A Visit To Antietam
Today, September 17, 2021, marks the 159th anniversary of the Battle of Antietam, the bloodiest single day in American history. The Union Army of the Potomac commanded by George B. McClellan narrowly defeated the Army of Northern Virginia led by Robert E. Lee and ended the first Confederate invasion of the North. The costly and narrow victory gave President Abraham Lincoln the victory he was seeking before issuing the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation.
I commemorated the battle by visiting the National Park Service's Antietam website and following its virtual tour of the battle and by reading this book, "Antietam National Battlefield" (2019) by Kevin Pawlak, a Certified Battlefield Guide at Antietam. The book is part of the Images of America series of photographic histories of American places. The book succeeds because it stays within its own role. Ir does not offer a detailed history of the battle, something that has been done before in many books. Instead it offers a photographic history of Antietam over the years beginning with the battle and continuing to the present. The book offers a view of the changes Antietam has undergone and of the solemnity of the battle that took place on September 17, 1862.
The book includes four chapters of well-chosen and often unusual images together with Pawlak's commentary and text. The first chapter, "The Battle" offers a selection from the many photographs taken in the immediate aftermath of the battle. These photographs by Alexander Gardner and James Gibson, among others, first brought the carnage of Antietam home to Americans and they will do so to readers of this book as well. The second chapter offers a brief tour of the Antietam National Cemetery together with a short history of its formation. In 2012, on the 150th anniversary of the battle, the NPS conducted a ceremony at the Antietam National Cemetery which involved reading the names of each of the approximately 4000 Union and Confederate soldiers killed during the brutal fighting at Antietam.
The third chapter, "The Battlefield" shows how the site of the battle gradually developed into the Antietam National Battlefield. Unlike the situation at Gettysburg, there were no immediate efforts made to preserve the site. The book shows some of the iconic sites of the battle, for example Burnside's Bridge, the Sunken Road, and the Dunker Church, and shows how commemorative efforts proceeded over the years. This section includes a great deal of history, including the visits of Presidents Abraham Lincoln, Andrew Johnson, Franklin Roosevelt, John Kennedy, and Jimmy Carter to Antietam. It offers a good discussion of the history of the battlefield in a brief scope.
The final chapter offers a brief view of the extensive monumentation at Antietam. The chapter explores the beautiful statuary and shows how many states and veterans' groups gradually returned to Antietam so that future generations would remember the momentous events and sacrifices for freedom of the battle. The final few images of the book show the annual memorial illumination ceremony held every December and the 150th anniversary commemoration of the battle, held from September 14 -- 17, 2012.
I visited the Antietam Battlefield many times over the years and also attended the annual "Independence at Antietam" celebration at the Battlefield held around the Fourth of July. That celebration, I understand, has temporarily been put on hold. I haven't been to Antietam for a long time and wanted to remember the battle and my experiences at the Battlefield through reading this book. In our dfficult times, it is valuable to remember the heroic sacrifices that have been made to secure our freedom and the continuation of the American experiment in democracy.
