quote from john rankin's antietam memoir what i thought at antietam, this is a very vivid account. this is a very detailed account. and despite the fact that these accounts are saying that he was promoted to sergeant in the aftermath of antietam specifically due to his bravery. this account is all about how scared he was at antietam. perhaps this is him. trying to grapple with the fact that everybody was calling him brave after antietam. when in fact he had a very different experience he opens the memoir when going into battle, there is a different set of thoughts and emotions for each man. these thoughts are private property and are generally kept locked in each individual breast. all of us at times have thoughts we would not care to have made public and many good soldiers would feel humiliated to have thoughts made bear which pass through their mind in certain ordeals. so he's offering this memoir of his own personal mental experience at that battle of antietam in september of 1862. he recalls when the regiment first moves towards battle writing a scene of horror and grandeur is

after the battle of antietam in september of 1862, abraham lincoln is begging general mcclellan to move the army and to pursue the rebels, pursue robert ely and bring the end to this horrible war. and time and time again general mcclellan would have a series of excuses for the president on why he couldn't lead his soldiers to deliver a knockout blow to the confederate forces. in this letter written october 20 seventh 1862, you get a sense of mister lincoln -- he is losing his patience with his general. he writes general mcclellan, yours of yesterday received. most certainly i intend no injustice to any and if i have done any i deeply regret it but to be told after more than four weeks total in action of the army and during which period we have sent to the army every fresh horse we possibly could amounting in the whole two koran leaves a blank space, that the calvary horses -- cavalry horses were too fatigues to move presents a cheerless, almost hopeless prospect for the future and it may have something of impatience into my dispatches. if not recruited and rested then, when could they e

americans are seeing dead american bodies and that happens after the battle of antietam. matthew brady has sent his photographer alexander gardner out into the field. gardener is a glasgow born journalist who's a socialist who believes that this is a fight about the soul of american democracy and he will paint bloated corpses of confederate soldiers three weeks later matthew brady will put them on view in his new york gallery across the street from the national academy of design basically, like putting them on view across the street from this museum or the national gallery he calls it the dead at antietam the visitors among them was oliver wendell holmes senior who was an amateur photographer and father of the eventual supreme court justice who is just completely undone by these photographs. his son was wounded at antietam and to them they trigger what we would now call post traumatic stress of i'm not sure i can actually be in the room with them. you also have to remember these were stereo photograph. the first people who viewed pictures of dead americans were looking at

when you go onto antietam, he took 41,000 men into battle and lost men between south mountain and antietam, 27% of the army. the six georgia lost 226 men out of 215 engaged. 30th virginia, 160 out of 236. the first texas lost 82.3% of its men when it entered the cornfield and at chancellorsville, he will loose 13,000 plus men, 22% of his army. a brigade which was led into combat by a man named samuel mcallen, it will lose five brigade commanders in ten minutes as well as 457 men. lee's bleeding his army white. that's what's happening here. but lee has to do this in a sense. this is where i have the great grapple between robert e. lee as a commander. he has to do this. but does he? lee is the only real confederate officer going forward and trying to bring home these victories on such a grand and audacious scale. when he went into battle, he went all in. he went for broke. and that is exactly what he comes up against when grant comes east. the two of them are like two titanics meeting in battle. the union army is still going to be bleeding out as well. they lost 17,000 men here, but they're

and antietam. that's 27% of the army. 836 officers fell as casualties including four generals killed in six wounded six, georgia lost 226 men out of 215 gauged 30th, virginia 160 out of 236 the first texas famously lost 82.3% of its men when it entered the cornfield. and it chancellorsville he will lose 13,000 plus men 22% of his army. james lanes brigade will lose 910 men including 12 of its 13 field officers. parents brigade, which was led into into combat by a man named samuel mcgowan that brigade will lose five brigade commanders in 10 minutes as well as 457 men and stephen ramsurers. brigade will lose 7800 789 out of 1500 engaged. please bleeding his army white. that's what's happening here. but lee has to do this in a sense. this is where i have the great grapple between robert e. lee is a commander, you know, he has to do this. but but does he lee is the only real? confederate officer going forward and trying to bring home these victories on such a grant and audacious scale when he went into

he will go to antietam where it's essentially a drop for him. now he's going to come to fredericksburg where he wins a victory in december of 1862. so at this point he's kind of three zero and one as a major army commander. now he will enter the chancellorsville campaign, but he will enter the campaign with a major disadvantage. that disadvantage is his supply line. i'm showing this live for a reason, and that is the richmond fredericksburg potomac railroad which runs up to fredericksburg is a single track railroad that is supposed to supply a 78,000 man army. it is not going to do that for a variety of reasons. number one, it is a single trackline. number two, there's a guy called lucia's north furred who's running the confederate supply depot enrichment and he's really, really, really bad at his job. then you are going to deal with a guy named samuel ruth. samuel ruth is a union spy essentially who is running the richmond fredericksburg and potomac railroad. he's from pennsylvania. he will be supplying -- he won't be supplying lee with everyth

crossing the antietam creek. how many people want to see mark wade antietam creek? [applause] >> there are people that will go with you. i stay behind. >> here is my one condition. there is a charity i like -- the alzheimer's association. i give money to the alzheimer's association. i want the equivalent of $1 from everyone the ghost of the alzheimer's association. is that fair enough? -- from everyone that goes to the alzheimer's association. is that fair enough? >> come on, encourage him! yeah! [applause] >> he is emerging. >> yeah! [applause] >> now, this is what makes this a bad idea in battle. look what i have to do. in line of battle. under fire. >> the ninth core comes down here on the morning of september 17. later, he said perhaps he should have crossed quickly because of opposition. a confederate staff officer and author, who lived in this area, said this was a simple creek to wade. now you some mark wade it. i want you to imagine trying to wade that wearing full infantry, weaponry and uniform. under fire. you will not be a sitting duck, you will be a floa

come to the cabinet a young lady jesus stability of the world given the antietam sentiment there. how do you best think the united states can ensure this to ability at the region? of the you you said iran the border between iran and soviet union? well, i think one of the first things that has to happen is for stability has got to be in iran itself to establish a government that can speak as a government for iran and part of our problem in all these long 44 days has been the inability of anyone seemingly to speak for that nation to have a government now. i think that any country would want to help another if they really showed an intent to have a government that would abide by international law. and do what they could to help them in that regard, but until such a thing appears apparent there. i don't know that there's anything we can do. and now no i young lady mr. president if it's your intention to signal the world that this country will respond with swift retribution in cases of international terrorism in the future. why is it your policy not to retaliate against iran? but what

other conditions. , in september, 1862, changes in the course of the war came with the battle of antietam. although not a decisive victory as lincoln had hoped, prior to issuing the preliminary emancipation proclamation, it was victory none the less. so scepter 22nd that year, lincoln issued his preliminary emancipation proclamation, and within a week, this information about the proclamation had spread to all regions of the country. while many, many mainly african american celebrated the coming of emancipation, their actual physical plight was made worse by severe winter that dampened many of their spirits. army recruiters found that their efforts with the local militia recruitment policy was actually hinder throughout the nation because many blacks actually preferred to get some sort of compensation for their work rather than be enlisted in the military with an undetermined status. from august of 1862 onward, union commanders engaged in raids on black communities in and around the area sometimes grabbing people out of their beds and forcing them into their surface dragging them away from

as fighting joe hooker said about antietam the soldiers went down in rose precisely as the wheat had you can't move through the literature or the newspapers of the time period without running into grim reaper images and cornfield images and the idea of reaping a grim harvest. alexander gardner titles timothy o'sullivan's most powerful work from gettysburg a harvest of death so you can say this is going back to a harvest of life, but just take a look at it his backs to us. it's an endless field of wheat. he can't step backwards because the wheat blocks his backward step. all he can do is keep sizing things down. what do you think is going through his head? there's a wonderful book out there by eric dean called shook over hell where he compares the experiences of civil war veterans with vietnam veterans, and he said except for the use of the language like nostalgia and homesickness in the 19th century. it is all about post-traumatic stress. it is all about the difficulty of coming back home home is not the same. you're not the same. it doesn't work that way. on the same trip when homer

we're used to this in the united states through national park service sites like gettysburg and antietamu talk about why the battlefield is marked and why that it is important for people to walk through it? >> always -- always trying to find a way we can walk back through history. as an example for the battlefield, the marines where they came through the fields on 6 june 1918 to take a relatively small sector here, but at very heavy cost. i've found when i go back stateside to national parks, is getting in touch with something that's physical. walking in the footsteps of history. that is why i was pleased that in a very early 1920s, american visitors actually found value in preserving that site. if not for those american visitors who came over on these war tourism, essentially, tours, perhaps that battlefield would not be preserved as it is today. that's kind of another sidebar history that had nothing at all to do with the american battle monuments commission at the beginning but it was deeded to maintain as it is today. that wasn't done until the 1930s. so again, the belleau wood memor

and it flew it antietam. and the spanish american war in 1898? it refused to retreat and bella wood. and it was held high at normandy. and any regime it was there an incheon and it caisson and that medina ridge. and it inspired resolve. in all of us on 9/11 this flag this torch was flown to over places. some of us may have forgotten. at the battle of the muse are gone in france. in world war one, which was the largest battle in the united states military history involving more than 1.2 million doughboys. this symbol of our nation this torch. well now fly to honor those who no longer have a voice who will be remembered. in this place so now as the chairman of the united states world war one centennial commission before you and this great cloud of witnesses. i direct you to raise this torch. as we bear it high this symbol of our great nation. at this sacred place and let us run with endurance. to ensure the doughboys our neighbor forgotten here you we set our left. so each, you know we read them nor the years condemn. at the going down of the sun a

out with a 13 14th and 15th amendment much of that and and the civil rights legislations and the antietam the kkk act all of these done by grant. so it was it was a promising time that eventually failed but it was not a fail it wasn't a failure because black people were ready for part of it. was that grant was a butcher and a drunk. we know that's absolutely i don't have to tell this audience. that's not true. greatest soldier that ever wore army blue and that lee it was a top of this as the great the marble man the greatest soldier the greatest man who ever lived and this is important because the lost cause meant really has it is part of a a pillar of the that's the ideology along with segregation laws. jim crow along with white terror lynching along with blackness and franchisement and confederate monuments that creates the pillars of a white supremacist society to enforce white political power at the expense of black people. so that's what the laws cause is and why it matters of course grant was characteristically clear in his memoirs when he described with words to this effect that ca