We started our day with breakfast at the hotel. They had a lot of options including the option to make your own blueberry waffles. I opted for a bagel and cream cheese with some melon. We were very pleased with the selection of foods. We ate at the breakfast area by the pool, which was nice.
All week the forecast was saying that it was going to rain on Thursday and I kept praying that the weather forecasters were wrong, but when we walked out the doors to the car it was overcast with a tiny drizzle. NO! The one day I wanted it to be sunny and beautiful, it was cold, gray, and dreary. Melinda and I were quite proud of the fact that we didn't need directions to get to the battlefield that we remembered from the last time.
There were a lot more people there than I was expecting. There really wasn't a lot of activities planned for the anniversary. There was a ranger walk through the cornfield, which it seemed most people had come for. Our plans were to tour the battlefield on our own. Though the large groups of people made it difficult to photograph a few of the monuments. Though we started in the gift shop. I got a Union kepi, which I've been wanting for a while. I have a Confederate one, but I wanted a Union one, and got a Cavalry insignia pin for it. YAY! Melinda bought an Abe Lincoln hat.
Instead of staying to watch the movie and go through the small museum of artifacts we headed out to start the tour. It is easiest to walk to the Dunker Church and Maryland State Monument from the visitor center. We were able to get some photos before a group of other people showed up. Luckily by this point it had stopped misting. Though it was still cool and overcast. The battlefield takes on an even eerie sort of feel under the gray, overcast sky.
After we had gotten the photos we wanted of the Dunker Church and Maryland Monument we headed back to the car to begin the driving tour. YAY!
Maryland State Monument
Dunker Church
Normally when we tour a battlefield we put on a CD of Civil War music, which is mostly songs from movies like "Gettysburg" and "Glory." When we stopped at the one intersection near a group of monuments to take a photo of them the Ranger guided group was there and one of the Rangers yelled at Melinda that the music was too loud. It wasn't even loud. That upset Melinda and ranted it about it for the next ten minutes. While she was ranting she misread the map and directed us down the Cornfield road which are tour stops 3 and 4. This was ok. I was really excited to see the corn in the cornfield as it would have looked the day of the battle. Our previous trips had been during the summer when the corn wasn't very high so it was hard to really to picture what it would have been like on the day of the battle. Now I could see what it would have been like. It was amazing. You couldn't see anything in front. In the summer you could see the New York State Monument near the Visitor center and Dunker church, but the view was totally obstructed by the corn. When the battle was over there wasn't a single stalk of corn that remained standing.
We continued on the tour towards the next stop, the West Woods. When we stopped to get some photos of the Philadelphia brigade monument it started to rain again. According to the maps we had there were supposed to be several smaller monuments nearby, but we were only able to find one. Since it was starting to rain a bit harder, we decided to go back to the car.
Next stop on the tour was the Mumma Farm and Cemetery. The only deliberate destruction of property during the battle was the burning of the Mumma Farm by Confederate soldiers. They were ordered to burn the properties so that they couldn't be used by Union sharpshooters. The farm was rebuilt in 1863. We didn't spend much time here, but instead continued on towards what is probably my favorite part of the battlefield, the Sunken Road.
The Sunken Road or "Bloody Lane" was an old farm road. There are parts of the road that are deeper than others. The Confederates had taken position along this road until about noon when they fell back to the Piper farm. Melinda dropped me off at the end of the Sunken Road then went to the parking area. I walked back to photograph two monuments. Walking back to towards the road I tried to imagine what it would have been like to be the Union soldiers approaching the road. There are parts walking towards the road where the entire Union disappeared from the Confederate's view, reappearing when they were dangerously close. There was very few other people at the Sunken Road and it was eerily quiet. Melinda joined me and collected some dirt. It was kind of funny while Melinda was taking a picture of the front of the Ohio monument. I was taking some other photos and all of a sudden I heard her say, "I broke it." I looked over and saw that she had knocked the top rail off the fence. It wasn't broken, but it just kind of funny. After that we headed to the Observation Tower at the end of the Sunken Road.
The Sunken Road
I've tried to go up the Observation Tower on our previous trips, but I always chicken out about half way up. I didn't even try this time. Melinda instead hiked up to the top to get photos of the battlefield while I took photos of the Irish Brigade monument and of the observation tower from the ground. It seemed that she was up at the top for a really long time. I was worried that she would slip on the stairs since the grass was wet from the rain, but she made it down without a problem. After that she wanted to rest a bit in the car before continuing on.
The Observation Tower and Irish Brigade Monument
The next stop on the tour is Burnside Bridge and the Georgian's Overlook. In the past we usually go to Burnside Bridge, but this time we decided to split up since Melinda was curious about what the Georgian Overlook was. It was decided that I would go to Burnside Bridge and she would go to the Georgian Overlook. We made sure that we each had our cell phone and a bottle of water before we split up. When I first went down to Burnside Bridge there was just a few other people, but they eventually left. I stood by the side the bridge watching the Antietam Creek flow past as I waited for Melinda. It seemed to be taking a really long time and I did get a bit worried. I tried her cell phone, but even though she had taken it with her, she didn't turn it on. So I waited and tried not to worry. Eventually I seen her walking down the steep sidewalk leading to the bridge at the same time that a large tour group was arriving. We took some photos from the Union side and tried to stay out of the way of the tour group. We deciced to go back to the car to finish the tour since we were starting to get hungry. Melinda waited in the car while I went to photograph the William McKinley monument.
Burnside Bridge
William McKinley monument
The final attack tour stop was next. This was where after Burnside's troops after having taken the bridge meet Confederate General A.P. Hill's troops he had just arrived from Harper's Ferry. The Confederates then drove Burnside back to Antietam Creek. We photographed the monuments we could and continued on our way.
The last stop of the tour is Antietam National Cemetery. The cemetery was created after the battle. There are a total of 4,776 Union soldiers buried here along dead from four other wars. At the center of Antietam National Cemetery is my favorite monument, "Old Simon." The cemetery is arranged with Old Simon at the middle and the graves around it in a semi-circle and grouped by state. It is a peaceful and sad place. It's so sad to see the number of unknown dead. There seemed to be a large tour group forming so we didn't want to stay too long. By now we were really hungry.
Antietam National Cemetery
"Old Simon"
One of the unknown Michigan dead
Before going back to Hagerstown for lunch though we wanted to go back to the visitor center to purchase another Lincoln hat and to see if I could get some photos of the NY State monument since there had been a large group there earlier in the day. I went to go take pictures while Melinda went to purchase another Lincoln hat.
New York State Monument
Since we had missed tour stop #2 earlier in the day we decided to go back and complete that portion of the tour. This was where the Union army had begun their attack on September 17, 1862. This is also where the Clara Barton monument is located. We noticed that they were doing some construction at the Poffenberger farm. We then went down Mansfield Ave back towards the Cornfield. When we got to the Cornfield I wanted to get a few photos of us standing next to the corn to show how tall it was. The photos are pretty incredible because Melinda and I are both about 5'8" and the corn towered over us. I can't imagine charging through that while being fired upon by the enemy. Even more incredible was the fact that not a single stalk of corn remained at the end of the battle.
"The Cornfield"
By this time we were really hungry and we decided to head back towards Hagerstown for lunch at the Cracker Barrel. Every time we've come to Antietam we always finish our tour of the battlefield with lunch at the Cracker Barrel. The funny thing was that we saw quite a few other people from the battlefield there as well. Lunch was really good. I had turkey, mashed potatoes, carrots, and mac and cheese. I really didn't care for the mashed potatoes though. Melinda had chicken and dumplings which is her favorite item at the Cracker Barrel. She was a happy camper.
After lunch we decided to go explore the local outlet mall. There wasn't anything too great. Though we did buy a few items. It wasn't really any different then the outlet mall back home.
We were quite tired and cold and decided to go back to the hotel. We spend the rest of the afternoon in the room just relaxing. I downloaded the photos and even scrapped a page while Melinda watched DVDs on the other laptop.
We were enjoying just relaxing the room so much that we didn't even want to go out for dinner. We opted to order a pizza from Dominos and have them deliver it. It was OK. It was just nice not having to go out. It felt nice to spend the afternoon and evening relaxing. I think its important during any trip to have some time to just relax.
The next day we were going to head back up to Gettysburg.
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