September 17, 1862, was the bloodiest day in American military history. The Battle of Sharpsburg (also known as the Battle of Antietam), fought in Maryland near Antietam Creek, resulted in over 23,000 casualties.

Accounts of the battle, written by Southern officers, can be found in the Confederate Casualty Reports on Fold3. Reports typically contain narratives of unit activities in battle, followed by lists of casualties: the dead, the wounded, the missing, and those taken prisoner.

Beginning with the report of Col. O.E. Edwards of the 13th South Carolina Infantry, and ending with the casualty list written by Capt. W.T. Poague of the Rockbridge (Virginia) Artillery, five official reports offer first-hand accounts of the Battle of Sharpsburg, also known as the Battle of Antietam.

Col. Edwards wrote how his men took position “along a fence-line on the edge of the corn; and there received the enemy upon our left, drove him back across the field, and held the ground till the action closed at 8 P.M.” He lost one man and fifteen were wounded.

Capt. Poague wrote, “Wm. Effinger stunned and burned in face by explosion of a shell,” then added that fourteen horses were killed or wounded. He concluded, “All the men and officers acquitted themselves most admirably. I cannot avoid entertaining a feeling of pride in having the command of such men.”

The Confederate Casualty Reports bring a unique perspective of military engagements in the Civil War. They are arranged by state, then by battle. Some reports include insights by Fold3 members, providing additional context or history. For example, with the Meredian Expedition, a comment about Forrest’s Cavalry explains that the 7th Tennessee Cavalry was also known as Duckworth’s Cavalry, commanded by Colonel Leonidas Duckworth.

From Chickamauga to Gettysburg, Vicksburg to Fredericksburg, these records include soldiers’ names, battle strategies, tributes to the troops, Indian encounters, and scouting reports. Access the Confederate Casualty Reports for more details.

Telegram from Major Robert Anderson announcing his withdrawal from Fort Sumter, April 18, 1861

This month marks the 150th anniversary of the attack on Fort Sumter, South Carolina, the first battle of the American Civil War.

The War Between the States as it is sometimes called, lasted almost 4 years and cost more American lives than any other conflict before or since.

In honor of this important anniversary, we are making our Civil War Collection free from today through April 14^th.

In Footnote’s Civil War collection you’ll find:

• Union and Confederate Service Records
• Civil War Pension Index
• Southern Claims Commission Records
• Brady Civil War Photos

You can see other resources and learn more here.

If you tuned into Who Do You Think You Are? last Friday night, you watched Vanessa Williams discover some surprising family history within her great-great grandfather’s Civil War pension file. Her ancestor, David Carll, a black man from Oyster Bay, NY, was a private in Company I, 26th Infantry, U.S. Colored Troops (U.S.C.T.), in the final years of the Civil War.

Checking his service record on Footnote, we learn that he served on General Jackson’s boat crew and was stationed in Beaufort, South Carolina, spending much of his service on duty in the hospital there.

The service record is like an outline of a soldier’s time in the army, while a pension file will reveal much more, as Vanessa found out. Locating David Carll’s name in the Civil War and Later Veteran Pensions Index reveals that he filed his application for a pension on August 13, 1890.

The certificate number on the index card – 1,048,798 – identifies the file, which is available at the National Archives in Washington, DC. It is there that Vanessa Williams and the NARA researcher assisting her reviewed the documents. One of the most significant items in his file was a tintype of David Carll, a very unusual and surprising discovery!

You, too, can find your Civil War ancestors by exploring Footnote’s unique historical records. Begin your search in the Footnote.com Civil War Collection, make connections, and follow the leads to discover rewarding surprises in your own family history.

You can see him and his family in the 1860 US Census or view his Page.

Photo: Chris Willis, 2007

• Lincoln Assassination Papers
• Gettysburg Address
• Letters of George Washington
• Gen. Washington accepts the job as Commander – but with some reservations
• Truman approves dropping of Atomic Bomb

I found this interesting recommendation when I was annotating in the Confederate Amnesty Papers. The Governor of Tennessee wrote, in behalf of John Russell’s application for amnesty, that he was an old man and a bad rebel. He continued that Russell “had been badly whipped and has not long to live.” You can see the entire case free here.

I was particularly interested in the article because a few weeks back I was playing around the search on Footnote and did a quick search for “monitor” in the Matthew Brady collection of Civil War Photos as a test. I found some great images (over 30 of them) of ships and their crews.

It was interesting to see the differences between the various incarnations of the Monitors and to see the way the decks of the ships were used. Here are a few examples:

This one has a single (and smaller) turret, a tall thin smoke stack and a cannon and any number of other accouterments attached to the deck.

Here’s another single turret example, the Sangus, but it’s quite different from the example above with a larger turret, stockier pipe and what looks like equipment for clearing the water in front of the ship. There are even pictures of her officers and crew.

Here’s another one where they pulled out all the stops, double turrets, tents, lifeboat hangers, flags, you name it.