behind AotW

It was another fantastic day in Sharpsburg on the 153rd anniversary of the battle. I was very glad to be there for an early morning visit. Here are some quick snaps and impressions.

Sunrise at Antietam National Battlefield, 17 September 2015

I made it to the Park in time to join the 7am group – off the turnpike and through the wet grass to the Northern edge of farmer Miller’s cornfield – to hear the the now-traditional readings of eyewitness accounts of the long night and early dawn of 16-17 September 1862.

Antietam Battlefield’s Burnside Bridge (between 1980-2006, by Carol Highsmith, Library of Congress)

The home page of Antietam on the Web is really just a simple table of contents decorated by a photograph taken on the battlefield. Since I did a major redesign/simplification of the site in 2010, I’ve used about half a dozen pictures to represent the place and the history of Antietam.  Here are their stories.

Arthur F. Hascall, (c, 1861, NY State Military Museum)

I’m scrubbing through unit rosters, regimental histories, and many other documents as part of the Antietam Roster Project. Most of the listings are sketchy and dry, and when I have the chance, I like to dig a little deeper for more information to flesh out the individuals who were at Antietam.

An example of how this sometimes goes, with a bit of an unexpected twist, is the case of Sergeant Arthur Hascall of the 61st New York Infantry.