Jul 30, 2009 - Blue & Grey: Antietam Creek

First Civil War action on Northern soil, and the bloodiest single-day battle ever fought by Americans. Twenty-three thousand killed or wounded. Continuous fighting on three simultaneous fronts, often hand-to-hand: The Cornfield, the Sunken Road, The Bridge. Bobby Lee won the tactical battle, fighting to a stalemate against terrible odds, but the strategic battle was won by the Union, as Lee’s Army retreated across the Potomac. It would be another year before the Rebs crossed the river again, on their way to a Pennsylvania college town...

Oct 25, 2008 - Antietam and Emancipation

Antietam bloodiest day in our nation’s history - Saturday, October 25 Today is Madolyn’s birthday and we woke to a steady rain. We debated whether or not to extend our stay in Gettysburg another day so we wouldn’t have to drive in the rain, but it was a fairly light rain with no wind so we decided to push on. Our destination for today is Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. To get there the road took us through parts of four states, and it was rural backcountry at it’s finest. This is river country and the landscape is a maze of steep hills and...

Jun 28, 2008 - The Bloodiest Battle in American History

Next onto Antietam, the bloodiest day in American history. 23,000 men died or wounded in a thirteen hour battle. This was in the time when men were expendable, “Us and Them” – Pink Floyd. I never realized the size of the battlefield, the number of men sacrificed, the waste and the stupidly of it all. I think that the Union was justified in the edict that ‘All men are created equal” but it took another 100 years for Dr. Martin Luther King to put an end to the bullshit. Alas, it is still prevalent though as there is still segregation, it’s...

Jun 2, 2008 - Winchester, VA

Today we are still at Candy Hill campground and we spent the day sightseeing. We started out at Antietam Battlefield. It was quite interesting and the battlefield was very large. I was amazed at how expansive it was. From Antietam we went in search of the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal that was built by George Washington, well not him personally, in an effort to improve commerce to Washington, DC. We stopped at one of the locks, which was dry. The project took about 4 years to build and only lasted about 4 years because of the steam engine and the...