The Civil War was a time of victories and defeats, of happiness and suffering. Many people lost their lives in the battles of the Civil War but no battle can compare to the Battle of Anteitam. The Battle of Anteitam was the bloodiest day ever in any single battle. There were more than 23,000 casualties on both sides that day. The battle was said to have been an inconclusive strategic victory for the Union, but one has to ask oneself these questions. Which side really won the battle, was there a true victory, and what did each side gain from this battle? How did the battle start, what caused it to end, and what did this battle mean for the rest of the war? And how did the war affect the common people that were going about with their everyday business?.
The Civil War began with the South wanting out and the way they were going to get what they wanted was by demanding a war. This was a long hard war with fighting and surrendering rather than negotiating. Even though the people in New York knew there was a war going on they were blind about most of it. That was until they saw right in front of them what horrible things were happening in these battles. The photos the general public were viewing were photographs of all the dead corpses from the Battle of Anteitam. According to a reporter there he admitted that these photographs were morbidly captivating, and it bothered him that these scenes should have been repulsive but instead were terribly fascinating.(1) A reporter wrote an article on the photographs that were posted in the gallery. He wrote about the people of New York not really caring as long as they could go on with their daily lives just as before they felt unaffected. But how would they feel if instead of pictures of the corpses they actually had to see the real thing, instead of seeing names of dead soldiers an actual body was brought to see. Little did they know everything about the war was affecting their lives whether they chose to accept it or not was up to them.
