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Wounded soldiers were strewn about the battlefield, crying out for water and medical attention. Their shrieks and moans increased as the days wore on. A full week would pass before all of the Union injured were removed from the battlefield and transported to hospitals-grisly proof of the Army's appalling inefficiency in dealing with casualties.

Miraculously, the outlook for the wounded changed just two weeks later. On September 17, 1862, Union and Confederate forces clashed again at Sharpsburg, Maryland, in the Battle of Antietam. After 12 hours of fighting, some 23,000 men (over 12,000 Union soldiers and more than 10,000 Confederates) had fallen-the bloodiest single day of combat in American history. In stark contrast to the delays experienced at Manassas, every injured Union soldier was evacuated from the Antietam battlefield within 24 hours.

The author of this dramatic turnaround was a lanky, bearded, Donald Sutherland look-alike-Maj.

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