The drive up from Harpers Ferry to Shargsburg was quick and easy. It was a mere twenty minutes, but it was twenty minutes filled with more winding roads carving through rolling hills on a beautiful warm sunny afternoon.
Unlike Harpers Ferry, Antietam National Battlefield lacked the loud sounds of kids running everywhere. There were a few people there, but much more, then there were at the Chancellorsville, The Wilderness, and Sportsylvania Battlefields combined. Then again, the weather wasn't as nasty and wet like it was then either.
It took every bit of the afternoon to tour and see the whole battlefield. Like most of the major Civil War battlefields, it was spread out for miles. So, a car is the transportation of choice. Still, I think the best way to see the entire battlefield is by bike. At least, when the weather is pleasant and prefect like it was on this day.
The place seemed timeless. Not much has changed since the Civil War. The Dunken Church was still there, as well as most of the farms, and Burnside Bridge. There were scores of monuments and memorials everywhere. There were artillery batteries at numerous locations exactly where they had been placed during the time of the battle.
It was a very moving experience, as I went to all the various parts of the battlefield. The cornfield, the Sunden Rd, and Burnside Bridge. I was taken back into time to that horrible day. I could hear the sounds of men running and falling as mini balls shread their way through the cornstocks in the cornfield. The claddering and popping of thousand union rifle muskets countinously firing on the rebs in the Sunken Rd until they were either all dead or had routed.
It's hard for anyone to walk away from the battlefield without feeling so sad for the thousands of men who paid the ultimate price for such a stupid cause.
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