Antietam, April 23, 2013

We will be staying at the Harpers Ferry KOA for several days, and taking small trips to area sights. Today we traveled the 17 or so miles to Antietam, the site of  the place where 23,000 soldiers were killed, wounded or missing after twelve hours of savage combat on September 17, 1862. It was the bloodiest single-day battle in American history. The Battle of Antietam ended the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia's first invasion into the North and led to Abraham Lincoln's issuance of the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation. For these reasons, Antietam was crucial to the history of our country.

On a day that started out cloudy and cool, and ended up sunny and beautiful, we toured the Antietam battleground. How can you not be moved while standing at the spot where, at the end of this stage of the battle, hundreds of bodies of men lay in piles? This was the case at the Sunken Road,  a rough lane eroded over many years to wagon tracks. Confederates used it as an improvised trench, and it was the object of ferocious Union assaults. A number of union regiments attacked the Sunken Road in waves. It was finally taken, and troops were shocked to see a huge number of Confederate bodies piled atop each other.

When the photographer, Alexander Garner arrived on the scene, 2 days after the battle, the Sunken Road was still filled with bodies.

The Sunken Road today

The sad truth of this day in history, is that neither side won the battle, with roughly the same casualties. No advantage was won in the war. All those men died in vain.

We visited many such sites around the Antietam battle field, including Burnside's bridge, originally a passageway over Antietam Creek for farmers to take their produce and livestock to market in Sharpsburg.
Confederates held the Union force at bay, until the union soldiers finally decided to storm the bridge. It looks very much the same as it did 151 years ago, guarded by the sycamore tree that was there at the time.

Sycamore at top right was standing when the battle at Burnside's bridge took place.

We ended our tour at the national cemetery at Antietam.

The KOA where we are staying is clean and quiet. We're loving it. One weird thing: there is no Verizon data service here, although the phone signal is good.