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One of the advantages of the present media-driven furor to remove or demolish monuments to the Confederacy is that it is forcing numerous Americans, myself included, to dig deep into the history of the Civil War. And what a strange, convoluted period of history it is! The primary sources are plentiful, rich and deep which makes for endlessly fascinating reading. If the aim of the iconoclasts was to push this period of history even further from the national consciousness, or gloss over it with cherry-picked anecdotes allowing for knee-jerk verdicts, they have failed miserably. For my own part, I have...

  SHARE:FacebookTwitter Today marks the 156th anniversary of Antietam, arguably the pivotal battle of the Civil War. Had the South won on that September day, Robert E. Lee could have marauded through Union territory, European powers might have intervened on behalf of the Rebels, Maryland might have flipped its loyalty to the Confederacy.What we know as America might be two separate nations today. Instead the Union was victorious, banishing Lee’s army from the North, paving the way for the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed the slaves.So much was at stake — the fighting rose to a pitch that was heretofore unimaginable....

Late in the afternoon of September 17, roughly an hour before the sunset that would mark the close of the bloodiest day in U.S. history, a Maine regiment met with a wholly unnecessary fate. Just when the regiments’ soldiers thought they’d made it through the battle relatively unscathed, they got pulled back in with disastrous consequences. At Antietam, due to Union commander George McClellan’s piecemeal strategy, the fighting was conducted sector by sector. (General Phil Kearny once described McClellan as “fighting by driblets.”) The severe topography of the Antietam Valley, featuring a field carved into discrete sections, contributed further to...

MORE than anything else, the battlefield at Antietam, site of the bloodiest day in the nation's wartime history, is a monument to the American private soldier who stands in the rear rank on parade but in the front rank on attack. Here, on Sept. 16, 1862, Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan, commanding the Union's Army of the Potomac, stood in a grassy field atop a hill overlooking the shallow valley of Antietam Creek and watched Gen. Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia move into position on the opposite ridge. Then the Union general went back to his headquarters in...

KEEDYSVILLE — The National Park Service didn’t put up that big statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee near the Newcomer House on Shepherdstown Pike, and has no plans to take it down. But U.S. Rep. John Delaney, D-Md., said this week that he believes the statue should come down, and that the park service should review all monuments and exhibits concerning the Confederacy that are on its properties for historical accuracy. Delaney’s concern over the statue, which became the possession of Antietam National Battlefield when it acquired the Newcomer property several years ago, is not simply that it recognizes...

President Trump donated the first few months of his White House salary to Antietam National Battlefield, the national park in Maryland that preserves the hallowed ground of the bloodiest day of the Civil War, the government said Wednesday. Mr. Trump’s first quarter salary of $78,333 was matched by an anonymous donor who gave another $22,000, bringing the gift to $100,000, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke said. The donation will restore an historic house on the battlefield, and will help replace fencing.

It was the greatest coffee run in American history. The Ohio boys had been fighting since morning, trapped in the raging battle of Antietam, in September 1862. Suddenly, a 19-year-old William McKinley appeared, under heavy fire, hauling vats of hot coffee. The men held out tin cups, gulped the brew and started firing again. “It was like putting a new regiment in the fight,” their officer recalled. Three decades later, McKinley ran for president in part on this singular act of caffeinated heroism. At the time, no one found McKinley’s act all that strange. For Union soldiers, and the lucky...

Beginning early on the morning of this day in 1862, Confederate and Union troops in the Civil War clash near Maryland's Antietam Creek in the bloodiest one-day battle in American history. The Battle of Antietam marked the culmination of Confederate General Robert E. Lee's first invasion of the Northern states. Guiding his Army of Northern Virginia across the Potomac River in early September 1862, the great general daringly divided his men, sending half of them, under the command of General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson, to capture the Union garrison at Harper's Ferry. President Abraham Lincoln put Major General George B. McClellan...

On this morning 150 years ago, Union and Confederate troops clashed at the crossroads town of Sharpsburg, Maryland. The Battle of Antietam remains the bloodiest single day in American history. The battle left 23,000 men killed or wounded in the fields, woods and dirt roads, and it changed the course of the Civil War. It is called simply the Cornfield, and it was here, in the first light of dawn that Union troops — more than a thousand — crept toward the Confederate lines. The stalks were at head level and shielded their movements. Cannon fire opened the battle with...

The 150th Antietam-Sharpsburg Reenactment is pleased to announce we will be hosting a Remembrance Illumination scheduled for Saturday evening, September 15th at 7PM. The Antietam Illumination Committee in conjunction with Michael Wicklein will be placing 3654 (Union KIA 2108, Confederate KIA 1546) candles on the reenactment battlefield in remembrance of the number killed in action on September 17, 1862 at the Battle of Antietam. Lasting approximately one hour, the program will include an artillery salute.

Long after the guns fell silent at Antietam, the earth yielded up gruesome reminders of the bloodiest day of the American Civil War: bodies, bones, buttons and entire severed limbs — one of which is now the focus of intense study at the National Museum of Civil War Medicine. A Sharpsburg-area farmer is said to have found the human forearm while plowing a field two weeks after the 1862 battle. Officials at the museum in Frederick, Md., are trying to learn more about the limb in hopes of verifying that it's a relic of the Battle of Antietam and exhibiting...

<p>SHARPSBURG, Md. -- An unknown Civil War soldier began his journey home to New York state Tuesday, nearly a year after a visitor to the Antietam National Battlefield spotted his remains in a cornfield that saw the fiercest fighting of the war.</p>

SHARPSBURG - Antietam National Battlefield is one of the 10 most endangered battlefields in the United States, according to a list released Wednesday by the Civil War Preservation Trust (CWPT). The battlefield is "threatened with a 120-foot-tall cellular tower that would be visible from all of the battlefield's most famous vantage points," according to a CWPT press release. Monocacy National Battlefield near Frederick, Md., also is on the list, which also includes sites in several states from Virginia to Oklahoma. National Park Service officials were notified in December 2007 of a proposal to erect a stealth cell tower south of...

SHARPSBURG, Md. - Members of the Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacist groups rallied Saturday at the Antietam National Battlefield, believed to be the first time a group was given permission to demonstrate at the site of the bloodiest day of the Civil War. About 30 people, some in white robes and others in the military-style clothing and swastika armbands of the National Socialist Movement of America, stood next to a farmhouse on the battlefield. Some delivered speeches attacking immigrants, blacks and other minority groups. About 200 federal, state and local officers watched to ensure peace and to act...

SHARPSBURG, Md. — A Ku Klux Klan group plans to hold a rally June 10 on the grounds of the Antietam National Battlefield, site of the bloodiest one-day clash of the Civil War, an organizer and a park official said...

This Day In History | Civil War September 18 1862 McClellan Lets Lee Retreat from Antietam Confederate General Robert E. Lee's army pulls away from Antietam Creek, near Sharpsburg, Maryland, and heads back to Virginia. The day before, Lee's force had engaged in the biggest one-day battle of the Civil War against the army of General George B. McClellan. The armies struggled to a standstill, but the magnitude of losses forced Lee to abandon his invasion of Maryland. The significance of the battle was not Lee's withdrawal, but McClellan's lack of pursuit. When Lee settled into a defensive line above...

ABOARD USS ANTIETAM (NNS) -- USS Antietam (CG 54), a cruiser equipped with the Aegis Combat System, has patrolled the Persian Gulf since arriving on scene with the USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70) Carrier Strike Group in mid-March. The ship was a vital cog for the strike group as they conducted maritime security operations (MSO) and supported the coalition efforts in the region. Among the numerous operations conducted by Antietam in the Persian Gulf were Visit, Board, Search and Seizure (VBSS) operations and protection of vital assets such as Iraqi oil platforms and Carl Vinson. Antietam is also responsible for...

Lord, Keep our Troops forever in Your care Give them victory over the enemy... Grant them a safe and swift return... Bless those who mourn the lost. . FReepers from the Foxhole join in prayer for all those serving their country at this time. ...................................................................................... ........................................... U.S. Military History, Current Events and Veterans Issues Where Duty, Honor and Countryare acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated. Our Mission: The FReeper Foxhole is dedicated to Veterans of our Nation's military forces and to others who are affected in their relationships with Veterans. In the FReeper Foxhole, Veterans or their family members should feel...

Lord, Keep our Troops forever in Your care Give them victory over the enemy... Grant them a safe and swift return... Bless those who mourn the lost. . FReepers from the Foxhole join in prayer for all those serving their country at this time. ...................................................................................... ........................................... U.S. Military History, Current Events and Veterans Issues Where Duty, Honor and Countryare acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated. Our Mission: The FReeper Foxhole is dedicated to Veterans of our Nation's military forces and to others who are affected in their relationships with Veterans. In the FReeper Foxhole, Veterans or their family members should feel...

Lord, Keep our Troops forever in Your care Give them victory over the enemy... Grant them a safe and swift return... Bless those who mourn the lost. . FReepers from the Foxhole join in prayer for all those serving their country at this time. ...................................................................................... ........................................... U.S. Military History, Current Events and Veterans Issues Where Duty, Honor and Countryare acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated. Our Mission: The FReeper Foxhole is dedicated to Veterans of our Nation's military forces and to others who are affected in their relationships with Veterans. In the FReeper Foxhole, Veterans or their family members should feel...