Bloody Lanes

This old Civil War buff should be flogged before the entire regiment for failing last Friday to mention the 142nd anniversary of the Battle of Antietam, the only major battle of the war to be fought in my home state of Maryland (if you don't count the Rebs' 1864 Monocacy-Silver Spring farce, which I don't), and the bloodiest single day of combat in American history.


That's right, gang, Antietam beats out D-Day by a substantial margin. How bad was it? The Union army dropped 13,000 dead, the Confederates 10,000, all in one day (September 17, 1862). That's right, 23,000 dead men, or 23 times as many as we've lost in Iraq over the course of a year. Just offering some perspective for those ready to run up the white flag.