Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1898-05-11
ANTleTAM battlefield.
What Has Been Done in the Way Of Erect
ing Memorials.

OF the five battlefieldS of the war
which have been set apart for memo
rial urposes-Antietam, Gettysburg
Chickamauga, Shiloh, and Vicksburg
the first named has certain interest
ing features not possessed by ALL The
increase Of population and the march
of material progress have not disturb
ed Antietam. 1t is in the rugged and
picturesque mountain country Of west
ern Maryland, which today looks about
as it did in 1862 The farmhouses are
scattered at about the same intervals
of space as on the day Of the battle.
Not mile of pike" exists today which
was not here then. Burrside's bridge
over Antietam creek is the same struc-
ture that saw the terrible slaughter
thirty-siX years ago. and the bunker
church. around which the sharpest of
the conflict ragged. is still the place of
worship of the little society of German
brethren.
This makes the battle maps clearly
ineligible. besides giving the visitor
the charm of seeing real things INSTEAD
of being obliged to interpret all objects
as standing where something else
stood or occupying the space where
soandso could once have been OBJ
served For the historical student
therefore, it is fortunate that the re has
been no rush of population to the poor
farm country of western Maryland
Even the little gristmills which abound
in this region of quick MOI lntain
streams are generally deserted and
falling to pieces. Fate has decreed that
Antietam shall remain as on the one
= l., lN L.
in all the world. In only a single re-
spect has the face of nature chang ad
and that the battlefield commission
purpose to set back as soon as they
have the means. The woods have been
considerably cut off. and many acl,As
are now cleared that We're well forestkai
in 1862. But the farmers are raising
the same crops. and everything in ma
ture looks just as it did then.
Antietam is sufficiently near WASH
ington to make it a convenient place
for leisurely tourists to visit. keedys-
vile, on the Hagerstown branch of the
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. about
sixty miles northwest of Washington,
is the most accessible station, al
though the Norfolk and Western Road
comes nearer the field at station
formerly called Sharpsburg. but now
named Antietam. Between the villages
of Sharpsburg and keedysville lies the
battlefield. Sharpsburg is on the PotO-
mac ten miles north of Harper's Ferry,
the village being about mile from the
river: while Keedeysville is five mile ;
inland to the north. The country is
about as mountainous as the southern
part of New Hampshire or the most
rugged regions of Vermont. Gapland,
where the war correspondents memo
rial has been erected, is only few
miles away, and along the same Ha-
gerstown branch: while the clustered
spires of Frederick, made famous by
Whittier's verses, and the thriving city
of Hagerstown are distant but few
hours drive. Gettysburg is perhaps
forty miles to the northeast. 1t should
be recalled thta "Antietam" is not the
name of a town, but of small mountain
creek which empties into the Potomac
above Harper's Ferry. The neighbor
| ing town is Sharpsburg, by which
| Southern historians designate the bat
| tie. But it was along the stream, par
| tcularly at the Burnside bridge, that
some of the sharpest fighting occurred.
| battlefield memorials at Antietam do not