Battle Of Antietam

"The Civil War Remembered" will be the focus of three days of festivities in Washington County next weekend to commemorate the 129th anniversary of the Battle of Antietam.Opening event will be a production of the Civil War musical drama "Banjo Reb and the Blue Ghost" on Friday at the Maryland Theatre, 21 S. Potomac St., Hagerstown. The show begins at 8 p.m. and features Nashville star David Holt and William Mooney, known for his role in the daytime television drama "All My Children." The audience is encouraged to come dressed in Civil War attire.

One hundred fifty years ago today, two great armies clashed in a titanic struggle that would decide the fate of a nation. "Around a cornfield and a little white Dunker church, around a stone bridge and in a pasture lane worn by cow paths, surged a human tornado," wrote Carl Sandburg many years later. Never before or since has such a deadly concentration of firepower been unleashed on the American continent. The Battle of Antietam, waged across a meandering stream called Antietam Creek in Western Maryland near Hagerstown, was the first great turning point of the American Civil War and the bloodiest single day of combat ever waged on U.S. soil.

SHARPSBURG -- Across a landscape little changed since more than 23,000 soldiers were killed or wounded in the Civil War's bloodiest day, victory in the second Battle of Antietam is nearly at hand.But unlike the infamous one-day clash between armies led by Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee and his Union counterpart, Gen. George B. McClellan, the triumph of preservationists to protect land surrounding the Antietam battlefield has been a drawn-out affair.Six years ago, Antietam was labeled one of America's most endangered historic places.

In anticipation of the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Antietam on Sept. 17, the Laurel Museum is opening a mini-exhibit Sunday, Sept. 9 that includes former Laurel Mill superintendent George Nye's handwritten account of the battle. The exhibit includes a letter Nye wrote to his wife, Charlotte (Charlie), on Oct. 1 shortly after the battle; Nye's war belt and buckle; and his 1879 diary, which references the Battle of Antietam. Antietam was the bloodiest single day in American military history, with more than 20,000 soldiers killed or wounded.

Wilmer Mumma began, with a hint of bitterness in his voice, to tell his family's story of the Battle of Antietam.The Mummas lived on a farm in Sharpsburg 135 years ago, he said. Confederate troops led by Gen. Robert E. Lee burned it to the ground. With 13 children, the German Baptist family rebuilt the farm within 18 months, he said.Nearly 30 years later, Mumma said, in 1890, the postmaster of Sharpsburg received a letter of apology from a North Carolina man who said he was the officer who reluctantly followed orders and destroyed the Mumma farm.

Notes Bloody histories: For Marylanders interested in learning more about the important role their state played in the Civil War, there is no better place to start than reading books assessing the bloody Battle of Antietam. Fought on Sept. 17, 1862, along Antietam Creek near Sharpsburg, it was the war's first major battle to take place on Northern soil and was the bloodiest single-day struggle in American history, with almost 23,000 casualties. Union forces fought the Confederate invaders to a standstill, but gave President Abraham Lincoln the confidence to announce his Emancipation Proclamation, laying out plans to free all slaves in Confederate states.

Leesburg, Va., will be filled with infantry, cavalry, sutlers, wagons and carriages Saturday and May 14 as the Loudoun Museum presents "The Road to Antietam."North King Street will be closed to traffic from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. both days, and the hands of time turn back to the year of 1862 as General Lee and his Army of Northern Virginia pass through town on their way to the Battle of Antietam.The event depicts a Civil War funeral, a military court, a field hospital, a fashion show and an 1860 ball.

ANTIETAM - The largest Civil War re-enactment of the year will be taking place Sept. 12-14 on a farm just south of Hagerstown. This 135th anniversary commemoration of the Battle of Antietam will draw more than 10,000 re-enactors who will commemorate the bloodiest single day of the Civil War.The battle ended the Confederacy's first effort to invade the North, and it enabled President Abraham Lincoln to shift the focus of the war from states' rights to...

History and fashionImprove your fashion sense while learning the history of the wardrobe at the Philadelphia Museum of Art during the "Best Dressed: A Celebration of Style" exhibit. Being held until Jan. 4, 1998, this celebration of fashion from over the globe features more than 200 objects from the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. Included in the exhibit is the 1956 wedding gown of Princess Grace of Monaco, a complete Japanese geisha's costume and several dresses from the 1860s and 1880s by Charles Frederick Worth, the father of French couture.

25 Years Ago: Local Business Support Needed For Bicentennial: Mt. Airy Commission Actively At Work Planning Celebration - Ideas and Participation Sought. The Mt. Airy Bicentennial Commission has been active for months planning this community's celebration scheduled for June 12 and 13, 1976. While still a year away, the Mt. Airy group is working hard and they are well ahead of most other officially sanctioned communities in formulating their schedule of events. Letters are going out now to local businesses asking for their plans and participation in the Mt Airy celebration.

Notes Bloody histories: For Marylanders interested in learning more about the important role their state played in the Civil War, there is no better place to start than reading books assessing the bloody Battle of Antietam. Fought on Sept. 17, 1862, along Antietam Creek near Sharpsburg, it was the war's first major battle to take place on Northern soil and was the bloodiest single-day struggle in American history, with almost 23,000 casualties. Union forces fought the Confederate invaders to a standstill, but gave President Abraham Lincoln the confidence to announce his Emancipation Proclamation, laying out plans to free all slaves in Confederate states.

"A.P. Hill is coming!" This was the rallying cry of Gen. Robert E. Lee's desperately pressed forces of the right flank at the Battle of Antietam. Only three days earlier, Maj. Gen. Ambrose Powell Hill had been assigned to rear guard garrison duty at Harper's Ferry, which was then in Virginia. But now he was a Confederate hero, having marched his men at a killing pace of 17 miles in eight hours to prevent a Union breakthrough of Lee's forces at Sharpsburg. Under heavy fire, Hill saved Lee's army from annihilation.

As Americans turn their thoughts toward remembering the victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, the Maryland Historical Society opened a poignant exhibit the other day recalling an earlier traumatic event in the nation's history. Remembering Antietam: John Philemon Smith's Shadowbox tells the story of the Battle of Antietam, where 23,000 Union and Confederate troops were either killed or wounded, on another September day, making it the bloodiest 24 hours of the Civil War. The great clash came at Sharpsburg, a small Western Maryland village, when 87,000 federal troops under the command of Gen. George B. McClellan met the Army of Northern Virginia, some 40,000 strong, under the command of Gen. Robert E. Lee. On the evening before the battle, Union Gen. Joseph Hooker, sensing the urgency of the coming battle, said: "We are through for tonight, but tomorrow we fight the battle that will decide the fate of the Republic."

"I could see dimly through the dense sulphurous battle smoke, and a line from Shakespeare's Tempest filtered through my brain: `Hell is empty and all the devils are here.'" Such was the scene, as described by Pvt. Frederick Foard, of the 20th North Carolina Infantry, at Turner's Gap, on South Mountain that Sept. 14, 1862. From the early morning until long after sunset, the fighting there involved skirmishes and repeated attacks, through which neither side could gain a true advantage. The struggle at Turner's Gap, within the larger Battle of South Mountain, resulted in a victory for the Union army, which suffered far fewer casualties than its enemy.

25 Years Ago: Local Business Support Needed For Bicentennial: Mt. Airy Commission Actively At Work Planning Celebration - Ideas and Participation Sought. The Mt. Airy Bicentennial Commission has been active for months planning this community's celebration scheduled for June 12 and 13, 1976. While still a year away, the Mt. Airy group is working hard and they are well ahead of most other officially sanctioned communities in formulating their schedule of events. Letters are going out now to local businesses asking for their plans and participation in the Mt Airy celebration.

History and fashionImprove your fashion sense while learning the history of the wardrobe at the Philadelphia Museum of Art during the "Best Dressed: A Celebration of Style" exhibit. Being held until Jan. 4, 1998, this celebration of fashion from over the globe features more than 200 objects from the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. Included in the exhibit is the 1956 wedding gown of Princess Grace of Monaco, a complete Japanese geisha's costume and several dresses from the 1860s and 1880s by Charles Frederick Worth, the father of French couture.

"A.P. Hill is coming!" This was the rallying cry of Gen. Robert E. Lee's desperately pressed forces of the right flank at the Battle of Antietam. Only three days earlier, Maj. Gen. Ambrose Powell Hill had been assigned to rear guard garrison duty at Harper's Ferry, which was then in Virginia. But now he was a Confederate hero, having marched his men at a killing pace of 17 miles in eight hours to prevent a Union breakthrough of Lee's forces at Sharpsburg. Under heavy fire, Hill saved Lee's army from annihilation.

"Cinema Sundays at the Charles, the Film Lovers Club" opens its 10th series today at the Charles Theatre in Baltimore with "Earth Voyage to Yesteryears," nine short travel films created by James Fitzpatrick in Technicolor between 1933 and 1968. The director's son, James Fitzpatrick Jr., will introduce the film and lead a post-screening discussion.Films are shown Sunday mornings, and each screening is accompanied by a guest speaker. The program begins with brunch at 10 a.m., followed by the screening at 10: 30 a.m.Due to contractual arrangements with the distributors, the titles of most films cannot be revealed until the day of the screening.

SHARPSBURG -- With musket barrels gleaming and flags flying, a long column of blue-clad soldiers snaked down the hillside, then paused at the edge of a country lane.Lying in heaps on the road before them were the bodies of the "dead" and "dying," alongside guns, canteens and haversacks. "Wounded" men writhed on the ground.And the cameras rolled, capturing scenes for a movie that will be shown at the national historic battlefield and will be part of a television documentary.No one had seen that sight in 135 years - not on this once-blood-soaked Civil War battleground where more American casualties occurred than on any other single day in U.S. military history.

Wilmer Mumma began, with a hint of bitterness in his voice, to tell his family's story of the Battle of Antietam.The Mummas lived on a farm in Sharpsburg 135 years ago, he said. Confederate troops led by Gen. Robert E. Lee burned it to the ground. With 13 children, the German Baptist family rebuilt the farm within 18 months, he said.Nearly 30 years later, Mumma said, in 1890, the postmaster of Sharpsburg received a letter of apology from a North Carolina man who said he was the officer who reluctantly followed orders and destroyed the Mumma farm.