BATTLEFIELD BACKSTORY: It looked like almost any cornfield in America when I shot this image on a splendid fall morning. But extraordinary events occurred here on Sept. 17, 1862. Extraordinarily awful events. "A man but a few paces from me is struck squarely in the face by a solid shot.," 12th Massachusetts Private George Kimball wrote of the fighting in The Bloody Cornfield at Antietam. "Fragments of the poor fellow's head come crashing into my face and fill me with disgust." Wrote 20th Massachusetts Lieutenant Francis Palfrey: "The corn and the trees, so fresh and green in the morning, were reddened with blood and torn by bullet and shell, and the very earth was furrowed by the incessant impact of lead and iron.” You can walk a trail through The Bloody Cornfield today, but it's impossible to truly comprehend what happened here. (Click at upper right to enlarge and click here for all posts on this blog.)
Friday, April 1, 2016
ANTIETAM: A cornfield 'reddened with blood'
BATTLEFIELD BACKSTORY: It looked like almost any cornfield in America when I shot this image on a splendid fall morning. But extraordinary events occurred here on Sept. 17, 1862. Extraordinarily awful events. "A man but a few paces from me is struck squarely in the face by a solid shot.," 12th Massachusetts Private George Kimball wrote of the fighting in The Bloody Cornfield at Antietam. "Fragments of the poor fellow's head come crashing into my face and fill me with disgust." Wrote 20th Massachusetts Lieutenant Francis Palfrey: "The corn and the trees, so fresh and green in the morning, were reddened with blood and torn by bullet and shell, and the very earth was furrowed by the incessant impact of lead and iron.” You can walk a trail through The Bloody Cornfield today, but it's impossible to truly comprehend what happened here. (Click at upper right to enlarge and click here for all posts on this blog.)
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