the president five days after antietam changes our nation. the war is no longer just about reunification. it's about freedom for 4.5 million americans. he said on january 1, i never in many life felt more certain than i was doing the right, my whole heart is in it. the beginning of the end of the rebellion and the beginning of a new life for the nation. a lot of visitors to the park. i've been blessed -- 7 million people have visited the park since i've been working there. some days i feel like i've talked to most of them. i'm incredibly blessed to live in such a special place. one visitor i will share with you to close out, 1963, president kennedy visited the battlefield. i gave a tour to ted kennedy, the senator, i had a sense of history when i was doing my ranger thing as i do. been here before? he said, yes, i was here with my brother. he was talking about this visit. they came over from camp david in a helicopter. he captured it all, the president did, in his writings. antietam symbolizes something better than military strategy. it marks

the last sounds of battle along antietam creek died away. there were thousands sleeping the sleep that knows no waking and many times as many suffering all the agonies that are attend on moons. the corn entry so fresh in green in the morning were red and with the blood and torn by bullet and shell and the very earth was furrowed by the incessant impact of leaden iron. the blessed night came and brought with it sleep and forgetfulness and refreshment to many. but the murmur of the night went breathing over the fields of wheat and clover was mingled with the groans of countless sufferers of both armies. who can tell? who can imagine the horrors of such a night? lieutenant blakely, 16 connecticut, of all the gloomy night, this was a sad if we've ever experienced. all was quiet and silent as the grave. john walker, a confederate general, to though all those who have not been witness to a great battle like this, where more than 100,000 men armed with all the appliances of modern sciences killed, they are engaged in the work of slaughtering each o

people walk in and, say my great grandfather was that antietam. the first thing we do is ask what unit and we have a lot of resources. the next thing we do is ask, do you have any letters, photographs, or diaries. in many cases, they do. let me go out to the car. over 25 years, i have collected a lot of those. it's an opportunity i have to share that with you. that's the other perspective we will have. individual soldiers. i will share a lot of that with you. that's the bulk of the program. but i must give perspective by putting it within the campaign. i think these words of the men that were here make the battle personal. the one thing i'm absolutely convinced of i. will share with you a couple of the insights i have gained after 25 years. one of them was that antietam was very personal. savage beyond all reckoning. the vast majority of the combat, especially on the infantry side, was done 100 yards or closer or even hand to hand for that matter. it was a very personal battle and we will make it personal by hearing what they remembered. this is p

we are going to look at tonight is a popular unit here at gettysburg and other battlefields like antietam and fredericksburg. we will not look at all the technical fighting, but the history of how they came about. why were they formed, what are the stories behind them, what were some of the men thinking as they participate with this units, and we will end with what they do at gettysburg. with that, we will get started. all right. so, the irish brigade. one might question how do you get interested in this topic? why would you choose the irish brigade? when i started here as an intern in 1998, the summer of my junior year in college, i was all about history. i wanted to delve more into some of my ancestry and all the stories that i had heard was that we are of irish descent. i was not a great genealogist at that point, but it is still interesting anyway. i had a chance, an opportunity, over the next couple summers as i worked at gettysburg, to really look at this part of the battle. and did a campd fire program on it, somewhat similar to the one you see now, but later on what i was able to

lincoln will visit him near antietam, they have discussions, you can only imagine what was said, but mcclellan will no longer be in command of the union army, and the war is not decided. it will continue. it will continue to fredericksburg, virginia, and december 1862. mcclellan is replaced by ambrose burnside. and the men of the irish brigade are still nursing wounds. flags they will carry were threads, silkd flags, but they are in such tatters after antietam that they are unusable. they will be sent to new york for replacement. ranksregiment joined the of the 28th massachusetts, will now replace the 29th, they will be one of the only regiments that has an emerald green flag in the battle of fredericksburg. flags are what you rally around. flags are what you follow into battle, because you can't hear your commander to tell you to move left or right, so if you don't have these, what are you going to do? a story out of the irish brigade says that, without their flags, without an object to rally around, what would they follow? began puttingn sprigs of green boxwood in their caps, to in

but, it becomes known as the amazing antietam ammunition run. it is the finest hour. the finest hour, gets a lot of national press. they are really happy. andy militiamen start coming back, reynolds starts bringing them back and the darkest hour for the railroad soon follows. on december 26, heavy fog along the susquehanna river, a train barreling through the fog filled with the 20th volunteer militia from philadelphia smashes into the bridge-tending locomotive called the utility and 30 soldiers are killed or permanently maimed. now the cumberland valley is in the national press again, but not for a reason they want. it is one of the worst losses of u.s. soldiers at that point in the civil war, on civilian-run railroads. that will change. unfortunately, they will be worse tragedies yet to come. watts was terrified about the possible legal ramifications of what's going on, and more importantly, the last of potentially lucrative military business, buys off most of the survivors and manages to avoid any legal reality and the cvrr keeps their contract. that is september 2

. >>> up next, on the civil war, keith snyder from the antietam battlefield shares personal accounts of soldiers who fought in the battle of antietam on september 17th, 1862. >> through letters and photographs, mr. snyder gives a look at the fears and anxiety and thoughts of the men who fought on what is still the bloodiest single day of american history. [ applause ] >>> our first speaker tonight will be keith snyder. i'm not as tall. keith has worked for the national park service for 33 years at four national parks, harper's ferry park, the national mall in memorial parks, manassas national battlefield and antietam national battlefield where he holds the position of chief of resource education and visitor services. keith received hi

we are going to look at tonight is a popular unit here at gettysburg and other battlefields like antietam

that's not far from antietam, the civil war battlefield, there's plenty of open space there for him to run to. but he can't last long on the lam it seems to me. at some point someone's going to say, who is that guy? but with the mask on, it makes it a little bit more problematic. >> martha: as you pointed out, all the more important to get these pictures out right away as soon as they are picked out on these cameras. we showed the picture of him on the railroad tracks, everyone could see what he was wearing there and also in the convenience store. as you point out he was seen may be laying down or slipping behind a dumpster at one point and then took off into the woods and headed along the railroad tracks. obviously there's a lot going to this person's mind at this point, he spent on the run for a while. a young man, healthy by all appearances. no, how long could he last? how long could he stay out there kind of living off the land day after day, geraldo? >> you know, fugitives have taken advantage of that area in the central pennsylvania maryland line before but he's not a surve survi

and the union army named them after a landmark, shiloh, antietam, et cetera. call it pittsburgh landing, but it was really shiloh. i'll call it shiloh. the first day of the battle of shiloh was disastrous for the union, but grants troops held on, fighting disast rely in the mud, although grant was not around. it was said he was visiting troops across the river. night fell without a retreat from the union, although many of nen were two miles closer to the tennessee river and defeat from where they had begun the day. the troops were exhausted. many people thought the union was beaten. including the union general and grant's friend, william tukuecuh sherman. they had been in the thick of the battle all day. grant had been absent during the first day, and his men thought he had been drinking. sherman, who had his own struggles with reputation when he had been treated for a nervous condition earlier in the war, was ready to quit. perhaps he thought the war was over. then, during the night, grant reappeared. it was raining hard, and grant set up camp under a tree, i

i will ask tell you, antietam it's four times detail, six times pearl harbor because i had done that month. 6000, now it's not necessarily apples and apples because you're talking american casualties on details and american casualties on pearl harbor and of course we are the two sides of conflict. we combine those from the civil war. 6000 american casualties, 4000, so it's 3000 at pearl harbor. i get that question a lot to. you guys have been awesome. really appreciated. thanks kevin, a great friend for inviting me down. he did his graduate work in history at the university of pennsylvania, where he focused on the history of religion, he holds a master, and his roster of publications is so long that i am not going to try to read them all to you you can go to get a full account of his publications, and other salient elements of his biography in his doings i am going to mention five books that i think are especially pertinent to what we will be doing this afternoon. the first is called abraham lincoln, redeemer president. it was published in 1998. it is the first of his lincoln books.

. >> the day after the battle of antietam. orders moreellan ammunition from the arsenal in washington. transfer loaded up, all the ammunition cars to the northern central. the northern central will leave baltimore and the train of ammunition will arrive in four hours. i cannot do that today on the highway, but he could do it back in those days. loaded with incredibly explosive ammunition, careens at speeds of up to 54 miles an hour on tracks that were never designed for cars going more than 40 miles an hour. the standard working speeds for a freight train in those days was 25 miles an hour. you are doubling that. it is so bad that the boxes under the cars get so hot that they worry about it catching on fire. they had to stop twice and physically have to cool the train off so it will not catch on fire. anybody can guess what a boxcar for love ammunition would have done in downtown carlisle, pennsylvania. it would not have been pretty. is a stunning example of mcclellan's generalship in those days. even though these railroaders