UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- While a recent wave of new scholarship about the battle of Antietam is helping experts more clearly understand the conflict, two historians are hoping their guidebook will also give visitors a better appreciation of the pivotal Civil War engagement, as well as the people who lived, fought and died in what became the bloodiest day in American military history.
The battle of Antietam, which occurred near the farming community of Sharpsburg, Maryland on Sept. 17, 1862, is a deceptively complex contest, according to Carol Reardon, George Winfree Professor of American History, Penn State, who wrote "A Field Guide to Antietam" (The University of North Carolina Press, August 2016) with retired U.S. Army Col. Tom Vossler.
"We broke the battle down into 21 stops in the guide," said Reardon. "When we wrote the guide on the battle of Gettysburg, we did it in 35 stops -- that's a 3-day battle -- and we're doing the 12-hour battle of Antietam in 21, so that tells you how much we had to break it down."
The guide covers the most famous parts of the battle -- such as the Bloody Cornfield, the Sunken Lane and Burnside's Bridge -- but also reveals less explored points of the battle. Writing the guide helped Reardon, who has spent decades studying the Civil War and Antietam, draw out some of these lesser known, but important stops, from historical obscurity.