The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1903-09-30
Oyerelaboration Of Our Batueneid..

To THE EpIroR OF The SUS--Sir: New
Jersey has recently dedicated a monument
at Sharpsburg to its soldiers who served on
the field OF Antietam. In July, 1893. when
the New York State monument was dedicated
at Gettysburg and when that historic field
already was covered by monuments and cut
up by avenues until the place was hardly
reco gnizable by old soldiers. Antietam. ex-
oept for few trifing changes, was much
a the two armies had left in it 1852
The returning old soldier observed first
that the fences had been restored. the rents
In the bunker church had been mended, and
the stone figure of q soldier In the Govern
msnt cemetery looked over the treetops to
the left, a. he came in from HagerstOwn.
Nothing could be more satisfactory than the
familiar aspect Of tho old field at Antietam
after the forest OF monuments and markers
at Gettysburg.
At that time besides the fine cemetery
with its macadamized section Of the Shepards-
town road. extending through the village
to tho station. tho Government had erected
black wooden tablets. or markers, with white
lettering, indicating The location OF the differ
emit commands These changes were In tho
direction Of utility aud In excellent taste.
The wave OF sculpture had broken on the
hills Of Gettysburg, but Antietam w TO that
time had boon mercifully spared. The
bloody lane was the same Obscure farm
road shut "a from the Hase Sr;aSs pike Ike
by pf 81 %nan se road Ua from tas ass
had been relaid In its original form. and In
the masonry Of the south approach was q
as. % Sss1s the rss%sn Ct ws s
in the assault on 1t. ,,,
The same farmhoYses and barns we're hid
" IN as sSs
We're We're so Wonderfully covered from the battle
and 90 strangely convenient for hospitals
ohsnss H. q hrse tsSerns ad the BUSINESS
| Of one and envied Gettysburg making money
out OF It's past.
sort t to ind oneself awake and alive in the
very atmosphere Of 1882. as though no timo
had elapsed. bit only z change Of seasons I. j..
strange ns halluonation. Not FAR from tho
| bunker church, ground had been broken
for some State monument. but the old
and regimental monuments sculptured in
| the marble yards OF country cemeteries,
and not road Or avenue had been laid put
s across the battlefield or a farmhouse dis
old brick house overlooking the villa &c square.
H ns ms ssaS Sccnpsd RI ns s%
| town. woman was baking pies in the
kitchen, and scarcely 4 stick of furniture
had been changed since the military occu-
II was possible to g out to - M idle ,xa
is way tH' alongside wood and filsd is
| buckets from q stream and galoped into po-
stion in the dusk Of the evening before .. the !,
was like frefies flashing in the grass,
At Gettysburg that part Of the field where
the troops Of the First and Eleventh corps
battle Of the first day is cut UP by inter
| seeting avenues so as to be understandable
| by returned, soldier; and then the nonu-
ceptions, are such sad preparations that
| they can only be enjoyed by remote geners-
tions when they shall have been 1 meIcifuy
u Is safe TO say that within a radius Of hve
miles from the village Of Gettysburg there Is
like expanse on the face of the earth
Fine as some Of The bes, monuments :. nuI,s IT,. are
hs hm the Em
metsburg road below the cemetery on the
| day Of the battle, whose fiat bars were rddled
with rife balls like the perforations in the
The greatest service that the Ge,tIysbur 8
! commission has done TO the battlefield seems
shd =.
in quarter circle in front OF the old ceme-
terry gate.
and 30 American Gettysbars has been sn
| elaborated until its topography Ia lost and
| its atmosphere Ia no longer Its own. Farm
and taken to hauling visitors over the labyrinth
| OF new avenues which make It impossible
for an old soldier to find his own way. A
ing and fleeing the perpetual tourist. The
field at Gettysburg has been obscnred and
made grotesaue, and the people have be-
a system that has been extended TO some
Western fields and that now threatens the
peace and quiet Of Antietam.,
At Waterloo great stone lion on a huge
mound Of earth overlooks the field OF battle,
which seems far simpler and more dignfied
than forest Of monuments turning a famous
| battlefield into huge graveyard.
NEW YORK, Sept ~. W II. SHELTON