More than 150 years after the battle, these podcasters are digging up new Antietam stories

It would be easy to assume that all the historically significant details about the 1862 Battle of Antietam are well-known and frequently shared with the public by historians. After all, the battle is famous for being the single bloodiest day of combat in U.S. history and for repelling Gen. Robert E. Lee’s first campaign into Union territory.

The fighting and aftermath were well-documented by contemporaneous sources, and visitors to the Antietam National Battlefield have access to an elaborate museum and expert guidance for learning vast amounts of information known from that time.

But for two historians who have started the only podcast dedicated to digging deeply into the subject, the Battle of Antietam is a bottomless well of little-known or yet-to-be-discovered historical treasures.

“There were more than 100,000 soldiers at Antietam,” said Tom McMillan, one of the hosts of The Antietam and Beyond Podcast. “That’s 100,000 stories. We’ll never know all of those. You can never get to the end of the Civil War.”

McMillan and his cohost, John Banks, are confident the Battle of Antietam will always hold some secrets. But since launching their podcast in November, they have discovered a wealth of new scholarship that is rapidly revealing new stories.

“We’re in the digital age,” Banks said. “There’s so much more information that’s available at our fingertips nowadays that I think you’re going to continue to see perspectives of the big battles be enhanced as more and more of this information ends up online.”

When William Frassanito conducted research for his seminal 1978 classic, “Antietam: The Photographic Legacy of America’s Bloodiest Day,” Banks noted, he had to go to the Library of Congress in person to see archival images of the battle. Now any researcher can view them online.

The Internet also makes certain information available to the public that wouldn’t otherwise be accessible at all, such as an ever-growing body of Civil War letters and diaries transcribed and published online by William Griffing, a collector who searches high and low for unpublished Civil War documents.

But the Internet isn’t the only source of new information, the podcasters said. The ground itself still holds secrets for those who undertake the controversial practice of relic-hunting. In their only December episode, Banks and McMillan interviewed relic-hunter John Davidson and his retired mentor, Richard Clem, about the items they’ve found and their code of ethics.

“They provided some stories and perspectives you typically don’t hear about because relic-hunting, people typically frown upon it, particularly historians,” Banks said. “But when you have two ethical people weighing in, it carries some weight. They really care about what they unearth.”

(Note: Relic hunting and/or the use or possession of a metal detector is prohibited on Antietam National Battlefield property. Federal law prohibits the theft of artifacts, and if found guilty penalties can reach $250,000 and/or five years in jail as well as the confiscation of materials used.)

Reopened Antietam visitor center to show 'causes … consequences of the American Civil War'

'We're learning as we go'

When planning out episodes, McMillan said, he and Banks seek a broad range of guests — some of whom are experts who discuss famous aspects of the battle, and some of whom work more privately on lesser-known topics.

“It’s kind of a blank canvas,” he said. “It’s eclectic in its own way, and that was our goal. We’re viewing this as two friends doing this casually, learning as we go and seeing what the audience reaction is.”

That “learning as we go” comment was not false humility. While both men are published historians, neither is an expert on Antietam.

McMillan, who is based in Pittsburgh, has written two books focused on Gettysburg, one book about Flight 93, and new book set for release in June called “Our Flag Was Still There: The Star Spangled Banner that Survived the British and 200 Years — And the Armistead Family Who Saved It.”

Banks, based in Nashville, is a former editor at The Dallas Morning News. He has written a book with the word “Antietam” in the title, but it has a narrow focus on New England soldiers. His new book, “A Civil War Road Trip of a Lifetime,” will be released in July.

They have enough knowledge about the Battle of Antietam to engage in interesting exchanges with guests but are distant enough from the topic that they end up asking a lot of the same questions a general audience might have. That blend appears to be a winning formula for listeners.

As of mid-February, they had listeners in 47 states and more than a dozen countries. Eight episodes had been downloaded more than 4,000 times. McMillan said that's more than they had expected, and it’s gratifying to see their podcast is achieving one of their major goals: to spread Civil War education to a broader, younger audience.

“Podcasts may reach more people,” he said. “Young people aren’t going to go to the second Tuesday of every month to a Civil War roundtable. Those things are aging out, but maybe there are different ways to capture some of those folks.”

The Antietam and Beyond Podcast is available on all major podcast platforms and at the show’s website, https://antietambeyond.transistor.fm.

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Mail: Podcast explores the Battle of Antietam for a digital audience