The Civil War’s Battle of Antietam (pronounced an-TEE-tum) took place on September 17, 1862, in northwest Maryland, close to Antietam Creek.
The Union and Confederate armies — led by George B. McClellan and Robert E. Lee, respectively — each lost a large number of men in what turned out to be “the bloodiest single day in American history.”
So far I’ve found a handful of people named after the battle, including these three females, all of whom were born during the Civil War:
- Mary Antietam Cheney, b. Oct. 7, 1862, in Vermont.
- Mary Antietam McCulloch, b. Sept. 22, 1862, in Massachusetts.
- Antietam Burnside Mann, b. Jan. 31, 1863, in Connecticut. (Her father died in the battle. The middle name “Burnside” refers to Gen. Ambrose Burnside.)
While the Battle of Antietam was a tactical draw, it was still a strategic victory for the Union, and this “gave [President] Lincoln what he needed to issue the Emancipation Proclamation that would free the slaves in the Confederate states the following January.”
The place-name Antietam was derived from an Algonquian word that may mean “swift water.”
Sources: Battle of Antietam – Wikipedia, Antietam: A Savage Day In American History, Antietam – Online Etymology Dictionary
P.S. Did you know that Antietam was the first American battlefield to be “photographed before the dead had been buried”? Here are some Antietam battlefield photographs (via the U.S. National Park Service).