Antietam Sublime
A road trip yesterday to gather up my young cousin for a visit included a return to Antietam battlefield located south of Hagerstown, Maryland, and just north of Harpers Ferry, West Virginia.
It was late on a summer Saturday, hot but dry, with billowing clouds dotting the sky, perhaps not unlike September 17, 1862, the bloodiest day in American history.
Antietam is an Algonquian word probably meaning swift water and the rolling countryside where the battle unfolded is bisected by the creek of that name though yesterday it was hardly swift.
Confederate General Robert Lee had taken the Army of Northern Virginia into Maryland, a Union border state with slaves, to gain military and political advantage.
Union troops commanded by George McClellan clashed and skirmished with the rebels before both sides slid into position for a showdown that began early on the 17th and lasted for 12 extraordinary hours.
Confused and murderous fighting raged around the hills in places now famous as Dunkard Church, Bloody Lane, the Cornfield and Burnside Bridge.
The combined casualty total was over 22,000 killed, wounded and missing, accelerated by the use of massed artillery at close range.
Stillness in the Wood
No gunfire yesterday.
The predominant sound was the lulling drum of cicadas and the chirping of crickets as the afternoon drew to a close.
This is fertile farmland and the crops are well out of the ground, corn swaying in the breeze.
Today. the landscape is dotted with beautiful stone memorials, some massive and many elegant, honoring those who fought here.
They are arresting in this otherwise natural setting, making them all the more powerful.
Antietam, site of mayhem and death, has become a place of quiet contemplation to recall great events and human courage.
