The South Riding RV Travels

28

April 9th - Antietam Museums

This was a fine day and given that the historic civil war battleground of Antietam is only a few miles from Shepherdstown, we decided to get out the bicycles and cycle there and around it. There is a National Parks visitor centre there where for $50 we purchased an annual pass which gives us free entry to all National parks for a year. It will pay for itself several times over. There was also a very informative talk by a Park Ranger who really had learnt his history. All the facts were at his fingertips.  

This is one of the largest monuments. It was interesting that few of the statues were of obvious people, most were of ordinary soldiers although each unit which was present seems to have its own monument.

The frightening thing about most of the statues is how young the soldiers looked to be, highlighting a fact that is as true today as it was then. .This was the bloodiest day in American history with over 13000 men killed or wounded.

The names of the units meant little to us, not being steeped in US history. Some of the officers' names were familiar often from other battles.

What was conspicuous was how neither side was bold enough to press the advantages gained which might have shortened the war.
Some of the youngest and bravest were the flag bearers, much as they were with British regiments. One of the associated boards highlighted that in one action the standard was born by eight different soldiers who were each killed or wounded in their turn.

The fences here are interesting, being of unusual construction. They are of split trunks and have no posts which need to be inserted in the ground. They could thus be built quickly and easily and their angled construction gave good cover.