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## September 2017

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### U.S. Census Bureau History: The Battle of Antietam

             A monument at the Antietam National Battlefield honors the men of the 137thPennsylvania Volunteer Infantry Regiment.In September 1862, the men of the 137th Pennsylvania were in the vicinity ofSharpsburg, MD.  They saw little fighting, but were tasked with the difficult taskof recovering thousands of wounded and dead from the battlefield.Photo courtesy of the U.S. National Parks Service.

On September 17, 1862, the Union and Confederate armies clashed in and around the town of Sharpsburg, MD.  The Battle of Antietam (named after Antietam Creek by the North while the South called the engagement the "Battle of Sharpsburg") became the bloodiest day in American military history, with approximately 23,000 soldiers killed, wounded, or missing.

On the morning of September 17, Major General George B. McClellan's Union Army of the Potomac launched an attack on positions held by General Robert E. Lee's Confederate Army of Northern Virginia near Sharpsburg, MD.  Bitter fighting ensued in the vicinity of the Dunker Church, Sunken Road, and the Antietam Creek bridges.  Despite outnumbering Lee's forces 2-to-1, McClellan would not commit his entire army to the fight against the Confederates.  As a result, the Confederates were able to successfully repulse Union attacks for most of the day.

Late in the battle, soldiers from Major General Ambrose Burnside's IX Corps captured one of the stone bridges crossing Antietam Creek, threatening the Confederate Army's right flank.  However, before the Union Army could seize upon the momentum of Burnside's success, Confederate Major General A.P. Hill's Light Division arrived from Harper's Ferry, WV, to stop the Union advance.  By late afternoon, the battle was over and the exhausted armies called an informal truce to gather their wounded.  The Confederate Army withdrew across the Potomac River to Virginia.  McClellan refused President Abraham Lincoln's request to pursue the weakened Confederates.  Annoyed by McClellan's cautious approach to the war, Lincoln replaced the general with Ambrose Burnside on November 7, 1862.

You can learn more about the Battle of Antietam and the Civil War using data and records collected by the U.S. Census Bureau and other federal agencies.  For example:
                        - During the Civil War, the nation's 36 states and territories were divided among the Union, Confederate States of America, and border states.  According to the  1860 Census , the 20 Union states had a population of approximately 19.2 million. The five border states (Maryland, Delaware, Kentucky, Missouri, and West Virginia) had a population of about 3.5 million; and the 11 Confederate States of America had 8.7 million.  Seven of the nation's  ten largest cities  were in northern states, including  New York City, NY  (813,669),  Philadelphia, PA  (565,529), and  Boston, MA  (177,840).  Two border state cities had populations of more than 100,000— Baltimore, MD  (212,418), and  St. Louis, MO  (160,773).   New Orleans, LA , was the only southern city that qualified as one of the nation's ten largest, with a population of 168,675.  New Orleans fell from the list of ten largest cities in  1890 .  A "southern" city did not return to the list until  Houston, TX , qualified with a population of  938,219  in 1960.  In 1970,  Dallas, TX , with a population of  844,401 , joined Houston.   San Antonio, TX ,with a population of  935,933  followed in 1990.  In May 2017, the Census Bureau reported that states in the South Region were home to  10 of the nation's 15 fastest growing cities .
                        - The Battle of Antietam was fought in and around the town of Sharpsburg, MD, located in Washington County, MD.  One year prior to the outbreak of the Civil War, Washington County's population was  31,417 .  It grew 10.5 percent by 1870 to  34,712 .  Washington County's population has grown every decade since 1790, and currently has an estimated population of  150,292 .
                        - Soldiers from 2nd Division IX Corps, Army of the Potomac, led by General  Samuel D. Sturgis  nearly turned the tide of battle in the Union's favor after successfully capturing one of the  stone bridges  crossing Antietam Creek.  The arrival of troops commanded by Confederate General A.P. Hill thwarted the Union momentum.  The town of  Sturgis, SD , home to one of the  world's largest motorcycle rallies  was named for General Sturgis, who was the first commander of nearby Fort Meade, SD, and his son  James Garland Sturgis , who was killed at the 1876  Battle of the Little Big Horn .
                        - President  Abraham Lincoln  replaced Major General  George B. McClellan  with Major General  Ambrose Burnside  on November 7, 1862. Weeks later, Burnside led the Union Army on a campaign against the Confederate capital of  Richmond, VA .  The campaign ended in disaster as his men attempted to cross the Rappahannock River near  Fredericksburg, VA , in December 1862 and January 1863.  Lincoln replace Burnside with Major General Joseph Hooker on January 26, 1863.
                        - During the Civil War, the site of the Census Bureau's  National Processing Center  in  Jeffersonville, IN , was a quartermaster depot.  When the depot opened, widows, mothers, and sisters of Union soldiers manufactured shirts and trousers for the U.S. Army.  The depot expanded later in the war to supply all types of military supplies.
                        - Anticipating the possibility of war, Superintendent of the Census  Joseph C.G. Kennedy  abbreviated the Census Bureau's publication plans.  When hostilities broke out, Kennedy ordered his statisticians and cartographers to create detailed maps of the southern states.  Maps like the  "Distribution of Slaves in 1860"  provided vital information about the South's population, agriculture, and transportation networks.  On July 13, 1887, John Daily  murdered  Kennedy (pictured below with Abraham Lincoln following the Battle of Antietam) on a Washington, DC, sidewalk.  A jury found Daily to be insane on  January 12, 1888 , and committed him to St. Elizabeth Hospital for the Insane.  Daily died from an apparent suicide in his cell on  December 13, 1889 .
                        - After  Abraham Lincoln  replaced  George B. McClellan  as commander of the Union's Army of the Potomac, the Democratic Party nominated the general as their  1864 presidential candidate .  Lincoln easily defeated McClellan, with 212 Electoral College votes to the general's 21.  Lincoln received 2,218,388 votes while McClellan earned 1,812,807.  McClellan later served a single term as New Jersey's governor (1878–1881) and aided  Grover Cleveland's  victory during the  1884 Presidential Election .  On October 29, 1885, McClellan died in  Orange, NJ .  He was 58 years old.
                        - Census records are great source of information about Civil War soldiers.  However, as many genealogists know, a fire destroyed most of the  1890 Census records  in 1921.  Although most of the population schedules are gone, most of the  1890 Veterans Census  schedules are available at the National Archives and Records Administration.  The U.S. Pension Office requested this special enumeration to help Union veterans locate comrades to testify in pension claims and to determine the number of survivors and widows for pension legislation.
                        - Are you interested in learning more about the Civil War using data collected by the Census Bureau and other federal agencies?  Visit the  Home Page Archive  to learn more about  Abraham Lincoln  and the  Confederate surrender at Appomattox Court House .  You can also study the  Famous and Infamous Census Records  of some of the war's notable leaders.

On October 3, 1862, Superintendent of the Census Joseph C.G. Kennedy (third from right) accompanied President Abraham Lincoln to theAntietam battlefield near Sharpsburg, MD.  Lincoln hoped his visit would encourage General George McClellan, commander of theArmy of the Potomac, to attack the Confederate Army.Photo courtesy of the Library of Congress.View larger imageFrancis Amasa WalkerSuperintendent of the 1870 and 1880 Censuses, Francis Amasa Walker was a major with the 15th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment during the Battle of Antietam.Walker survived the battle, but 349 of the 606 men he took into the field were killed, wounded, or missing.Read more about Walker's military career in  Captured! The Civil War Experience of Superintendent of the Census Francis Amasa Walker.View larger imageDid You Know
Presidents Fillmore, Pierce, and Tyler commissioned Francis Bicknell Carpenter, of Homer, NY, to paint their official portraits. The White House commissioned Carpenter to paint a portrait of Abraham Lincoln in 1864.  Titled "First Reading of the Emancipation Proclamation by President Lincoln," the painting depicts Lincoln with his advisors and includes the 1860 Slave Distribution Map (bottom right corner) that the Census Bureau published in September 1861.
This Month in Census History
President George H. W. Bush nominated Barbara Everitt Bryant to become the Census Bureau's first female director on September 1, 1989.Bryant oversaw the nation's 21st census, which counted 248.7 million people.On January 19, 1993, the Census Bureau's History Staff conducted an oral history with Bryant in which she discussed her career in the fields of opinion research, demographics, and marketing.
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