i just hear bob schieffer on face the nation comment that the wtc casualty figures represent the single largest loss of life in us history – even greater than the battle of antietam. without wanting to trivialize the loss of life at the wtc, this is simply not true. according to the national park service site, the current estimates of losses are slightly less that the antietam losses in the “morning battle”. for the union. the total losses for the daylong battle were 12,400 union dead and 10,300 confederate dead.
again, by bringing up this fact, i am not trying to trivialize or diminish the staggering loss of innocent life at the pentagon and wtc. i’m only highlighting something that i didn’t know, which is that a lot of people died on one day during the civil war and i had no idea.