Antietam

While visiting in Washington, D.C., I mentioned to some friends my interest in the

Civil War.  As it happened one of the friends, Michele, had just won a guided tour of the

Antietam battlefield in a church raffle.  Michele’s husband was unable to make the trip,

so she invited me to bring Stevie and accompany her and her son, Andrew, on the tour.

The two boys were the same age, eight.

The tour was conducted by Dennis Frye, well-known Civil War historian and former

Chief Historian of the Harpers Ferry National Historical Park.  Antietam is one of my

favorite battlefields because the military movements are relatively easy to understand,

and the walking tour is not taxing.  The battle at Antietam is well-known as the bloodiest

single day in American history; over 23,000 American boys were killed or wounded on 

September 17, 1862, ten times the number killed on September 11, 2001.

Dennis is a wonderful guide; he quickly organized the boys into Yankee General

McClellan (Stevie), and Confederate General Robert E. Lee (Andrew), and I bought

blue and gray kepis for them.  Dennis positioned the boys in explaining the troop

movements and taught us two important concepts of war in 1862: the high ground and

the terrain. His explanations and questions kept the boys interested and involved all day.

We all walked the same half-mile advance the Yankees made through the infamous

Cornfield that was so deadly from Confederate fire.  On this march, Andrew found a

broken piece of glazed pottery that Dennis thought might be from the period, and

Stevie picked up a rock, tinged with red.  Stevie asked if the red was a blood stain, and

Dennis explained the red  resulted from iron pyrite, but suggested this native rock could

be a symbol of this bloodiest day in American history. Stevie still has this rock.

Dennis walked with us over a little hill, and showed us how the Union boys did not

know what they faced until they came over a little rise, 70 yards from the breastwork of a

stacked rail fence, from behind which the rebels opened fire from the sunken road, later

named Bloody Lane.  The third phase of the battle occurred at the Burnside Bridge,

which crosses Antietam Creek. Michele photographed the boys at the historical “Living

Tree,” as Dennis called the large sycamore still standing next to the bridge; this tree is

prominent in  paintings made immediately after the battle.

On Monday, Mrs. Smith asked her third grade class to tell about the weekend; Stevie

raised his hand and told the class he went to Antietam Battlefield with his grandpa.

Epilogue: About two years later, after a long correspondence gap, I heard from

Michele who mentioned that she often thinks about our tour of Antietam and that  “It is

probably one of the best days that I had as a parent with Andrew.”  Wow!