Representative Gallery
About Antietam Battlefield
You probably already know that the hallowed ground at Antietam National Battlefield in nearby Sharpsburg was the scene of one of the major and most pivotal battles of the Civil War, witnessing the single bloodiest day of combat in American history to this day. The historical significance of many of the historic series of turnings presented on this website ("The Bower," "Shepherdstown Battlefield," "Elmwood Cemetery," for example) is based at least in part on the events surrounding Lee's ill-fated invasion of the North, which provided President Lincoln enough political cover to issue the Emancipation Proclamation. You may also know that federal law prohibits the removal of items - including the wood from fallen "witness" trees - from within the boundaries of National Parks, including Battlefields like Antietam. What you may not know, however, is that there are numerous pockets of privately owned land surrounding (and within) the legal boundaries of ANB that are nevertheless of great historic interest simply by their proximity both to what happened at Antietam and how and when that action was memorialized. This series is about preserving as beautiful and useful objects wood from trees that have stood on the actual field of battle at Antietam while not actually part of the Park itself.