When embarking on this trip, our goal was to experience/discover our Nation's history since we are still celebrating America's 250th. Battlefields are where many (hard) history lessons are learned. Antietam National Battlefield was one not to be missed.

After watching an incredibly informative movie and touring the fascinating exhibits in the Visitors Center, we walked the immediate grounds before embarking on a driving tour of the battlefield.

Stop #6 was at the Mumma Farm and Cemetery. What was so difficult for me to fully understand is that this battle happened on people's farms. One day life was as it always was, the next it was drastically changed, sometimes forever. The only deliberate destruction of property during the battle was the burning of this farm. Confederate soldiers were ordered to burn these structures to prevent their use by Union sharpshooters. Fortunately, Samuel Mumma and his family had fled to safety before the battle. The Mumma family rebuilt the home in 1863.

The Sunken Road (Bloody Lane) was a well-worn path that served as a breastwork for the Confederate center. For about three hours 2,200 Confederates, later reinforced by additional troops, held off the attacks of a combined Union force numbering nearly 10,000. Finally, just after noon, this thin gray line collapsed and fell back several hundred yards to a local farm. The Union attackers had suffered too many casualties to pursue their advantage. Seeing the dead in the road an observer wrote, "They were lying in rows like the ties of a railroad, in heaps like cordwood mingled with the splintered and shattered fence rails. Words are inadequate to portray the scene."

It was here on the Lower Bridge (Burnside Bridge) that about 500 Confederate soldiers held the area overlooking the Lower Bridge for three hours. Burnside's command finally captured the bridge and crossed Antietam Creek, which forced the Confederates back toward Sharpsburg. I just can't even imagine what the town residents endured.

We concluded our tour at the Antietam National Cemetery. At first the dead were buried where they fell on the battlefield. Later they were reinterred here, along with Union soldiers who died in combat or in hospitals throughout the region. A total of 4,776 Union soldiers rest here along with dead from four other wars. Separate even in death, Confederate soldiers were buried in surrounding towns.

I have read this poem before. This stanza was written by the poet and soldier Theodore O'Hara. It comes from his famous elegiac poem titled The Bivouac of the Dead. O'Hara originally composed the piece in 1847 to honor fellow Kentucky volunteers who died at the Battle of Buena Vista during the Mexican-American War. Following the Civil War, lines from the poem resonated so deeply across the nation that the U.S. government cast them onto iron tablets to stand watch over various national burial grounds. Plaques featuring these verses are found lining the walkways not only here but at Gettysburg and Arlington National Cemetery.

The muffled drum's sad roll has beat

The soldier's last tattoo;

No more on life's parade shall meet

That brave and fallen few.

Okay, on a much happier note, we ended our day in Virginia with Chuck and Hazel. We're camped on the driveway of their wonderful farmette for three, fun-filled days. Bring on the merriment!