Antietam

Last fall we went to Gettysburg. This year we went to Antietam. Antietam was one of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War. 23,000 soldiers were killed, wounded or missing after twelve hours of combat on September 17, 1862. The Battle of Antietam ended the Confederate Army's first Northern invasion and led to Abraham Lincoln's issuance of the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation.

My experience, and I've been to WWI battlegrounds in Europe as well as a few Civil War battlegrounds in United States, is that the battlefields are strangely peaceful, beautiful, and still, sometimes eerily so. Antietam was no exception.

We visited Antietam at approximately the same time of year as when the battle took place. We learned how some of the fighting took place in the corn fields that were fully grown and almost ready to harvest.

Beckett is walking away from Dunker Church. It was surrounded by a large group of Confederate soldiers.

Near the battlefield is Mumma Cemetery. The first person to be buried here died in 1797.

This path is known as the Bloody Lane Trail.

Antietam has a really cool observation tower.

This is how Beckett smiles now. Yeah, we've reached the goofy-fake-smile milestone.

We got out of the car and took a little walk when we reached the Lower Bridge, otherwise known as Burnside Bridge.

This is where General Burnside's troops fought. (Yes, he's the man to whom we owe the term sideburn. Do you want to see why?)

Battlegrounds like Gettysburg and Antietam are nice to visit with a young family like ours because most of the touring can take place in your car. You can drive to the sites and then get out and do a little walk when you want to. We walked over Burnside bridge.

It was a little rainy. Beckett liked using the umbrella.

We took some pictures by the wildflowers.

Here's the site of the final attack.

Our last stop was at the Antietam National Cemetery.