On September 17…
“We have again lost some of the noblest men in the south. The wounds generally in more of a serious nature than heretofore. I pronounce this battle to have been the most terrible in artillery than any one of the preceding fights. I never was so tired of shelling in my life. I hate cannons.”
~Dr. James Boulware
Antietam Diary, 6th South Carolina Infantry
“Rifles are shot to pieces in the hands of the soldiers. Canteens and haversacks are riddled with bullets, the dead and wounded go down in scores.”
~Captain Benjamin F. Cook
Antietam Diary, 12th Massachusetts Infantry
1787 – The Constitution of the United States of America was signed by 39 of 42 delegates present at the conclusion of the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. Several of the delegates were disappointed in the result, a makeshift series of unfortunate compromises, resulting in three of them refusing to sign.
Of the thirty-nine signers, Benjamin Franklin said “There are several parts of this Constitution which I do not at present approve, but I am not sure I shall never approve them.” He would accept the Constitution, he said, “because I expect no better and because I am not sure that it is not the best.”
1862 – Yep, this is going to be a long one.
Confederate and Union troops in the Civil War clashed near Maryland’s Antietam Creek in the bloodiest one-day battle in American history. The Battle of Antietam actually consisted of three battles. Beginning at dawn on September 17, Union General Joseph Hooker’s men stormed Confederate General Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson’s troops around the Dunker Church, the West Woods, and David Miller’s cornfield. The Federals made repeated attacks, but furious Rebel counterattacks kept the Yankees in check.
By early afternoon, the fighting moved south to the middle of the battlefield. Union troops under General Edwin Sumner inflicted devastating casualties on the Confederates along a sunken road that became known as “Bloody Lane,” before the Southerners retreated. McClellan refused to apply reserves to exploit the opening in the Confederate center because he believed Lee’s force to be much larger than it actually was.
Late in the day, Union General Ambrose Burnside’s corps finally got into action, crossing the stone bridge over Antietam Creek and rolling up the Confederate right. At a crucial moment, A.P. Hill’s division arrived from Harpers Ferry and counterattacked, driving back Burnside and saving the day. Although outnumbered two-to-one (Lee had committed his entire force of 38,000 men at Antietam, while McClellan, in yet another of his cautious mistakes, sent in less than three-quarters of his 80,000 available forces), the Confederates had fought the Union to a standstill.
During the night, both armies consolidated their lines. In spite of crippling casualties, Lee continued to skirmish with McClellan throughout the 18th, while removing his wounded south of the river. McClellan did not renew the assaults. After dark, Lee ordered the battered Army of Northern Virginia to withdraw across the Potomac into the Shenandoah Valley.
The losses for the one-day battle were staggering. Union casualties included 2,108 dead, 9,549 wounded, and 753 missing or captured, while Confederate casualties numbered 1,567 dead, 7,752 wounded, and 1,108 missing or captured.
Although the battle was tactically inconclusive, the Confederate troops had withdrawn first from the battlefield, making it, in military terms, a Union victory. It was a sufficiently significant victory to give Lincoln the confidence to announce his Emancipation Proclamation, which discouraged the British and French governments from pursuing any potential plans to recognize the Confederacy.
1862 – The Allegheny Arsenal, located in Pittsburgh, PA, and an important supply and manufacturing center for the Union Army during the Civil War, was rocked by three explosions. 78 workers, mostly young women, were killed.
Although a coroner’s jury held that the accident had been the result of the negligent conduct of Col. John Symington and his subordinates in allowing loose powder to accumulate on the roadway, Symington was acquitted.
1939 – Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov declared that the Polish government had ceased to exist, as the U.S.S.R. exercised the “fine print” of the Hitler-Stalin Non-aggression pact – the invasion and occupation of eastern Poland.
The 800,000-strong Soviet Red Army entered and created the Belarusian and Ukrainian fronts after invading the eastern regions of Poland. Before the Soviet attack from the east, the Polish military’s fall-back plan had called for long-term defense against Germany in the south-eastern part of Poland, while awaiting relief from a Western Allies attack on Germany’s western border. With no help on the way, the Polish military ordered all units to evacuate Poland and reorganize in France.
1955 – Tennessee Ernie Ford recorded ‘Sixteen Tons’ at Capitol’s Melrose Avenue Studios in Hollywood.
1963 – The Fugitive premiered on ABC. Dr. Richard Kimble’s search for the one-armed man responsible for his wife’s death lasted four seasons.
1964 – Bewitched premiered on ABC. The series ran for eight years.
1965 – Hogan’s Heroes premiered on CBS. The prisoner of war comedy series lasted six seasons.
1966 – Mission Impossible premiered on CBS. The series ran for seven seasons.
1972 – M*A*S*H premiered on CBS. The series won 14 Emmy Awards during its 11-year run.
1978 – At the White House in Washington, D.C., Egyptian President Anwar el-Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin signed the Camp David Accords, laying the groundwork for a permanent peace agreement between Egypt and Israel after three decades of hostilities.
1983 – 20-year-old Vanessa Williams became the first African American to win the Miss America crown. A scandal later erupted when nude photos surfaced of Williams that had reportedly been shot when she worked for a photographer before her pageant days. She was forced to resign her Miss America title in July 1984.
1984 – Actor Richard Basehart (He Walked By Night, Hitler, Moby Dick, but best remembered for his role of Admiral Harriman Nelson in Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea) died at the age of 70 following a series of strokes.
1996 – Former Vice President Spiro Agnew died after being hospitalized and diagnosed with an advanced, yet to that point undetected, form of leukemia. He was 77. In 1973, he became the second U.S. Vice President to resign (the other was John C. Calhoun in 1832) but the first to do so for criminal reasons,
1997 – Comedian Richard “Red” Skelton, who had a 70-year career as an entertainer and artist, died at the age of 84.
Compiled by Ray Lemire ©2016 RayLemire.com. All Rights Reserved.