---

The smell of rotting death

And a thick, putrid fog

Fill this murderous air

With an enveloping aura of despair -

And also victory.

Somewhere among these corpses,

And the blood-stained grass,

Lies triumph and honor.

We demonstrated today

The strength of Northern will.

Let the rebel bodies rot.

Behold this fearful wasteland:

On both sides, our brothers lie,

Dead amidst a day so serene.

Scavenging eagles fly.

A suffering, legless soldier

Squirms about in the mud.

The Antietam Creek flows peacefully,

Running red with Union blood.

A tangle of arms and legs,

Mangled faces and missing heads -

This is the price we've come to pay

For a nation divided, in disarray.

Cannons silent; the smoke clears.

The ground is wet with a mother's tears.

Her sons lay dead amongst enemy and kin,

In this field where hope runs thin.

Echoes of cries pierce the night.

Whispers tell tales of relentless fight.

In these fields, where sorrow sows,

Seeds of a fractured future grow.