Game Inside

Recker, Stephen. Rare Images of Antietam: And the Photographers Who Took Them . Another Software Miracle, LLC, Sharpsburg, MD. Index, bibliography, maps, b/w and color photos. 152 pages, 147 pages of text. ISBN 9780971548619, $29.95. September 17, 1862 is a date that will likely stand forever as the most bloody day in American history. Approximately 23,000 Americans would be killed, wounded, or missing. Their memory stills haunts the Antietam National Battlefield today. While the very early photos by Alexander Gardner have been well documented by William Frassanito in Antietam: The Photographic Legacy of Americas Bloodiest Day as Recker admirably shows this was not the end of Antietam photography but rather the beginning. Mr. Recker has put forth a monumental goal for himself: "...marks the beginning of my attempt to document, organize, and interpret, in a comprehensive fashion, the historical photographs associated with the Maryland Campaign of 1862, taken after Alexander Gardner...

Gindlesperger, James and Suzanne Gindlesperger. So You Think You Know Antietam? The Stories Behind Americas Bloodiest Day . John F. Blair Publisher, Winston-Salem, NC. 2012. 234 pages, 199 pages of text. Color and B/W photos, maps, index, four appendices. ISBN 9780895875792, $19.95. Coming off the success of their prior book with a similar name except dealing with Gettysburg (see my review here) it was only natural for husband and wife authors James and Suzanne Gindlesperger to create another highly readable and visually appealing book dealing with another great Civil War battle. This time around they have chosen to tackle Antietam. On that September day in 1862 approximately 23,000 men were casualties with over 3,500 paying the ultimate price. Now the well preserved battlefield stands as a monument to these men no matter which side they were fighting for or what their reason for fighting was. Part history, part travel log, part pictorial reference this is a book tha...