Antietam and South Mountain

For the Sunday we were looking for something that was at least in the right direction when Jeremy would have to drive the nearly 5 hours back to New York state. So Antietam was an obvious choice. And only 20 minutes to drive from our appartment.

It's a nice drive coming through Shepardstown as well. I really love these old towns with the wooden houses that you see in this part of the country. Sharpsburg is like this as well. It always strikes me what a difference there is between Sharpsburg and Gettysburg as Sharpsburg is not touristy at all. There is hardly even a place to get lunch there. And no or nearly no souvenir shops at all.

They were renovating the visitor centre at the battlefield and had built a

temporary one. To our surprise you now have to pay for the battlefield. This is the first time ever I have come across it and I do wonder what would have happened if we did not as nobody checked us and some of the battlefield is on open roads.

Antietam was the bloodiest one day battle in the war and pretty compact. Not small enough to do on foot but you can easily do it in one day with a car.

This is another one were I always stop to take some photos of the cannon.

It was a lovely sunny day and not too hot to hit all the spots and look over the terrain and the monuments along Jackson's line and the early morning fighting. 

We then hit the most impressive part of this field, the sunken lane. Some of the heaviest fighting of the whole war took place here. You don't really want to imagine that after the battle the whole lane was filled with the bodies of mostly very young soldiers who had given their lives for what they believed in. 

Near here is also my favorite spot on this battlefield. I could have sworn that on earlier visits it was indicated or that there was at least a path leading here but this time there was nothing. I had to find it from memories. The guys stayed down in the sunken road as I started to climb the low hill behind it hoping that I had remembered it right.

I got to the top of the field that had once held corn but was empty now. [so I did not have to be extra careful not to trample anything] And there were the cannon and the marker. I have a painting over my desk that depicts this scene. This is where when the fighting grew so desperate, Longstreet ordered his own staff officers to man the cannon and hold back the Union army. He himself was slightly incapacitated with a chafed foot that made it impossible to wear boots. He commanded that day on carpet slippers. And according to some of that staff that did not do wonders for his mood.

I stood there for a while taking in the scene of the sunken road and imagining what that day must have been like. And yes I am going to bring it up again. What if it had been Jackson? Would this place be so poorly indicated and hard to reach? 

I eventually made my way back down and the guys went up the observation tower. As it was getting a lot warmer now I skipped it this time and just sat for a while amongst the many monuments at the base of the tower.

After that last parts Burnside's bridge and the advance of A.P.Hill's light brigade we left the battlefield and searched for a place to have a late lunch. We found something on google in Boonsboro and that was a surprisingly nice little town. We found an old fashioned family run diner and had a great lunch.

Afterwards we said goodbye to Jeremy. The lady in the diner had told us about the Washington monument just out of town that was too good to miss. Locals always point you to the best spot so we followed her directions to the momument. It was another climb in the heat but indeed very well worth it. It gave a very lovely view of the surrounding valleys. And at the carpark there was a little visitor centre. Low and behold we were on the South Mountain battlefield. A place on my list as well. A very kind ranger gave us details of the other places there where there was something to see. The fight for the gaps in the South Mountain took place a few days before Antietam. And one of the places here that I had not visited before. I really wanted to see the monument for Samuel Garland.

Driving through these gaps on the smaller roads gives you a better idea of the difficult terrain the armies had to pass through. I do not envy the footsoldiers at all trudging up and down in bad [and sometimes no] shoes. In all kinds of weather. 

It was another well spent day with visiting favorite places and finding several new ones.