More than 23,000 soldiers were killed, wounded, or missing after the Battle of Antietam on September 17, 1862, still considered the bloodiest single-day battle in American history. Antietam was also the first American battlefield to be photographed before the dead were buried. These photographs were owned by General George McClellan (1826–1885), the leader of the Union forces at Antietam, and taken by Alexander Gardner, McClellan’s staff photographer. Gardner’s photographs shocked viewers, many of whom saw these devastating scenes of war for the first time. Gift of George B. McClellan, Class of 1886. George B. McClellan Papers, Manuscripts Division.
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