Brooklyn 14th Regiment Reenactors

Battle of Antietam

This photograph shows Civil War reenactors representing Brooklyn's 14th Regiment, the legendary "Fighting Fourteenth," at a reenactment of the battle of Antietam in 1997. Civil War history continues to enthrall many Americans, who engage in these detailed and realistic events. Participants wear the clothes of Civil War soldiers, live in authentic camps, and experience something close to what it was like to be in the Civil War. This photograph depicts an officers' headquarters.

The battle of Antietam, outside of Sharpsburg, Maryland, on September 17, 1862, was the bloodiest single-day battle of the Civil War. Major General George McClellan's Army of the Potomac faced off against General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. More than 22,000 soldiers (Union and Confederate) died that day.

To read an article on Brooklyn's celebration of the Battle of Antietam in 1898, read the Brooklyn Daily Eagle article "Plans for Antietam Day" (September 15, 1898).

To see a photograph of President Abraham Lincoln and two Union army officers at the camp at Antietam, see Document 40.

For more about the Brooklyn 14th, see Documents 42, 54, 55, and 104.

Citation - Document 108
Photograph by Angela Sarro
Early September, 1997
Courtesy of Tom and Angela Sarro
www.brooklynpubliclibrary.org/civilwar