HARPERS FERRY AND ANTIETAM

Cam is going to be writing the blog today . . . enjoy!

Well, today it's up to me to keep you entertained so here goes............... We're on the way to Harpers Ferry and Antietam Nat'l Battlefields (about 85 miles from campsite to Antietam) so it was up at 6:00 and on the road by 7:30 this morning.  We arrived at Harpers Ferry around 9:30 am and hopped on a shuttle bus that took us up to Bolivar Hill Battlefield and then down to the old town.  Thomas Jefferson, George Washington and Meriwether Lewis have walked on the cobblestones at Harpers Ferry at one time or another...

 and in October 1859 John Brown attempted to seize the 100,000 rifles and muskets stored here as a first step in his revolutionary scheme to rid the nation of slavery.  Needless to say his plan failed, him and his group took hostages then took refuge in the enginehouse where the Marines stormed the building, killing some and capturing him and others,  He was later tried for treason and hanged. 

the armoury fire enginehouse (now known as John Brown's Fort)

This is also where Thomas Jackson (he wasn't known as Stonewall yet) conducted a brilliant seige from the mountains that forced the surrender of both the town and the Federal troops stationed there - the largest surrender of United States troops during the Civil War. 

This town is right on the Potomac River and is also built on the side of the mountain, and this being a holiday weekend they were doing living history enactments.

Getting our instructions for the days enactments

part of the canal system that runs near the town 

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check out the stairs leading up to the church, they were not easy to walk on and would have been really dangerous when it rains. 

Well we wandered around and saw all the sites so it was time to leave and head to Antietam, we got directions from the visitor center but we got lost anyways.  We stopped at a small tire shop asked how to get to Antietam and the guy drew me a map how to get there.  He didn't know the names of the streets but he sure could draw an accurate map.  Map was more accurate than our GPS and we finally arrived there.  Wandered around the visitor center and the gift shop and then went in and watched the movie about the battle........... most of the bigger battlefield sites have all kinds of exhibits, artifacts from the battles and all kinds of interesting tidbits, facts etc so once all that was done we went on the self-guided driving tour.  You follow the map and see all the battle areas, here's a little background on this battle.

On September 15, 1862 Confederate General Robert E. Lee positioned his army along a ridge west of Antietam Creek.  Longstreet held the center and right, Stonewall Jackson held the left.  On September 15 & 16 Union General McClellan deployed his forces east of the creek.  On September 17 at dawn the 12 hour battle began.  Fighting started at 6:00 am and savage combat ranged across the Cornfield, East Woods, and West Woods. By late afternoon the fighting shifted toward the Sunken road and the bridges that crossed Antietam Creek. The battle ended around 6:00 pm and the lines of battle had not shifted significantly from morning.  Of nearly 100,000 soldiers engaged in battle, about 23,000 were killed, wounded or missing.  This was the bloodiest one-day battle of the American Civil War. 

this is looking from left to right from in front of the observation room of the visitors center over the main battlegrounds. 



this picture is a continuation of the above picture looking farther to the right.  There were cannons and artillery all over the top of this hill firing outward into the fields which were full of lines of men everywhere.   Savage fighting between the infantry raged in the cornfields (the yellow sections of the pictures) 

When we went on the driving tour we drove past the Mumma farm, which was owned by Samuel Mumma.  Samuel and his family fled before the battle began and the confederates burned his house down to prevent the Union army from using it.  Samuel rebuilt it after the war and there is a family cemetary on the grounds for the family.

the rebuilt farmhouse and if you look close you can see the living history people sitting around a table under the tree in the bottom left corner.

From here we drove to the observation tower that was built by the War Department in 1896 as an open-air classroom at Antietam.  It has to be at least 8 stories high and when you decide to climb it and get to the top it becomes 24 stories high.  Once at the top I felt really sorry for whoever has to climb this thing more than once a day......  



 

Doesn't look that tall from this distance eh....

From the observation window at the top of the tower........... see Norma sitting in the Explorer??

Well we are getting close to the end of the tour and the only things left are one of the bridges over Antietam Creek

Lower Bridge - renamed Burnside Bridge (after Union General Ambrose Burnside)

and a few more battlesites with cannons,

and the Antietam Nat'l Cemetary which we missed.... took the wrong road and it was late and I wasn't going back............

Well we had a great day visiting the battle sites and didn't get home until close to 6:00 pm so it was a loooonnnnnggggggg day.  It is now almost 10:00 pm so it is time to shut down for the night so I will sign off and you get Norma back for the next installation of the big trip.