Antietam

The North called it the Battle of Antietam and the South the Battle of Sharpsburg. It was on September 17, 1862, in the second year of the Civil War. Robert E. Lee’s Confederate Army of Northern Virginia met George McClellan’s Federal Army of the Potomac along the banks of Antietam Creek near the small town of Sharpsburg, Maryland. Over 130,000 men from both sides came together here. By nightfall almost 23,000 were casualties, with over 3,600 killed and 17,000 wounded.

It was hard to make the case that either side won. It was true that Lee’s army ceased its invasion of the north and returned to Virginia. But they would return. McClellan’s army – or at least, its commander – was too exhausted to follow. But Lincoln felt it was enough of a victory that he could reveal a document that he had set aside in his desk drawer. The Emancipation Proclamation changed everything.

Today Antietam National Battlefield Park has not changed much from its appearance on the eve of the great battle. Farms and fields still make up most of the park land, dotted with the monuments and historical markers that tell the story of what happened here. And a small, simple church of a sect of pacifists stands preserved in the middle of the fields that saw the bloodiest single day in American military history.

	Tour the battlefield Eighteen tour maps cover most of the Antietam battlefield. They show the location of monuments, markers, farms and terrain features and link to individual pages for each.
	Monuments The Antietam battlefield is home to almost one hundred monuments honoring regiments, brigades and individuals of both armies, as well as two civilians. You can visit their individual pages from the monuments menu or from the tour pages
	War Department Markers 124 Union Markers and 88 Confederate Markers were placed by the War Department in the 1890s to interpret the battle and provide in-depth information. Most of these still exist today, helping to turn the Antietam battlefield into a giant open-air classroom. Each of the markers has a page with its photograph, location, and the text from the marker.