The 1860’s, in The United States of America, many historical battles happened is a short period of time. However none of these battles were more violent than the Battle of Antietam. This very famous battle is known for its numerous casualties and because of that has attracted many archeologists to its site. As technology has progressed archeologists have been able to find more and more artifacts and have even discovered casualties on the battlefield. The story of Antietam is truly a remarkable one just as much so as the discoveries made by archeologists that allow for a truer and more accurate telling of the happenings of that story.
The Battle of Antietam, sometimes called the Battle of Sharpsburg, was fought on September 17, 1862. This battle during the Civil War was the first to take place on the Union’s Side. The Battle of Antietam was is known as being the bloodiest day in all of the United States history. The numbers of killed wounded or missing are staggering at 22,717.
The battle between Confederate General Robert E. Lee and Union General George B. McClellan resulted in an inconclusive stalemate, however because the Confederate army withdrew its forces first and General McClellan kept General Lee from advancing into Maryland one could say that the Union forces prevailed. Due to huge casualties on both sides General McClellan decided not to pursue General Lee and his army while they were retreating which actually lost him his command over the Union Army. While this battle resulted in no clear winner the small advantage that the Union Army walked away with gave President Abraham Lincoln enough confidence to declare the Emancipation Proclamation. While the battle resulted in the bloodiest day in American history it has now created an incredible archeological site to be excavated.
Archeologists have been excavating the site of the Antietam battlefield for many years now. As technology progressed archeologists were able to further their knowledge on what occured on the heinous day of the Battle of Antietam. The first published attempts to document military positions based on dropped artifacts date all the way back to the nineteenth century. Sadly not many were published and even fewer had any credible or influential evidence to the tragic story. As time went on in the twentieth century, with the emergence of the metal detector people began to search for artifacts on the battlefield. However not many of these people documented their findings or made any inferences on how the battle unfolded. It was not until after Douglas Scott’s survey of the Battle at Little Bighorn, which showed that the accounts of the battle at that time were not entirely accurate, that battlefield archeology really unfolded and many scholars began to attempt to use it to understand and interpret military events.
During the 1990’s an intensive archeological survey detailed four locations on the northern side of the battlefield. These areas included the West Woods, North Woods, East Woods and the Piper Orchard.
In the West Woods not much was found initially when they used shovel testing and looked for artifacts. In fact only two artifacts were found in the entire section after conducting 292 tests on 20 meter zones. Once they tested the area again with a metal detector it was much more effective and they were able to discover 26 military items. The majority of these military items were dropped lead bullets and round shot. The West Woods was a very wooded area during the battle so not many artifacts were discovered in that area. In fact it was mainly used as a way to test various methods of recovering Civil War objects.
The next section that was surveyed was the North Woods. This 39 acre lot gave a lot of insight into how the Battle of Antietam could have unfolded. In all 311 military artifacts were discovered during the metal detector survey of this area, most of them coming from the western section. Among these military artifacts there more than 100 shell fragments found in this part of the woods. Most of these fragments are thought to have come from 12-pounder shells fired from rifled guns. With the large amount of artifacts found in this area archeologists were able to form an argument. A large amount of fired round balls were found in these woods all along the the southern boundary to the northern edge of this section. These balls are interpreted to be Confederate along with many pistol bullets. Previously, because of detailed letters sent to Carman Cope when he was drawing up his official maps of the battle, it was believed that the twenty-fourth North Carolina regiment and the fifteenth Virginia regiment launched their attacks on the Union soldiers coming from the far left of the Confederate line, but stopped before they even reached the North Woods. The artifacts discovered by the archeologists in this area can be used as evidence that shows they actually made further than the battle maps drawn by Carma Cope may suggest.