The Cost of Battle

The Cost of Battle. This Hollowed Ground. While the photography on this panel shows soldiers who were killed during the Battle of Antietam, similar scenes covered the landscape around you after the Third Battle of Winchester., The human toll was staggering. Third Winchester was the costliest battle fought in the Valley. The Union army lost 5,018 men, including 697 killed, 3,983 wounded and 338 missing or captured. The Confederates lost 3,611 men, including 226 killed, 1,567 wounded, and 1,818 missing or captured., And some of the fallen are still here , bodies that were never found, or post-battle burial that could not be located when the dead were later reinterred., This is hallowed ground , hallowed by the blood of Americans, north and south, who fought and died on September 19, 1864. This park is a memorial to them. As you walk this ground, remember their sacrifice., (captions) , Dead on the Antietam Battlefield. Image courtesy Library of Congress, "Look into the faces of a hundred men killed in battle, and you will find...a look of surprise and fear." - Northern sketch artist James Taylor, describing the dead on the battlefield after Third WInchester