It would be easy to assume that all the historically important details about the 1862 Battle of Antietam are well known and frequently shared with the public by historians. After all, the battle was the bloodiest day of combat in U.S. history, famous for repelling General Robert E. Lee's first expedition into Union territory.
The battle and its aftermath are well documented by contemporary sources, and visitors to Antietam National Battlefield have access to an elaborate museum with expert guidance to learn the vast amount of information known at the time. You can receive
But for the two historians who started the only podcast dedicated to digging deep into the subject, the Battle of Antietam is a bottomless well of little-known or yet-undiscovered historical treasures. It is.
“There were over 100,000 soldiers at Antietam,” said Tom McMillan, one of the hosts of the Antietam and Beyond podcast. “That's 100,000 stories. We'll never know them all. We'll never be able to end the Civil War.”
McMillan and co-host John Banks are convinced that the Battle of Antietam has always had some kind of secret behind it. But since launching the podcast in November, they've discovered a wealth of new scholarship and are rapidly uncovering new stories.
“We're in the digital age,” Banks says. “There is so much information at our fingertips these days that we continue to see the big battles strengthened as more information is published online. I think it will be.”
When William Frassanito did research for his seminal 1978 masterpiece, Antietam: The Photographic Legacy of America's Bloodiest Day, he discovered that to see archival images of the battle, you had to go directly to the Library of Congress. Banks pointed out. Now, any researcher can view it online.
The Internet also makes certain information available to the public that would otherwise be completely inaccessible. For example, a growing number of Civil War letters and diaries have been transcribed and published online by William Griffing, a collector who searches extensively for previously unpublished information. Civil War Documents.
But the Internet isn't the only source of new information, podcasters said. The land itself still holds secrets for controversial relic hunters. In the lone December episode, Banks and McMillan interviewed relic hunter John Davidson and his retired mentor Richard Clem about the items they found and their code of ethics.
“They provided some stories and perspectives that you don't normally hear because people in general and historians in particular frown upon relic hunting,” Banks said. “But when you have two ethical people exchanging ideas, it carries some weight. They're really interested in what they've unearthed.”
(Note: Relic hunting and the use or possession of metal detectors are prohibited on Antietam National Battlefield grounds. Federal law prohibits artifact theft and, if found guilty, can result in fines. (Possible penalty up to $250,000 and/or 5 years in prison. Materials used will be forfeited.)
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“We’re learning as we go.”
McMillan said he and Banks look for a wide range of guests when planning episodes. Some of them are experts who discuss well-known aspects of the battle, while others work privately on lesser-known topics.
“It’s like a blank canvas,” he said. “It's eclectic in its own right, and that was our goal. We think of this as two friends doing it casually, learning as we go, and seeing the audience's reaction.”
The comment “I’m learning as I go” wasn’t false humility. Although both are published historians, neither is an Antietam expert.
McMillan, who is based in Pittsburgh, has written two books focused on Gettysburg and one about Flight 93, and has a new book scheduled for release in June, “Our Flag Was Still There: The Star Spangled.” Banner that Survived the Britain and 200 Years – and the Armistead family who saved it.”
Banks, who is based in Nashville, is a former editor of the Dallas Morning News. Although he has written a book with the word “Antietam” in the title, its focus is limited to New England soldiers. His new book, “A Lifelong Civil War Road Trip,” is scheduled for release in July.
They know enough about the Battle of Antietam to have interesting exchanges with guests, but are far enough away from the subject that they end up asking many of the same questions a general audience would have. Masu. This blend seems like a winning formula for listeners.
As of mid-February, they have listeners in 47 states and more than a dozen countries. The eight episodes were downloaded over 4,000 times. McMillan said this was more than he expected, and he was pleased to see the podcast accomplishing one of his primary goals: spreading education about the Civil War to a broader, younger audience.
“Podcasts may reach more people,” he says. “Young people aren't going to go to a Civil War roundtable the second Tuesday of every month. That stuff is becoming obsolete, but maybe there's another way to capture those people. ”
The Antietam and Beyond podcast is available on all major podcast platforms and the show's website: https://antietambeyond.transistor.fm.
