Antietam Under the Surface

I’m an avid reader of the My Year of Living Rangerously blog done by Ranger Mannie. Back in December, he posted Antietam Under the Surface and I began to think about the educational aspects of this post.

Here is a debate topic for your class: What can we learn by excavating a Civil War battlefield? There are those who would say that it is hallowed ground and should not be disturbed. Others say that we must learn from our past in order to preserve the future. I believe that what they did at Antietam was very interesting and will benefit generations to come. How does your class feel about it? Not too long ago, they found bones of a Civil War era soldier near the famous railroad cut at Gettysburg.

What about the actual excavation process? From the photos it appears that they used precision survey equipment and some type of computer software to map coordinates on a graph in order to see where the various items were recovered. Why is this important? It’s important because depending on the type of item found and what they know of the actual battle, they can make assumptions as to the unit that fought on that location or how heavy the fighting was in a particular area.

What about those bullets? I read somewhere that they estimate that three million bullets were fired during the Battle of Antietam. If a typical soldier could fire three rounds per minute, how long would it take a company of 100 or a regiment of 1,000 men to fire that many times?

Next time well talk more about weapons. Until then, read the other posts on Ranger Mannie’s blog and let him know what you think. You may also wish to explore Virtual Antietam and listen to their brief podcasts and search the monument database.