A piece of history has been unearthed at Antietam National Battlefield in Washington County -- the remains of a soldier who died in that Civil War battle, almost 150 years ago. Archeologists are now working to find out as much as they can about that soldier, and give him a proper burial.The Battle of Antietam on September 17th, 1862 remains the bloodiest day in American history. On that one day, more than 23,000 men were killed, wounded or captured. The bodies of hundreds of soldiers were buried on the field. Years later, the Army moved many of the Union dead to the Antietam National Cemetery. Confederates were moved to cemeteries in Hagerstown or Frederick.
But some bodies were missed. And this past October, a man walking through the battlefield came upon what he thought were human remains, and he was right. Part of what he found was a human tooth. 'Actually it was an impacted wisdom tooth was what it was,' said John Howard, superintendent of the Antietam National Battlefield.
The National Park Service called in a team of archeologists to search the site, and they found more artifacts including the soldier's belt buckle, and several buttons from his jacket. 'Each one was spaced exactly the same distance apart so you know that when they laid him to rest his coat was buttoned and it laid directly down his chest,' Howard said.
The buttons also revealed the man was a Union soldier from New York State. Scientists at the Smithsonian studied the tooth, and determined that he was between 18 and 21 years old, but it's unlikely that they'll ever know exactly who he was. 'For example if there was only one New York Soldier left unknown, well then it would work but there are more than that,' Howard said. 'There's probably close to 60 or 70 that we know of just from very fast research.'
Regardless, the remains are being treated with the utmost respect. 'He was somebody's brother, perhaps somebody's father, definitely somebody's son. And that's the way we treat these remains,' Howard said.
The last discovery like this was in 1989, when the remains of four Union soldiers were found. The man who found the remains this time left the battlefield without telling anyone who he was. Officials with the park service are hoping he'll come forward, because they would like to thank him.