This weekend I got to meet an old college friend of one of my Coe professors, and he took me to see the Antietam battlefield and cemetery on Saturday, while today I visited the United States Botanic Garden. There's a lot of history to cover, so let's get started!
Antietam
This name probably rings a faint bell for most of you, and that's because you would have learned about it during a history class on the American Civil War. There are two big reasons this war is so important in American history. One, it is the bloodiest battle in American history, with 23,000 men dead, wounded, or missing in a single day. Two, Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation only five days after the battle occurred.
The Battle of Antietam took place near the town of Sharpsburg, Maryland on September 17, 1862. It was the first field army-level engagement in the Eastern Theater of the American Civil War to take place on Union soil, and it ended in a Union victory.
The main generals on either side were Confederate Robert E. Lee and Union George B. McClellan. Lincoln had two choices of generals to send to engage Lee in battle, but ultimately chose McClellan since the soldiers loved him. Though the Union soldiers ultimately pulled a victory for the North, the choice of McClellan was a military disaster for Lincoln with so many deaths. When McClellan, cautious as always, refused to follow Lee across the Potomac River, Lincoln relieved him of command.
Most people familiar with this part of the history might not realize an even more sinister truth. If the Confederates had won at Antietam, proving they could secure a victory on Northern soil, the British empire was ready to publicly acknowledge the South as an independent country. However, when the Confederates lost, Lincoln took the chance to issue the Emancipation Proclamation, which officially changed the reasoning for the Civil War from being about reunifying the Union to being a war against human bondage. Once that happened, the British empire refused to become involved with the Confederates since they did not want to be associated with supporting slavery.
For those interested about more history, visit the National Park Service site here.
The paintings were first exhibited in Hope's gallery in Watkins Glen, New York, but a flood in the 1930s destroyed much of his work. In 1979, the National Park Service purchased the paintings and began a rescue effort. The four complete paintings—and a fragment from "Hope Restored"—reside in the Antietam visitor center.
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Although now part of the Mumma farm, this site was first established as a burial ground by the Orndorff family. The Mumma farm was a major site of conflict during the Battle of Antietam. I've included photos from this cemetery since I found many of the headstones pretty, but also interesting how a large portion listed the person's age down to the year, month, and day. | Antietam National Cemetery. This place was actually already called Cemetery Hill before Antietam occurred, since a local Sharpsburg cemetery lay nearby. It was created five years after the battle, and only Union soldiers are buried here. After the battle, bodies were buried where they lay, so they had to be reinterred when the cemetery opened. About a third of the graves are unidentified. |
After such an event-packed day on Saturday, I decided to take today a little easier.
I joined my roommate and her mom for brunch at the restaurant Firefly, then visited the Botanic Garden with another intern. I had fun taking artsy shots of the different plants, and created a slideshow for your viewing pleasure. If you're interested, below the slideshow is an image that tells the history of the garden.