Antietam

Tuesday I flew up to Maryland for a training and afterwards visited Antietam National Battlefield in Sharpsburg. It was the first Civil War battlefield I'd ever been to, so I was very excited. I didn't get there until a little before 4:00, and it only stays open until dark, so I had to rush through the driving tour. But it was amazing. You walk in to the Visitors' Center and the first thing you see is a giant photo of dead soldiers lying on the ground, and the caption says it was taken less than 100 yards from where you are standing. Wow. It really puts you in the right frame of mind for what you're about to see. I mean, it's a bunch of rolling hills with trees and fences and statues and monuments,



but when you think about what actually happened there all those years ago, it is quite chilling. On a single day in the fall of 1862, almost 23,000 soldiers were either killed, wounded, or missing. Here are a couple of the photos I took (along with some comparable views of what it looked like back then):

Burnside's Bridge:



Dunker Church:



Bloody Lane:



This is my favorite one:


I was racing against sunset as it was, but could not bear to pull myself away. I kept looking at the clock, thinking about how far away the airport was, and then looking out at where I was, and, well, I ended up missing my flight. That's a first for me. It turned out fine, though, because I just got on the next one. Gotta love Southwest.