GRAPHIC Antietam fence line Examination

I have never really studied this image before but in the foreground there appears to be a cup and and a plate. Did they just come off in battle or were these messing?
 
I found this video of the live firing of canister and thought it might be of interest with regard to the discussion of the injuries sustained at the fence line. You can see the street sweeper effect of the canister and can imagine the effect.
My first post.
regards.
That is awesome
 
Hi list, Im at a crossroads with this image, so Im going to ask your opinion.. Is it worth while to zoom in and try to gain some knowledge of clothing and equipment or would it be too graphic and disrespectful to our honored dead...Let me know what you think and whatever the concenscious is after a couple of days I will go with..

Antfence1-X3.jpg
I would like as to inquire if you would color this historic photo in a blown up fashion at your leisure General?
 
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I cannot say for certain. Arrow 1 indicates a broken ankle, and arrow 2 indicates a missing leg below the knee. These I think are markers of a shell blast instead of musketry. It is likely these men were killed by a combination of the two. Allso if you take into account the amount of holes that can be seen in the man I am calling the SGT's coat, it is possible they were raked by cannister and explossive rounds. IMHO As to wheather or not they are in fact Louisianans its hard to say with a certainty. If you look at the enlargements of the SGT you can almost make out his buttons and they look to be either Federal Eagles or Pelicans.

I definitely believe your correct about this being the work of artillery & musket fire. Look at the body @ lower right in the full picture, the 1st posted by Wilber. More then one soldier is missing a limb. The man lying at lower right of the photo is missing his right foot. His left foot is bare and its probable he lacked shoes entirely when he entered the battle.

Think artillery, if you shoot above the ground much of the canister my fly high and miss the target. However, fire low, at the ground just before your target and the canister balls would bounce into it. Maybe that's what we see in the damage to the fence and the soldiers legs.
 
Wow, awesome video! I wish I'd looked at that first before commenting on this thread... You can actually see the balls bouncing across the ground in the distance!

Also great thread Wilber started here, glad it was given a push & I got to see it :smile:
 
A couple of weeks ago me and some Pards got together and did some live firing with our muskets. We were using 42 Springfield’s, P53 Enfield’s, a P58 Enfield, and a Whitworth. We had enough Muskets on hand that we fired in ranks alternating between weapon types (42 & 53/58) the whit worth fired on its own. The targets were made out of 1" plywood attached to a 4x4 post stuck into the ground in two ranks 6ft tall with a silhouette painted on them. With the Enfield’s we were using English Pritchard Rounds. With the 42's we were using Buck and Ball. The devastation levied on the targets from combat range was truly astonishing. The 42's were only effective at a range of no more than about 50yds. However from 100 yds., out and further with the Enfield’s we had balls passing thorough the plywood 4in post into and through the plywood and post of the second rank, continuing on and into the log back drop behind the targets. in some cases even cutting in half 3in hardwood tree stumps. From a distance you are basically firing at a mass. Meaning at the order "aim (slight pause) Fire!" You do not have a lot of time to pick a target. Add into that the confusion, smoke, etc. of battle. It is easy to imagine men simply firing at the mass of opposing troops in front of them. This easily accounts for multiple rounds hitting individual targets. Also seeing firsthand the damage the rounds were doing to hard wood I can also say that it is possible for a round fired from a musket to entirely carry away a limb from a body. Now I am not saying the Men in these photos were not also hit by artillery, I believe historically they were. Just trying to give a frame of reference for the destruction brought about by Civil War small arms fired en mass at relatively close range as this fight was. By the way witnessing the destruction brought about by a volley of buck in ball is something I will never forget. The short range required to make it effective however really brings into perspective the reason for the high casualties in units that were outfitted with it.
 
If some of the damage seen here was indeed caused by canister, which Federal battery delivered it? I have assumed this fence line was raked canister from the guns of Lt Stewart's section of battery B, 4th US artillery. They were ordered forward by Gen. John Gibbon and raced down the Hagerstown Pike. The battery unlimbered just west of the Pike and in position to deliver enfilading fire on The Rebels seen here. However, I've just read that due to the undulating ground, canister was not used by Stewart. According to Ezra Carman, Stewart reported his battery fired Spherical case at Starke's men. If the dead confederates seen in this photo were hit shrapnel from spherical case wouldn't we see more upper body wounds? Just a thought.
 
I see little difference from the zoomed pix of the Petersburg dead. There were no unseemly posts then and see no reason why there should be now, These guys were mostly (all?) of Hood's Texans so that should be kept in mind when studying uniforms.
No, these fellows could have also been Georgians.
Go for it and do the details, no different than the Petersburg close-ups.
 
When originally taken, were they referred to as Stakes Louisiana boys? If so, how did he come by that? And btw, I think I have taken a magnifying glass to every picture I could and repeated constantly.
 
When originally taken, were they referred to as Stakes Louisiana boys? If so, how did he come by that? And btw, I think I have taken a magnifying glass to every picture I could and repeated constantly.

Based on where the picture was taken, it's probable that these men were from Starke's Brigade and were shot when they were fighting Gibbon's Brigade who were on the other side of the road.

R
 
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