The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1907-09-19

supervision, not of commission, but
of the Quartermaster-General's Depart
ment
The Antietam Battlefield Commission,
! organized under the Act of August 30,
1880, passed out of existence in 1898,
after completing improvements which
/ cost SIS, OBJ. 1t was composed at first
of Col. John C. Stearns and Gen. Henry
Heth, Confederate States Army, and
was reorganized in 1894 with Major
George B. Davis, General Heth and
Gen. Ezra Ayres Carmen as its men,
bers. In 1895 Major George B. Davis
/ was succeeded by Major George w.
Davis. The most active member was
! General Carmen, now a member Of the
| Chlckamauga Battlefield Commission,
who fought at Antietam as colonel of
the Thirteenth New Jersey Regiment.
He was the tOpographer and historian
of the commission.
Work of improvement as well as of
repair has been carried steadily 70. ward
under the management of Charles W.
Adams, the superintendent of the field,
with the aid of an annual appropriation
by Congress of SO, COC and special APP
preparations for designated objects.
| MIR. Adams has replaced four wooden
bridges over culverts with fine stone
arch bridges and keeps the grass plots
IN the Enclosures and the green sward
along the roads as well cropped as
lawn. The drainage system is not un-
| important, as the roads follow the
natural contour of the country and
steep decivltes are numerous.
1t was not the general Government
which established Antietam National
Cemetery. This was the work OF an
association organized under the laws of
Maryland in Hagerstown in 1865 by A.
A. Biggs, of Sharpsburg; Thomas A.
Bouitt, of Hagerstown; Edward Shriver,
of Frederick, and c. C. Fulton, of Bal
tlmore, trustee named by the State.
The Legislature made an initial appro-
prlatlon of $1,000 and directed the ap-
portionment of the expenses OF the
| burial of the dead among the Northern
| States
The cemetery was inclosed with
stone fence, the lodge house built and
the fine soldiers monuments therein, AZ
feet high, costing $35, O0l, partially paid
for by the Cemetery Association, which
was composed of represt natives of all
the Northern States.
In 1877 the cemetery passed into the
possession of the United States. which
completed the work undertaken bv
volunteers and substituted for wooden
! markers at the head of each grave
marble head-stones.
The whole number of bodies buried in
this cemetery is 1, 734, of which l,Se5
are among 1.-The unknown dead. " It's
present superintendent is Capt. J. V.
Dalls, who has been a member of the
United States Corps Of Cemetery Sup
e-lntendents for SO years. He is one
OF 70 men employed by the Government
IN the care Of national cemeteries. The
soldiers monument in the cemetery
was unveiled in 1880
After the acquisition of the cemetery
the first step toward battlefield i'm
provement was made when Representa-
tive Louis E. McComas, of Maryland
(now Judge McComas, of the District
of Columbia bench, obtained in 1892.
an appropriation for making road from
the cemetery through the main street
OF Sharpsburg to the Norfolk and Yves
tern Railroad Station, mile distant.
The splendid cooperation since that
time of nation, States and individuals
has effected wonderful transforma-
ton in the vicinity of the old-fashioned
town Of Sharpsburg, arornd which the
battlefield lies
W. r. HAMILTON.