Research Symposium

BIO

Ryley is a First-Year History major from Winter Garden, Florida. This is her first research project and she has goals of going to grad school for History or Law School.

The Antietam Project: Examining the Civil War's Bloodiest Battle from a New Lens

Abstract

Many written documents surfaced over the course of the Civil War and post-war years outlining the Confederacy’s inability to resource its troops with necessities like shoes. This research aims to evaluate the extent to which these written claims align with photographic evidence. Findings related to military logistics, written records, and economics in 1862 parallel modern warfare as they explain the methodology behind soldiers’ use of the government’s allocation of scarce resources.
Photographic galleries, letters, diaries, newspapers, books, and Confederate reports were uncovered through open-source databases such as the National Archives and various educational institutions. Each resource was analyzed for the appearance or mention of clothing items, foodstuffs, and other resources. Findings were then contextualized through economics, fashion trends, weather patterns, and social norms of 1862.
We found that the weather surrounding the battle likely mudded the dirt roads of Eastern & Northern Virginia, as well as Western Maryland. Additionally, shoes in 1862 didn’t come in half sizes, and photographers like Alexander Gardner captured images of dead, shoeless Confederate soldiers. These findings point to a reluctance to spend money replacing shoes considering heavy inflation and the cultural teaching of avoiding unnecessary expenditures. It was determined that a possible solution to muddy, or dirt covered, routes and blistering boots was to take off one’s shoes.
A thorough understanding of the relationship between troops’ wages and the wellbeing of their families on the home front transcends into modern warfare as an indication of how often storehouses and supplies should be inspected and replaced.

Keywords: History, Civil War, Battle of Antietam, Photojournalism