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Antietam National Battlefield
Rating Details »
Categories: Landmarks & Historical Buildings, Parks
18100 Bloody LnSharpsburg, MD 21782
(301) 432-7331
- Good for Kids:
- Yes
6 reviews for Antietam National Battlefield
To those interested in the Civil War and/or American History, you must visit this battlefield. I visited at midweek/dinnertime, which was perfect, as the "people" traffic was light, so I could take my time (somewhat), driving the grounds, while having much individualized attention from the Ranger, whom conducted the Introduction Tour in the Visitors Center. There is a $4 fee (in general), which can be pain in the Center.
You must begin in the Visitors Center (internally), where you can sit on benches and look through the glass, at the fields, mountains, and the infamous cornfield, which lay claim to the bloodiest day of the Civil War.
If you allow yourself to visualize and be a part of what you are seeing, you can feel the history of the grounds. Do not rush through your visit, there is too much to see and take in.
I was on a schedule though, so the Ranger suggested that I visit the Observation Tower, where the trenches saw some of the highest casualties of the war. There are plaques upon plaques, detailing the skirmishes. The map at the Visitors Center was helpful with the landmarks.
I enjoyed this battlefield (that does not even sound right), for the fact that it was very peaceful, and not as affected by commercialism, as witnessed at neighboring battlefields.
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"23,000 soldiers were killed, wounded or missing after twelve hours of savage combat on September 17, 1862. 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."--So says the official website of Antietam
But if you didn't know the history of the Battle of Antietam, you wouldn't know it by looking at this historic site. It's so quiet, so calm, and so peaceful. It's a befitting tribute to the many soldiers that lost their lives here. My husband and I (and our dog Trixie) and two friends of ours drove here from DC to visit this site, which I hadn't been to in awhile.
If you think all there is to see here is a bunch of old ruins and buildings, you're wrong. There is so much to see and do here and so many outdoor activities you can do here. Among them, you can go biking, horseback riding, and hiking. We didn't bring our bikes, so we hiked it.
There are several trails totalling about 7 miles of hiking here. You can begin your tour by hiking the Antietam Memorial Trail, at the visitor's center. You can also hike the Bloody Lane Trail, The Cornfield Trail, the Union Advance Trail and you should save for last the Final Attack Trail. Of all the trails, from a historical perspective, the Final Attack Trail is my favorite.
As you hike the Final Attack Trail, let your imagination show you what happened here. Imagine a mile-wide flank of 8000 Union Soldiers. They advanced for a final attack in order to drive Robert E. Lee's Confederate troops out of Maryland. The battle lasted from 3pm to 5:30pm and in that time, there were 5 times as many casualties than at Burnside Bridge. It was the culmination of the bloodiest one-day battle in American history.
One of the newest exhibits is now located in the Pry House. It is now the Pry House Field Hospital Museum. It is being operated by the National Museum of Civil War Medicine. In it, you can see a re-creation of an operating theater, medical instruments, and how the wounded were cared for in the battlefield (it wasn't pretty, believe me). You can see how the Civil War also affected the local civilian population.
There are of course many monuments to see. One of my favorites is the McKinley Monument. As a sargeant, future President William McKinley bravely served the soldiers in his regiment. Other monuments include the New York Monument, and the Maryland Monument. What is interesting about the Maryland Monument is that it is the only monument dedicated to men who served on both sides. During the Civil War, Maryland was a slave- and border state and was politically divided. Maryland remained in the Union, but only through Federal intervention because otherwise Washington, DC would have been isolated from the rest of the Union.
So while you can tour the sites via car, I say leave it in the parking lot. Put on some sturdy hiking shoes, bring your sunscreen, and hike, pause and reflect. Be sure to allow all day.
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Upon this forge the nation was built.
I went here last week with my brother, who is a Civil war nutter and teaches it as a subject in an inner city High School in London.
It was a beautfiul fall day. The first place we went to was the Burnside Bridge, which hasn't changed since the 17th September 1862. 23,000 people died that day. The bloodiest in American history. There is something beautiful and moving to think that the epitome of what they were fighting for finally came true on November 4th 2008. One hundred and forty three years later the Civil War has finally ended, and we get another tall, skinny guy from Illinois as our President. The last one turned out to be pretty good, so I have high hopes for this one.
Burnside Bridge has been perfectly preserved, you can see the Confederate defensive positions, you can still make out bullet holes in the slate embankment, you can see an engraving from about 1865 and you can see how much the tree has grown providing shelter to the whole bridge. It is such a beautiful, bucolic sight you want to open a hamper and a bottle of pinot grigio and sit and relax and enjoy the countryside. But you can't do that, not here where almost a thousand people died trying to take a bridge. The Union commander, who was a teetotaller, had banned the ration of whiskey - and he ordered his men to take the bridge. " If we do," shouted one soldier " will ye give us our whiskey?"
" By God I will yes" said the commander. They took the bridge.
Next stop the McKinley memorial. President McKinley was assasinated at the turn of the 20th century and he was a cook in this battle and he ran food and coffee under enemy fire to the soldiers in their entrenched positions.
From there we went to to the visitors center, where they pointed us to the memorial to the Irish Brigade. No unit suffered more casualties during the Civil War than the Irish Brigade. They fought at Bloody lane - a sunken lane, where they were fighting again against entrenched positions. Thousands of them died here, and as you look at it and start to understand how the battle went, you start to understand how , during this war, the technology ( in this case the Meunier ball) started to outstrip the generals ability to build strategy and tactics. Charging an entrenched postion makes no sense when your opponent has a high accuracy gun. Even by WW1 they had not figured this out - or refused to acknowledge it if they had.
This is one hour and 15 minutes from the Beltway, and it is a truly beautiful and magnificent place.
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About an hour or so south of Gettysburg lies the next closest battlefield if you're following the Civil War Trail. It is very large and open, with some trees and a lot of fields and fences. Monuments from different groups and battalions abount on this battlefield. There is a walking tour and a map available at the office. 23,000 soldiers were killed, wounded or missing after twelve hours of savage combat on september 17th 1862. Kind of Sad.
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If you enjoyed Gettysburg then you will also enjoy Antietam (or Sharpsburg, as it was called by the Confederates). This is a pristine battlefield and luckily the developers have not found it yet. It is virtually unchanged and the scene of the bloodiest day in US history.
The carnage here was incredible and there were pieces of ground that changed hands three or four times. There is a tower that you can climb where you can see the entire battlefield. In one area, you can see where the Union and Confederate batteries faced each other and fired almost level with the ground - direct fire from cannons - this would have been devastating and yet, the soldiers did as ordered.
There was a corn field where not a single stalk remained standing after it was fought over, back and forth, by both sides. Once a year they put candles out around the battlefield and the sight is stunning and moving.
Here you will find Burnside's Bridge across a stream (Antietam Creek) - a site of an intense battle by troops trying to cross the bridge.
This is a big part of Civil War history and it, along with many other battlefields, should be seen by every citizen.
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not as built up and touristy as gettysburg, but a little more pristine. also some nice walking trails like down along antietam creek from burnside bridge. i love finding all the wild paw paw trees around there.
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