One casualty per second!

That comment made during a ranger presentation at Antietam National Battlefield really emphasized the carnage which occurred in this battle.

This was the site of the bloodiest single-day battle in American history - a distinction it holds to this day. Over 23,000 men on both sides were killed, wounded or missing in under 12 hours.

The battlefield stretches for over seven miles, north to south, with over 100,000 combatants facing each other. What a far cry this is from my visit to the site of the battle of New Orleans, a few acres where under 12,000 men met.

Though often looked at as a draw, the result of the battle was the retreat of southern forces from Maryland, which was enough of a victory for Abraham Lincoln to issue the Emancipation Proclamation.