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Wednesday, September 17, 2014

BATTLE OF ANTIETAM CREEK

BLOODIEST DAY OF THE CIVIL WAR 

Sharpsburg, Maryland (JFK+50) The bloodiest day of the War Between the States occurred 152 years ago today, September 17, 1862, at Antietam Creek here in Sharpsburg.

The fighting began at the Dunker Church along Hagerstown Pike and then spread into a huge cornfield.  By mid-day, the battle continued to an area separating two farm fields called Bloody Lane.

The fighting came to a close at Burnside's Bridge across Antietam Creek, and the following day General Robert E. Lee led his forces back into Virginia.

September 17, 1862 was christened "the bloodiest day in American history." While most military historians characterize the Battle of Antietam as a draw, President Abraham Lincoln claimed a Union victory and five days later issued his preliminary Emancipation Proclamation.



Battle of Antietam
Army of the Potomac
Kurz & Allison (1888)

CONSTITUTION ADOPTED 227 YEARS AGO 

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (JFK+50) The United States Constitution was adopted and signed by 39 delegates of the Constitutional Convention 227 years ago today, September 17, 1787, at the State House here in Philadelphia.

55 delegates from 12 of the 13 states attended the Convention from May through September 1787.

Sessions were closed to the press and the public and when the delegates became deadlocked on the specifics of representation of the people in the government, they were able to compromise and settle on a two house legislature with the House of Representatives determined by population and the Senate determined by equal representation.

The delegates agreed to abandon the principle of a federation of states and put in place a centralized federal system.  It would be a novel form of federalism, however, with shared power and dual lawmaking by both state and national governments.

Unlike the Articles of Confederation which it replaced, the Constitution provides for an executive of the federal government, the President of the United States.

The Constitution, consisting of a preamble and seven articles, was ratified on June 21, 1788 and went into effect on March 4, 1789.

The Preamble

"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."



Signing of the US Constitution
Painting by Howard Chandler Christy

SOURCE

Advanced Placement U.S. History Lecture Notes, by John White, Carter High School, Knoxville, Tennessee, 2009.

HONEY FITZ CELEBRATES BOSTON'S BIRTHDAY

Boston, Massachusetts (JFK+50) John F. "Honey Fitz" Fitzgerald, former Mayor of the city of Boston, helped celebrate the city's birthday sixty-eight years ago today, September 17, 1946. on radio station WDHO.

September 17 is widely accepted as the birthday of the city of Boston when a court of Puritans ordered the settlement to be named after the town in Lincolnshire from which many Puritans originated.



John F. Fitzgerald
(1863-1950)
Bain News Service


MARY AGNES GARGAN DIES

West Roxbury, Massachusetts (JFK+50) Mary Agnes Fitzgerald Gargan died seventy-eight years ago today, September 17, 1936, of chronic hypertensive cardio disease at her home at 22 May Street here in West Roxbury.

The daughter of John "Honey Fitz" and Mary Fitzgerald, and sister of Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, was survived by her husband, Joseph and children John Jr., Mary Jo, and Ann.



Joseph P. Kennedy with Ann Gargin