Civil War Trip: Antietam, Harpers Ferry, and New Market

Matthew Brady, the great Civil War photographer, took this photo of a burial crew on the battlefield of Antietam, Maryland, in 1862.  The Battle of Antietam set a record for the largest number of Americans killed on the battlefield in one day--$23,000. The record was not broken until World War II. When Matthew Brady showed his photographs later that month in New York, the New York Times reported, "If Brady has not brought bodies and laid them in our dooryards and along the streets, he has done something very near it."  War would never again be as glamorous as before people saw photographs of the dead and wounded.  I have many books at home about the Civil War, including novels, analyses, and even a coffee table book about the art of the Civil War.  I want to study more when I get home.

On March 31, 2023, Dave and I visited the Antietam Battlefield National Park.  We stopped first at the Pry House, which had been headquarters for the Union General, George McClellan, and then a Union hospital.  I have heard repeatedly about Gettysburg, but I didn't realize that Antietam was the same sort of battle a year earlier--exceptionally bloody, as Lee tried to punch through Union defenses into the North, in order to make the sort of dramatic statement that could end the war.

The Pry House in 1862

The Battle of Antietam was a clash between Robert E. Lee, head general for the Confederacy, and George McClellan, head general for the Union.  Lee was traveling north from Virginia, hoping to capture Washington D.C. and encourage Britain by his success to provide more weapons for the South or even to convince the Union to end the war.  McClellan's troops outnumbered Lee's, and the Union won the battle, forcing Lee back south.  Lee headed north again, in 1863, and was defeated at Gettysburg.  There were several monuments on the battlefield, commemorating various heroic achievements during the battle.

One of the fiercest skirmishes surrounded this white house, shown below after the battle.

Another skirmish was over this bridge.  One of the ironies of war is how normal and peaceful battlegrounds feel years later.  I remember feeling the same way as Dave and I stood on the banks of the Rhine, where Dave's father was shot during World War II.  It was Buderick, Germany, an out-of-the-way place that seemed totally at peace.

Lincoln came to Antietam after the battle was over to meet with General McClellan and demand why he didn't pursue Robert E. Lee back into Virginia, after vanquishing him at Antietam.

The week before the Battle of Antietam, Stonewall Jackson besieged federal troops at their arsenal in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia.  We visited Harpers Ferry after visiting Antietam.

This photo of Harpers Ferry from the 1860s shows it as a small city surrounded by large hills.  Stonewall Jackson placed his troops on the hills above the city, and the Union soldiers eventually surrendered.

The town has been recreated in 1860s style, with quaint shops and museums.

Dave and I paused at the True Treats historical candy museum, which advertises itself as the only such museum in the country!  

We wandered from table to table, checking out which types of candies were popular in the 1500s, 1600s, and all the way up until the present.

We drove south through the Shenandoah Valley, stopping at a Civil War museum in New Market, Virginia.  In 1864, Ulysees S. Grant, the top Union general, sent General Sigel into the Shenandoah Valley to cut Confederal railway supply lines.  At the Battle of New Market, the Confederate general, Breckinridge, was outmanned, 6,000 men to 4,000 men, but he nevertheless scored a Confederate victory.  When Breckinridge realized how short he was of men, he sent a battalion of teenagers from Virginia Military Institute (VMI) into battle.  "May God forgive me for this order," he prayed. 

The VMI cadets fought valiantly and helped to win the battle.  It was so muddy that some of them lost their shoes as they ran forward, as shown in this painting.

The heroism of the VMI cadets at New Market is memorialized in this mural in the VMI chapel in Lexington, Virginia

When we visited VMI in Lexington, we saw the graves of some of the VMI cadets who fought at New Market.