Antietam Battle Field - Sharpsburg, MD

[Sam W]

Edited in LR taken with my old point-and-shoot camera.

[mknittle]

I like the composition and conversion Sam.

[Sam W]

Thanks Mark!

[Mike Buckley]

Nice composition, Sam, though I would have been tempted to digitally remove the far statue.

I really like the style of the fence. A nearby mill used to have a fence made like that until the vertical, diagonal pieces were recently removed. Now that fence has a lot less character in my mind. I hope the park leaves your fence as is.

[mknittle]

At first glance I thought the same about the far statue. After a bit of thought given the the place and what it represents I think it should stay.JMHO

[Shadowman]

Nicely done.

[rpcrowe]

Well done image... Both in composition and conversion!

The "Sunken Road" or "Bloody Lane" of the Antietam Battlefield looks peaceful and bucolic now. However during that engagement (which was the bloodiest day of the American Civil War or of any U.S. Conflict) the road was littered with dead soldiers...



Mid-Day Phase: primarily center of field, Sunken Road aka Bloody Lane - 9:30 am TO 1 PM
UNION: Engaged, 10,000; Casualties, 2,900
CONFEDERATE: Engaged, 6,800; Casualties, 2,600
TOTAL: Engaged, 16,800; Casualties, 5,500

IN THREE AND A HALF HOURS!

Union Total Casualties: 12,400
Confederate Total Casualties: 10,320
Combined Total for the three phases of the battle: 22,720

Note: A far greater percentage of wounded died from their wounds in the Civil War than in the Second World War due to the relatively primitive medical techniques during the Civil War...

As a comparison here are the U.S. D-Day casualties: 6603
The breakdown of US casualties was 1465 dead, 3184 wounded, 1928 missing and 26 captured.

[Mike Buckley]

Combined Total for the three phases of the battle: 22,720

To put that in perspective, America's population is about ten times larger now than then. If the same percentage of the population suffered those casualties today in one day, it would be about 220,000 casualties.

Yet even mankind hasn't done as much damage to itself as Mother Nature. The tsnuami in 2004 killed 300,000 people and millions became homeless.

[Wavelength]

Something really special

[Sam W]

Burnside's Bridge over the "Creek of Death" as one on the northern solders named it. From the nearby hillsides 450 Southern sharper shooters held off 14,000 Union attackers during part of the battle in 1862.