Slowly but surely, order replaced chaos in the hospitals. Sev-e­ral weeks after the battle, Dr. Dimon wrote, “During the day I dress wounds, draw rations, look after cleaning up everything, see to serving out food, etc. and make records of everything done. During the evening and night I make out some of the thousand reports necessary to be made to various quarters of the army. Last night at eleven o’clock, after three hours of writing names, regiments, company, rank, wounds, when received, how treated, etc, I went to bed….”

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Dan Holt, though, could not fully adjust to the scale of misery confronting him. On October 15, he wrote: “I close my eyes—all seems like a dream. Am I here—far away from home and loved ones—from the site of my native hills—from the sparkling waters and gushing fountains—its flowing streams—its holy Sabbaths—days of rest and calm repose, upon the field of carnage and hostile encounter. I cannot realize it, although the clatter of arms, the report of cannon, the tramp of almost countless thousands tell but too truly that I have left them all behind. Everything is warlike—guns, swords, bayonets, flags, drums, tents, and indeed all the eye rests upon is unlike home.”

Like Holt, soldiers would wrestle with their Antietam injuries and experiences for the rest of their lives, and area civilians used to the regular pace of agricultural life would never forget the sight of doctors “cuttin’ off peoples legs and arms and thrown’ ’em out…jest like throwin’ out old sticks.” The wounds of Antietam might heal, but for many, only death would erase the deep emotional scars that remained.

John H. Nelson is the author of the CD-Rom “As the Grain Falls Before the Reaper:” The Federal Hospital Sites and Identified Federal Casualties at Antietam, a comprehensive database of every Union soldier injured in the battle. He writes from Williamsport, Md., and serves on the board of the Save Historic Antietam Foundation (www.Shafonline.org).

This article by John H. Nelson was originally published in the September 2007 issue of America’s Civil War magazine.For more great articles be sure to subscribe to America’s Civil War magazine today!

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