Ten Thousand Demons

Dunker Church, Antietam Battlefield, January 19, 2026

Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday - January 19, 2026. 

The Itty Fit is rolling west to Sharpsburg, MD and Antietam National Battlefield.  What better way to celebrate the holiday than the Civil War battle that sparked the Emancipation Proclamation?

This year our nation celebrates the 250^th anniversary of July 4, 1776 issuance of the Declaration of Independence.  At Antietam on September 17, 1862 (86 years later - 4 score and 6 years) the nation experienced its bloodiest day with 22,727 killed, wounded, or missing near Sharpsburg, MD - then a hamlet of 1,300 people.  Almost 101 years later to the day, Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his I Have a Dream speech at the Lincoln Memorial on August 28, 1963.

Unlike the searing hot days in September 1862 and August 1963, January 19, 2026, is cold and blustery. A cruel wind blows across the open field, forcing hoods up and gloves on hands.  Across the field from the new Antietam Visitors Center, the white inornate Dunker Church is visible (photo above).

Inside the Visitor’s Center a giant reproduction of Alexander Gardner’s famous photo of the dead in view of the Dunker Church dominates the lobby (photo below).  Gardner‘s horrific photo brought the war home is a way not seen.  It was not a display of the glory of war, but of the tragedy of war.

Antietam was the first time the Union was in control of the battlefield after the battle and saw the grim realities of death and destruction on such a massive scale.¹  One Ohio soldier remarked, “War has it glories, but It has its ten thousand demons in these human tortures, that make the eyeballs ache – the heart bleed – the lips palsy, and the brain reel.” ²

Rather than generate disillusionment among the troops, the reality of what the Union soldiers saw served to renew their resolve.  Lieutenant joseph W Collinwood of the 93^rd New York noted, “We see many sorrowful sights, but the battle must be fought [and] victory must be ours.  Rebellion must be put down at any price.”³

The battle gave Lincoln the victory he needed to issue The Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863. The proclamation declared enslaved people in states in rebellion free and allowed them to join the Union Army.

This year, we celebrate the semi-quincentennial of the birth of our nation. A national holiday honoring a black man from Alabama and a grisly picture of a plain small church in Maryland, remind us of the triumphs and tragedies we experienced on the march toward lofty goals of the Declaration. 

How about you? Where did you visit?  Share a story!

2nd Helping

^1,2,3 From the essay “What I Witnessed Would Only Make You Sick” by Brian Matthew Jordan in the book The Civil War in Maryland Reconsidered, edited by Charles W. Mitchell and Jean H Baker.

Photo: Alexander Gardner, September 20, 1962