Spent bullets tell a story at Antietam
SHARPSBURG, Md. -- Buried beneath a sun-dappled corn field in western Maryland lies detritus from the millions of rounds fired during the battle of Antietam, the single bloodiest day in American history.
For an archaeology team from the National Park Service that surveyed a part of the field with metal detectors recently, every spent round they unearth tells a story _ a story of the men who died there and of the ebb and flow of the two vast armies that tore at each other on Sept. 17, 1862.
"I think about who was out here, that's what I think about _ and the proximity to each other. This wasn't (soldiers) shooting at each other at 250 yards. This was 70 yards. You could see the faces of your enemy," archaeologist Bob Sonderman said. "It must have been terrifying."
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For an archaeology team from the National Park Service that surveyed a part of the field with metal detectors recently, every spent round they unearth tells a story _ a story of the men who died there and of the ebb and flow of the two vast armies that tore at each other on Sept. 17, 1862.
"I think about who was out here, that's what I think about _ and the proximity to each other. This wasn't (soldiers) shooting at each other at 250 yards. This was 70 yards. You could see the faces of your enemy," archaeologist Bob Sonderman said. "It must have been terrifying."