The cool stillness of a crisp autumn morning strives to push from memory the vision of the carnage that swept over these rolling country fields. Estimates vary but center around 23,000 total Americans, Northern and Southern, killed, wounded, or missing during this one days fighting on Wednesday September 17, 1862. The United States National Park Service estimates that, when taking into account those who likely perished later of wounds received on this field, the count of those who lost their lives because of this single day of battle could exceed 7,000. No other day in American history produced a greater number of casualties. If the battle lasted about 11 hours, 6am to 5pm, that meant on average one casualty inflicted every 1 1/2 seconds. Of those casualties, one man would die for every 5 to 6 seconds of conflict.

When the battle ended, the combatants held lines similar to those that they possessed when the hostilities began. Despite what some claimed was the North's limited victory, perhaps no battle had consequences so far reaching as Antietam. It was this victory, incomplete as it may have been, that gave President Abraham Lincoln the opportunity to issue the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation. Once done, the likelihood of either England or France offering formal aid or recognition to the young Confederate States of America diminished to almost the point of extinction. Without this crucial assistance, the Confederacy would be left to its own to obtain the men and resources necessary to achieve their goal of independence.