Antietam National Battlefield

For a one-day battle there is so much history here and it covers a lot of land.  To explain a twelve hour stalemate would seem to be simple but so much happened in that time.  The National Battlefield does a magnificent job of explaining how the front shifted, reinforcements came at opportune times, and more importantly the impact of the family farms where the combat occurred.  Some things to know as you get here -, there are War Department Tablets placed alongside MD-34 leading from Boonsboro to the battlefield.  If coming from Boonsboro you will also pass Pry House Field Hospital Museum.  My recommendation is to tour the Battlefield first and double back to this – or even better plan two days.  Antietam National Cemetery is also on MD-34, bypass this for now as the cemetery is stop #11 (of 11 stops) on the driving tour.  The first place you head should be the visitor center.  There is a 27 minute movie that explains the battle in detail and the information in it will greatly help you as you go through the tour.  The movie starts on the hour and the half-hour so they pump you through pretty quickly. From the movie go downstairs to the small museum and then tour the grounds around the visitor center.  A walking path will lead you through this part of the tour. There are monuments (sometimes multiples) to all the units involved in the fighting at Antietam so if you try to photograph them all you will be here for a while.  The walking path will attract you to the domed Maryland Memorial. 

Maryland Memorial (with Dunkard Church in background)

Now is a good time to cross the street and take in Dunkard Church. 

Tablet and Dunkard Church

 From here resist the urge to continue walking and return to the visitor center and hit the gift shop because the rest of the tour is a stop-and-go driving tour.
The driving tour is well laid out to document the progression of the battle – if a stalemate can actually have progression.  At each of the numbered stops on the driving tour there is parking (usually ample) and plenty of tablets and memorials to the units. 

Some of the many unit memorials line this road of the tour.

 There are also foot paths at some of the stops where you can trace the steps of the soldiers.  If you stop at every tour stop and take its walking trail plan on a full day at the battlefield and possibly touring the cemetery on day two.  Between tour stops 8 and 9 is an observation tower that is 85 feet tall and the staircase is fairly narrow though the platforms at each level allow for the slow traffic to step aside and allow passing traffic.

Observation Tower

The tour gets you back on MD-34 for tour stop 11, which is the National Cemetery.  If you don’t have a lot of time left safe this for day two.  For me the cemetery was a very reflective place. 

There are row upon row of white markers, organized by state, for Union soldiers who were killed in action.  Actually Section 3 is for “Unknown Soldiers” and does not specify U.S.  While the cemetery was closed to interments in 1953 an exception was made for one politician and also for USN Fireman Patrick Howard Roy who was killed in the attack on USS Cole.

After the cemetery make a stop at the Pry House.  This museum is sponsored by the National Museum of Civil War Medicine.  The house served as General McClellan’s headquarters for the battle but maintains a focus on period medical care.  This is very primitive stuff compared to today’s battlefield medicine!