Friday
Leaving Stan and Sivie's, my next destination was Sharpsburg, MD to start a Road Scholar program Walking the Appalachian Trail.
Went thru Frederick, MD on my way so did a walking tour there of the historic district.
The weather was starting to turn cooler so looked for my basic sweater and couldn't find it in the Doodle.
After concluding I must have left it behind on the back of a restaurant chair, my ramblings in Frederick now became a mission to find another black sweater.
Luckily in the next block was a resale shop which happened to have a good one in my size.
I will always think of Frederick when I wear that sweater, and may the waitress wearing my sweater enjoy it.
The Civil War battlefield of Antietam is just a few miles from Sharpsburg.
Looking thru the museum I realized it happened on September 17, 1862, exactly 80 years to the day before I was born.
The very famous photograph above by Alexander Gardner was taken two days after the battle and less than a hundred yards from the Visitor Center where I was standing.
This was the first American battlefield photographed before the dead were buried.
It's hard to imagine these fields strewn with the 23,000 soldiers who were killed or wounded on that day, the bloodiest single-day battle of the Civil War.
Everywhere there are monuments to the heroes from each state who lost their lives here.
The corn fields are planted just as they were when the soldiers came thru them for a surprise attack.
As a kid growing up in Indiana we played in the corn fields and came out with cuts from the sharp leaves.
The 3200 acre National Historic site contains 5 homes that were there during the battle.
These homes had their fences torn down for firewood, their livestock stolen and homes shot full of holes in many cases.
After the war their owners could apply for restitution from the government if they could prove their loyalty to the Union.
The family who lived here applied but was never able to collect. The fund may have dried up by the time they applied.
Today there is both a walking and driving tour map of the area.
It is hard to imagine the destruction that took place here where there is nothing but beautiful skies and fields today.
The soldiers who didn't die here went on to soon fight at Gettysburg, 37 miles away.
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