Other sites around Antietam

When my parents and I visited the park before, we rented this audio CD that you can play in your car as you drive through the battlefield. It can take well over two hours to do this, and we (thankfully) we didn't do it again on this visit. Don't get me wrong--it was all quite interesting, but I didn't really want to do it all again so soon. So we did the highlights portion instead, with my dad and I acting as guides for the rest of the group. As my dad explained it, there are about four must-see stops on the tour:

1) the Dunker Church (check--see post below).

2) The Cornfield, site of the bloodiest part of the battle, where troops fought to a stalemate for much of the morning. According to one soldier, the field "was so full of bodies that a man could have walked through it without stepping on the ground."



3) Bloody Lane (check--see picture of Kelsie below. The Ohio Monument--further down in this post--was also at this stop). Here about 5600 men died between 9:30 and 1:00. Amazing.

4) Burnside's Bridge, which General Burnside struggled to get his troops across, even though they greatly outnumbered the Confederates defending the position.


Burnside's bridge is actually quite a beautiful spot. In fact, there is beauty throughout the battlefield--lots of plants and trees, and wildlife, too. The first time we visited it, I saw a big snake sunning himself on the bridge. This time, all I managed was this pretty shot of a butterfly.



You could spend several days seeing everything there is to see around the battlefield. I am just going to post a few more shots to give you a taste.

Of course, there are monuments everywhere. It's cool to think that each one of them has a separate and no doubt interesting story (or collection of stories) behind it. Here's a shot of three in a row. I really like the ones with soldiers on top.



Many of the monuments are also tributes to soldiers from specific states. Here's one for Pennsylvania, which, by the way, was well-represented.



Just for Shannon and Heather, I got Kelsie to pose in front of a monument for the soldiers from Ohio. Go Buckeyes!



As I mentioned in a previous post, there are also monuments marking where six generals were killed or fatally wounded. These sites are marked by upside down cannons, as you can see below. This particular marker is for Brigadier General George E. Anderson, of the Confederate States of America. You can read about him and the other generals killed at Antietam here.



So that wraps it up for Antietam, although I will add this brief postscript. This past weekend, when my sister Tara, her husband, and their two kids visited, we were talking about my guests the weekend before, and I mentioned to my sister my initial mixed feeling about visiting for a second time so close to my first visit. "But it turned out to be a fun afternoon," I said. "So," she said, "does that mean you would be willing to go back again for a third time?" Long story short, guess where I spent a large part of my Labor Day? And again, it was a nice way to spend the afternoon. But seriously, the National Park Service should consider putting me on the payroll. Maybe I'll post some more pictures of that visit.