the Confederate Mound at Oak Woods Cemetery on the South Side of Chicago. This is where over 4000 Confederate POWs, who died at Camp Douglas, are buried. Camp Douglas was located nearby in Cottage Grove. Lots written about the awful conditions at Andersonville in Georgia, and rightfully so, but many northern POW camps weren't much better.
They were as bad, and intentional. Quartermaster General Montgomery Meigs returned the money to the Treasury that he'd been given to care for Southern POWs, bragging that he'd killed more rebels than anyone.
Very sad but true
My great great grandfather was a pow at camp douglas
And the killing continues in our inner cities,
Exactly well Andersonville gets all the pub because it's was confederate camp but don't hear the same crap about union camps even farther/colder up north but you know e everything gotta be played in the (for the country's sake) union side
Out standing JD! I have taken an interest in the burial of the dead after a stint in the Army as a Combat Engineer. We had a soldier die of natural causes in Africa, where I was asked to escort his remains home. Our journey back to the states exposed me to what the Quartermaster, specifically what Mortuary Affairs is all about. When I was in Frankfort at the US Army Mortuary Affairs Center, I had opportunity to talk to them and go through the photographic record of what they had accomplished over the years with retrieval of our dead and missing from two wars. My personal experience has given me an interest in what happens to the dead and the treatment of their remains. We should all be grateful for people like Elliot, Goode, and Gill, for leading the research that went into identifying the dead. It is important that we don’t forget the names of the individuals who died on those fateful days be it one side or the other.
That actually sounds very interesting.
Dear Sir,
Would it be possible to include the date/s of the battles and the city and state. Also, the different names for the same battle. Those of us who love and know history have to share as much as we can, as often as we can, to as many as we can.
Thank you!
@@lynnhenry9998 - This is one episode in a 12 part series. Hopefully people can get that larger context by watching each one. Thanks!
@Brad Reynolds Thank you for your service, Sir. ❤
Combat Engineer myself. My youngest followed in my footsteps as well. Essayons!
I have been to Gettysburg many times, now thanks to your videos I'll be going to Antietam for a week or so. Thanks for keeping our history alive, freedom isn't free. Thanks for posting.....
Wonderful. Beautiful. Memorable: Their sacrifice must never be forgotten.
My great great uncle was one of the original members of Wheat's Louisiana Tiger Battalion. By the time of Antietam Wheat was dead and what was left of the Battalion had been merged with Coppens Louisiana Zouaves. He was listed as missing after the battle and assumed to have been killed during the fighting in and around The Cornfield. No body was ever identified. I often wonder if he is in an unmarked grave somewhere or if he was even buried at all.
Wow, Respect. My G.G. Grandfather died at Vicksburg
If he fought for the Confederacy he was a traitor to America. No aspersions cast, merely fact.
@MackGreen why you gotta start shit? All he was doing was commenting his GG Uncles story
@@gavinculpepper9685 No glorification of traitors to America. Like these Republican/magat assholes glorifying the 1/6th insurrection are traitors.
That was one of the tragedies in the Civil War so many young men died and were unknown. And think about over 600,000 in a country not that populated.
There is a Confederate cemetery in Shepherds town West Virginia.
More than a hundred soldiers who fought at Antietam and later died of their wounds.
Bless them.
Well don't be telling the dam black's they will be blowing that place up
Whatever you believe, these men died for the cause they believed and should have been given the same respect as the Union Soldiers. They were human beings too! I had Family that fought for both sides. 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻
@@dannywillix755 Maybe just stop by and piss on em.
This entire war was just tragic and uncalled for RIP GENTLEMAN
As is every war. What a waste of human life.
My heart hurts that those soldiers didn't get the respect they deserved by not finding out who they were.
I agree with you wholeheartedly.
Can never know.. they re-buried em but what if.. somebody need a body get rid of like a murder & evidence they do call a friend who works at cemetery.. dump em in there.. without a properly respect! 😵💫
Could you imagine trying to live near a battle ground after the battle was over? The stench must have been unbearable. Neither side would care for the dead. It was left to the locals to bury the bodies.
Something that most people don't even think about as a consequence of the war.
That Washington Confederate Cemetery is very sad! Wasn't expecting that at all. I can imagine your shock when you got there.
God bless the men that fell that day , especially my southern forefathers and also that loyal little dog. May they all be in the arms of the Lord.
I don’t know if my 5th great grandfather fought in this battle but he did fight months later in Gettysburg, that’s where he died and is buried somewhere in the confederate graves. I feel like there are many others like myself that are glad their descendants had children before they left to fight if they died in battle
It is unfortunate that people on both sides of this conflict as well as those who have given lives for their nation are generally forgotten by the general population. I remember as a child when Decoration Day aka Memorial Day was a big deal to remember then later barbeque. Now the memeory part is left to cable news and advertising.
That might be something you need to change. Me and mine still do those things.
We didn't use it for big parties. We went to each graveyard and decorated the graves and remembered those who served and our loved ones that didn't.
I make it a point to do nothing of partying, vacationing or any frivolous sort. Too many dead from all our wars to act anything but solemn about the day.
It's disheartening how American commercialism has taken a solemn and sacred day and turned it into an opportunity to celebrate with outdoor feasts and major retail sales.
And even Pearl Harbor isn't talked about on most news channels on Dec.7th anymore
Think about all those families who never knew the fate of their loved ones. No body to bury. Just the assumption that they died in battle. That causes trauma for generations.
How many generations of trauma was suffered for generations? How many generations will continue to suffer? In what way?
It actually isn't 'trauma', but the fact that those that respect their ancestors and their history would like to know what happened to them, and where they are, just to be able to visit a grave and give some remembrance and honor to them.
@@lindasimons691 You mean like all those folks yelling for reparations for their slave ancestors, for the 'trauma' they claim they suffer now, even though they've never been a slave and never met a slave?
@@galndixie Precisely.
I agree. A great great grandfather took leave to go home from Chattanooga in Jan 1864. Never officially seen afterward. Where his wife is buried had the headstone originally with his name and space for burial next to her for many years. I recently revisited and her old gravestone was replaced with a stone only for her. Empty space now beside her. The story is he was killed while riding his horse on the way back home to AL, when he ran into a tree limb and died in the fall. Two men later reported it when they were found walking his horse. I later found a report that had him as a deserter, and I think was later changed, but haven't seen the revision. The other story is he died while horse racing and knocked off the horse by a tree limb. Why I mention this is because his widow died many years later falling off her horse riding under a tree limb. There have been rumors, but so far his remains haven't been found.
So sad. They had family and friends and things they wanted to do just as us.
This was very interesting. My husband's 4th great uncle, Thomas Jefferson Ivey, is buried in Mt Olivet on Confederate Row. He turned 18 in February 1864. He enlisted in May and made his way north to join the 31st GA and his 3 brothers in time for Monocacy (I believe one of the brothers was temporarily assigned elsewhere). He was fatally wounded in his one and only battle. The young man died on Sept 10, 1864 in a field hospital in Frederick, which is how he ended up with a marked grave.
My GG Uncle, Andrew Lowrey, was also in the 31st Georgia and wounded at Monocacy. Yours in kindred spirit, FH
He was one of the lucky ones. Not in war, but in death, as he is known and in a marked grave. My deepest respect to him and all who gave their lives in this tragic struggle.
@@91Redmist Yes, tragic, but also unnecessary struggle. What a waste of life. They should’ve stopped the war, right after this battle.
@@alan30189 What I've always said. But the South, much like Japan in WW2 after their Midway and Guadalcanal defeats, thought that by continuing to fight, they would be able to sue for surrender terms that'd be more to their advantage. Obviously didn't work.
I think Jonathan Lambert was in the 31st Ga. He died of wounds at Ft. Steadman.
Thank you for your work and their sacrifice 🙏 👍🇺🇲
Thanks!
No graphic images of the dead in this video, but still just as sad and sobering. RIP to all who fought for what they believed in.
🙏🏼
@@TheHistoryUnderground In the future, people will stop playing head games and acknowledge telepathy is real. War will end. Unrefined men are abusive towards women, not guardians of “lessor” men, women, or children. Love is strong. People share in a collective lie, but each individual has accountability (attraction).
I visited the Antietam Battlefield back during the 140th anniversary. I always take time to visit whatever National Cemetery is associated with the battle to pay my respects to those fallen veterans. Antietam's cemetery is awesome!
The Washington Confederate Cemetery is just heartbreaking, and shameful!! To see an empty area, where so many fallen men are buried as literally “Unknown”.
The small town of Excelsior Springs, Missouri - I believe it is Pisgah Cemetery, near Wood Heights - they found all the names of the Union unknowns from Colorado and there is a monument dedicated to them with their names listed. It took many years, but it was the right thing to do! Do BETTER Maryland.
God bless ALL the fallen and ALL veterans of this land.
Thank you Sir...I wish our young folks would pay more attention to the civil war,,,,
Gonna be another one!?
@@bobshelton9049 I doubt within our lifetimes another one will happen
May they all Rest in Peace
It’s just sad that they all weren’t buried together in the same cemetery. They could have had a section for each side.
To wait so long bury some of the Confederates that they couldn’t even identify them and to bury them in a mass grave is so sad for the families who never knew where their soldiers were.
Great but very sad video. Again thank you for sharing 👍😢
Dishonor is the rebels lot then and hopefully now
I think they are buried in the same area at other battlefields. I was told the markers for union soldiers were smooth on top, while Confederates were arched. People could not sit on their markers
Lived in hagerstown 29 years. Been by that cemetery more times than I can count but have never visited. Thank you for taking time to show that
Often a forgotten consequence of war, what to do with the dead and how that often falls to the local population. Thanks for another awesome video JD.
JD you are such an excellent story teller. My great-great grandfather, Reuben Maurer of Co I 49th Reg of PA from much research and family stories was wounded in the battle and spent the night in/next to Antietam Creek. He never fully recovered from the “cold” he caught there. He died in Feb of 1880. A document I just found is the 1880 mortality schedule. In the column titled were did his sickness start, it says Maryland. He didn’t die in the battle, but eventually died of the battle. When you showed the line of PA soldiers, makes me wonder how many he knew. Thanks again.
The view from the drone above the cemetery was amazing!
I've just started watching your videos. I've always found The Civil War to be a very interesting topic. The scale of death and destruction on our own home turf was unprecedented and should never be forgotten. Thank you for honoring these brave men and helping to preserve the memory of all that happened here.
Great video.👏👏👏 I've recently subscribed to your site. I always love learning more abt the Civil War. My parents were history buffs. They passed to us. I've been to almost all the CW battlefields. What was hard for me when I was young was seeing that the boys and men who fought for the South were thrown into mass graves and not buried individually as the Union soldiers were and are. There are very few names that are known for the Confederate boys and men for instance, who are buried in a mass graves in the Vicksburg, MS battlefield.
I have the photo slides from each one that the gift shops used to sell. My kids teachers used to borrow them each yr to teach their American CW classes. I'm glad I have them now because they aren't sold anymore..
My mothers ancestors and our family members now have been in every war this country has ever been in including Afghanistan.. My 3 x great grandfathers, their brothers and a couple of their sons all fought in the CW. They were from MO which was a split state. Both grandfathers had farms not far from one another and they were friends but had different opinions. My paternal 3 x great -grandfather fought for the N and my maternal for the S. Both survived. My 3x G uncle was from TN but fought for the Union. He was taken prisoner and sent to that hell hole, Andersonville. He was treated worse than most because he was from TN but fought for the Union. When Sherman was going to burn Andersonville, he was then taken as a prisoner, near Charleston, and died in that camp, at age 32.. Its a war can never be repeated in this country. It truly was a war about brother fighting brother.
Can you visit Franklin, TN as well as Vicksburg, MS and do a piece on them? Both are also very incredibly interesting.The battle of Franklin had more deaths and in 4 short hrs than all the major battles (in 4 hours) Thank you again, for bringing us great videos on American history.. thumbs up! Blessings ~ Victoria
Thank you for all your hard work, J.D. Your respect for both sides honors these fallen Americans (!) and yourself.
Appreciate that.
JD....thank you for another superb vlog. What is still amazing to me is that the resentment of the South vs North still lives today.
My 3x great grandfather, William Goudy, was an Ulster immigrant who volunteered to fight in a Union Minnesota regiment. The military sent his regiment to fight in the Sioux Wars instead. After a while the whole regiment protested and demanded that they be sent to fight the South. They then went on to fight some of the last battles of the war.
Fierce American history. Fabulous opportunity, so well told and shown. Remarkable. Stunning, yet real.
My dad did body recovery and grave’s registration in the Bataan area after WW2. He had a lot of interesting stories. Paid GI insurance benefits to PA troops families on his weekends in cash. Wild times.
THANK YOU.Very good historic video.
The shot at 16:00 is absolutely amazing. Great bit of videography on your part. The music, myst, etc., nice touch. I was also moved by the story about the New Foundland dog. I knew somebody who had one, it was solid black, very unusual and proud looking, and HUGE! Anyone that has seen one in person before knows exactly what I’m talking about. These videos are quite captivating JD, excellent work man, thanks.
Beautifully done. Thank you.
Thank you for what you do! My generation is completely lost as to these events and how they shaped our country. I truly believe that we still feel affects of the Civil War to this day. It's good that we have people like JD who are willing to share these things and have experts like Gary Adelman come in to open our eyes to those who have gone before us and the sacrifices they made.
"jocko give me a sponsership" was nice and suttle lol. keep doing these fantastic things please!
I grew up in WV....went to college in Shepherdstown....spent a lot of time in Sharpsburg....thanks for the video.
I would like to thank you and Chris for educating me, as a Brit, I know so little about the US civil war.
Study it as you’ll probably be involved in the second one.
@@dudley5658 do you think that another war could happen soon? Would it be between red and blue states?
Truly commendable work JD. You are a truly outstanding historian.
JD, this series on Antietam has been just wonderful. And I have cried through it all.
Appreciate that. 🙏🏼
Absolutely fantastic presentation of a very somber, but critical, time in our country's history. You manage to carefully walk the line between entertaining content and reverence for those who fought and died in this epic battle. My wish would be that all high school students be required to view your videos; then ask questions, discuss and dig further into all of your history presentations. This is a much better way to learn these important facts of our history. I would ask the same of all immigrants who are working to become U.S. citizens.
I wish that these videos were around when I was in high school. Back then, these were just places that I had to imagine in my head what they looked like, etc. while studying from a textbook. To actually SEE them is something else entirely…
For more information on the process of burying the fallen, I recommend a book by Meg Groeling; The Aftermath of Battle: The Burial of the Civil War Dead. It's part of the Emerging Civil War Series and is available at most National Battlefield bookstores. I picked up my copy at Stones River.
It's not about Antietam, rather Gettysburg, but the book A Strange and Blighted Land by Gregory A. Coco is also excellent on the subject. One of the most interesting books I've ever read about the Civil War, and I've read a LOT of Civil War books.
This was a extreemly well done video.
24 minutes went by like a flash, because you held my attention.
Plus..I learned more things than i expected.
Thanks
Glad you enjoyed it!
Great to see a proper amount of time - 24 minutes - dedicated to this topic.
👍🏻
I am told by my family that my great-great grandfather fought at Antietam as a drummer boy with the 13th New Jersey. The colonel of the regiment, Ezra Carmen, was one of the co-founders of Antietam National Battlefield, so there are several markers where the regiment fought. It was their first battle.
Outstanding episode. So sad - may God bless them all.
I must admit, I was taken aback by the Washington confederate cemetery. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen anything like that.
I was raised in Hagerstown and remember, as a kid, walking through this nearly unmarked cemetery
My 2x Great Grandfather fought at Antietam. I went to school in Shepherdstown and drove past those fields so many times and (yes i was a stupid youth) misread the sign as "Anti-et-am" and wondered what is was. I live clear across the country now and wish i could see the site. Thank you for the video. My grandfather was Francis Marion Rowlee (1839-1925) of the Fighting 8th out of Ohio. He survived Antietam and several other major battles as well as TWO stays in Andersonville. I have read about the aftermath in his papers and writings of others. It is said that they dealt with their wounded and after a couple of days the smell got to be too much and shovels were requested from as far away as Fredrick. It sounds like it would have been hard to put names to the Confederate soldiers after the realities of the aftermath. I imagine injured and their own fallen brothers would have been dealt with long before the Confederate dead.
BTW what woman looks down at her brand new beautiful baby boy and smiling declares I shall call him Raisin Pitts?! Lady!! REally?
Thank you for paying homage to these soldiers who gave their lives in the horrific war 🫡😔🙏❤️
Yet another great video as always. Thanks JD. I've heard somewhere, someone has said, " so go the victory in war, so go the spoils "
If your side won that battle, they get buried nearby. The other has to be buried elsewhere. Not sure if that was the case, but I do remember that from somewhere. Me and a friend made the trip up to Gettysburg for the 150th in the summer of 2013 from Florida. Antietam, Harper's Ferry, DC, Baltimore, Charleston, and Savannah were done in our 2 week adventure. I wouldn't change a thing. I've learned so much in a short amount of time.
Your videos are greatly appreciated.
Thank you for making this video.. much respect 🙏🇺🇸❤️
Our pleasure!
Thank you so much for this historical event in America history. I've been to all 3 Battle sites, Miller's Cornfield, Sunken Road, and Burnside's Bridge. So much Civil War History.
Every time I watch another video I think - This. This is the best yet. Every single time. Thank you for every one of them. Hoping all is well with you right now - and looking forward to seeing more soon. Thank you.
🙏🏼
What an awesome piece of history I didn't know about. Thank you for giving them respect by acknowledging thier resting place. Great video!
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The tragedy is that the locals did not bury the Confederates troops for a long time. This caused diseases to become rampant in the area and thousands of local people died as a result.
Now that is an amazing tidbit of trivia. I was not aware of this, but it does make total sense. Thank you for pointing that out.
The stink must have been horrendous.
The bodies were either left to rot, or hastliy buried to reduce the odor. There were so many that the decomposition polluted the ground water and the wells. Cholera was a pretty common result. One of the many lost arts after the Fall of Rome was hygiene after a battle. The Romans cleaned up their dead, retreived all their equipment, and either burned them or buried them deeply - and well away from any water course.
The Washington Confederate Cemetery is so sad! How could they identify so many Union soldiers but not Confederate? This is SAD!
I read somewhere that when Lee went north to Gettysburg they marched through the battlefield of Antietam and his troops saw the dead skeletons still unburried.
JD, I'm a Newfie and the commentary on the dog is fantastic. Another Avenue you have enlightened me with. Many thanks.
My family is from Hagerstown. Antietam is a big deal! My grandfather and his sister were tour guides at Gettysburg. Nasty battles.
Relocating the dead was a massive task It's amazing they were able to identify so many union soldiers. Too bad as much care wasn't taken for the confederate soldiers, for their family's sake, but I can understand why.
Great video! Coincidentally they are still identifying, where possible, and relocating WWII dead to this day.
Yes. Because of DNA technology, the lists of MIA's from WW II, Korea, and Vietnam grow smaller every year.
There are teams that are still digging up the remains of the dead on the Eastern Front from WW II. But with them, if they can ID them from their ID tags, fine. If not, too bad. They do zero DNA testing.
It's going to get harder as siblings age and die as the technique they use involves mitochondrial DNA. Not sure how accurate that process would be with only the mtDNA of non-sibling relatives?
If the Union dead could come back to life today and see the results of what they fought for, they would have joined their Southern brothers.
In the early 70's I ran across two photography books; one about Antietam... the other concerning Gettysburg. The author had taken the post-battle photos and reshot them using a modern 35mm camera. Both books were fascinating. You'd see a pile of dead bodies in the original scene, and a modern highway cutting through the same scene over a century later. Still have those hardback books, and never made a better book purchase. As a photography instructor for decades, I only had one issue... the original wooden box cameras used lens that were slightly telephoto for the negative frame size, and the author had apparently reshot the scenes with a normal perspective 50mm lens on the modern 35mm camera. The antique cameras used a mild telephoto lens because the most common use for cameras in the 19th Century was to take portraits... standard perspective lens create some distortion of the person's features. If the author had used a 70mm lens on his modern 35mm camera, the effects would have been even more stunning. Life Magazine even did an article on one of the books.
And another great video. Always interested me on how the victors treated their enemies. Thanks JD for your hard work. 👍👍👍👍👍
It’s a shame how the Confederate dead. I know, at the time, these men were considered traitors and such but it would’ve been nice that in death, they were treated as human beings, deserving of a decent burial.
They couldn't have been traitors. Treason involves providing aid and comfort to an enemy.
@@mnpd3 You obviously have no clue as to the definition of treason.
Treason
The crime of betraying one’s country, especially by trying to kill the sovereign or overthrow one’s government.
1. This action of betraying someone or something.
2. The crime of murdering someone to whom the murderer owed allegiance such as a master or husband.
By definition, the confederates were guilty of treason. Notice how the definition doesn’t include giving aid or comfort to the enemy specifically.
@@gregdiamond6023 The Constitution allows for secession. The northern states were brutalizing and punishing the southern states in an effort to get their cotton/money. The southern states NEVER raised arms against the northern states, they merely created their own country. It was the Northern states that started it and then sent an army to attack the south to FORCE them to stay in the union. Why would they do that? It wasn't for anything virtuous having to do with slaves.
Love the story about the dog!
Pretty touching.
Your videos are so detailed, fact filled, interesting, and professionally done. Thank you so much!
Thanks!
JD as always a professional job, and truly a moving tribute to the fallen.
My great great grandfather Albert Quaife was a Union soldier in an Iowa regiment, a medic and fifeplayer. He survived the war, and the family still has a letter he wrote during the war where he described one battle where he witnessed an "enemy" combatant giving water to a
gravely injured soldier leaning against a tree who happened to be an "enemy" combatant.
Quaife lamented that this was a war where brother fought against brother, as I guess it was well-known that sometimes even brothers of one family were sometimes fighting as opponents of each other.