Help me navigate the Antietam literature

Skarpskytten

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Dec 7, 2016
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Växjö, Sweden
I hoping to be able to convince the editor of the Swedish historical magazine Militär historia (I'll let you figure out the translation by yourself) to commission me to write a cover article on Antietam. To do so I need to write a good pitch, and that in turn requires some research. I would like your help to navigate the Antietam literature. [ACW is really maginalized in swedish historical culture of today. Its all about WW2 and Sweden's "Age of Greatness". Militär historia will do one pre-1900 cover during 2022, so what I'm having here is a very rare opportunity to put ACW on the cover of Swedens only military history magazine].

Best book? Assume I'm going to read just one book - which one is the best on the battle and the preceeding campaign? Stephen W Sears Landscape Turned Red. The Battle of Antietam (1984) seems to be a good contender. Is it a good choice or are there newer, better books that I should consider?

Soldiers perspectice? I would like to find one or more books which contains eyewitness accounts of the battle, not combat reports from officers (those can be found online) but rather soldiers accounts of the combat, seeing the elephant, that kind of stuff. Is there a good modern book that gathers such accounts? Or are there any good diaries, letter collections or autobiographies that would be useful for this purpose?
 
Antietam: The Soldier's Battle
by John M. Priest

Here what one reviewer says in part about the book:

"Countless historians have analyzed Antietam (known as Sharpsburg in the South) and its aftermath, some concluding that McClellan's failure to vanquish Lee constituted a Southern victory, others that the Confederate retreat into Virginia was a strategic win for the North. But in Antietam: The Soldiers' Battle, historian John Michael Priest tells this brutal tale of slaughter from an entirely new point of view: that of the common enlisted man. Concentrating on the days of actual battle--September 16, 17, and 18, 1862--Priest vividly brings to life the fear, the horror, and the profound courage that soldiers displayed, from the first Federal cavalry probe of the Confederate lines to the last skirmish on the streets of Sharpsburg. Antietam is not a book about generals and their grand strategies, but rather concerns men such as the Pennsylvanian corporal who lied to receive the Medal of Honor; the Virginian who lay unattended on the battlefield through most of the second day of fighting, his arm shattered from a Union artillery shell; the Confederate surgeon who wrote to the sweetheart he left behind enemy lines in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania that he had seen so much death and suffering that his "head had whitened and my very soul turned to stone."
 
Soldiers perspectice? I would like to find one or more books which contains eyewitness accounts of the battle

Again, the answer is Landscape Turned Red. It has been awhile since I read it and it is an”old publication” but it really impressed me with the details as well as the personal accounts.
 
I enjoy Ezra Carman's The Maryland Campaign of September 1862, edited by Thomas Clemens with Volume II covering Antietam. Carman was commander of the 12th New Jersey at Antietam and was really the battle's first historian.

Ryan

I haven't read the Sears or Murfin volumes, but I have read Carman and Priest. I really liked Carman, but less so Priest.

For me, the real value in Priest was that it added a lot to my look into the world of a specific regiment, the 3rd NC Infantry. I'm intrigued by the mention here of Antietam Voices and will be looking for that at my local library soon
 
I hoping to be able to convince the editor of the Swedish historical magazine Militär historia (I'll let you figure out the translation by yourself) to commission me to write a cover article on Antietam. To do so I need to write a good pitch, and that in turn requires some research. I would like your help to navigate the Antietam literature. [ACW is really maginalized in swedish historical culture of today. Its all about WW2 and Sweden's "Age of Greatness". Militär historia will do one pre-1900 cover during 2022, so what I'm having here is a very rare opportunity to put ACW on the cover of Swedens only military history magazine].

Best book? Assume I'm going to read just one book - which one is the best on the battle and the preceeding campaign? Stephen W Sears Landscape Turned Red. The Battle of Antietam (1984) seems to be a good contender. Is it a good choice or are there newer, better books that I should consider?

Soldiers perspectice? I would like to find one or more books which contains eyewitness accounts of the battle, not combat reports from officers (those can be found online) but rather soldiers accounts of the combat, seeing the elephant, that kind of stuff. Is there a good modern book that gathers such accounts? Or are there any good diaries, letter collections or autobiographies that would be useful for this purpose?
You might think about focusing on American Scandinavia’s that served. Don’t know if any of such regiments / companies were at Antietam- so you might consider a differnt approach even if it takes you to the war in Mississippi or Tennessee. There were about 4K Sweeds that served according to my cursive look.
Good luck
 
You might think about focusing on American Scandinavia’s that served. Don’t know if any of such regiments / companies were at Antietam- so you might consider a differnt approach even if it takes you to the war in Mississippi or Tennessee. There were about 4K Sweeds that served according to my cursive look.
Good luck

Yeah, focusing on the swedes might be a good idea, if I only can find some sources. I should probably check Alf Åbergs book Svenskarna under stjärnbaneret ("The Swedes beneath the Star Spangled Banner") and see if I can find something useful.
 
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