Antietam National Cemetery: 158th Anniversary of Antietam

hey everybody welcome i'm not going to scream as much as i usually do because here we are in the antietam national cemetery established in 1867. these things were rather new at the time okay you know it took the civil war to really bring this movement to create national cemeteries you know sometimes with buy-ins from states sometimes soldiers are organized by states and these came about during the civil war in 1863 famously the first one came out on a battlefield proper but there had already been a couple of national cemeteries before that national cemeteries you'll often see some something similar you'll often see a poem from the mexican war you'll often see a gatehouse guarding it and on that gatehouse you'll often see the text of the gettysburg address in terms of this particular cemetery we're going to bring on keith snyder shortly to talk about it but this is a national cemetery for the union soldiers who died uh in this northern victory the southerners uh and the union soldiers remained in the ground for some time and the union soldiers they endeavored to bring them here to the national cemetery and the confederate soldiers were largely brought to um a cemetery roseau cemetery in hagerstown um i'm standing in front of a of a private soldier here at uh at the antietam national cemetery and uh after we bring on keith i'll walk over there so you can get an idea of just how large this soldier is so with no further ado a good friend of ours a great friend to preservation as well let's bring on keith snyder from the antietam national battlefield thanks keith hey thanks gary appreciate it and as i tell people especially on a day like today that this is the most sacred ground at antietam the cemetery was dedicated in 1867 but the legislation to create it was actually 1865 the bitterness of the war that we had just completed the lack of funds submitted by southern states that is why it's union and union only now after the battle you had a man-made disaster here four thousand soldiers were killed nineteen thousand wounded everyone was buried on the battlefield where they fell and for the local farmers this is an untenable situation four thousand graves across their fields so the legislation started it was a groundswell a ground-up movement uh first at the maryland state level eventually federal to create this final resting place and the first thing they had to do was buy the land 11 acres they had to find a location buy the land then they started building the enclosure and they started moving the bodies off of the battlefield in 1866 in preparation for the dedication at 67. and union soldiers were brought here from all over the field and what happened is this basically became the national cemetery for western maryland soldiers were brought here from 33 locations over 120 mile radius any union soldier that was killed or died of disease basically within 100 mile radius was brought to this enclosure and eventually 4776 union soldiers buried here confederates actually in three local cemeteries most of them are in hagerstown the cemetery that gary mentioned but there are confederates buried in frederick and in shepherdstown west virginia today west virginia just on the other side of the potomac river to the west dedication 1867 president andrew johnson came out the governor of pennsylvania and estimated eight to ten thousand people and soldiers continue to be brought here uh for the next 80 years this was an active national cemetery up until its closure in 1953. we have soldiers buried here from the spanish-american war the boxer rebellion world war one world war ii and korea closed in 1953. there are 4 776 union dead 1800 of those unknown their families never knew their final fate and then 258 have been added ever since from all these other american conflicts so a visit to the cemetery is not just a civil war visit it's a visit to major american conflicts for almost 100 years central statue was not here in 1867 it didn't come until 1880 and the statue known as the private soldier it's probably the largest civil war soldier in the nation that monument is actually 27 pieces weighs over 200 tons it was carved in rhode island and at the time the battlefield uh commission that was managing this is before the war department was managing the cemetery that ran out of money so the artist trying to make some money decided he would take it to the philadelphia exposition in 1876 it sat out in front of the exposition 10 million people saw this monument then it was eventually brought to the battlefield carried up to sharpsburg along the cno canal then brought by huge horse or mule teams through town it's 27 pieces it was assembled here and the most important thing that i can tell you about this monument is that unquestionably when this was added in 1880 it defined this as a union space we've already told you that this is a cemetery for union soldiers but this a union soldier standing in place rest defined this even further that the most dominant most prominent feature of the cemetery is a union soldier they made that very clear when this was added in 1880 for me the other incredibly moving part of this sacred eleven acres is that this is a soldiers cemetery the private soldier monument represents them and this is a cemetery of soldiers soldiers in the ranks the true heroes of not only the civil war but all of our american wars and just a couple of examples i would share with you right here from wisconsin is george drake right here george drake actually was killed at one of the earliest engagements of the american civil war in june of 1861 the first battle of falling waters the patterson's union soldiers had come marching south down the valley turnpike and ran into some confederates led by a couple of unknown officers thomas jonathan jackson and jeb stewart most people never even heard of it he was initially buried uh in the falling waters area then brought here once again this became the regional national cemetery so a good example of how this cemetery is even broader than the antietam story and as i told you it comes forward our only civil or only female veteran that's buried here is just behind you mae lumberg she was a nurse in world war one she was in europe she volunteered worked at the american hospital she lived a long full life actually died at the veterans hospital west of here in martinsburg and of course she's a local veteran died in a veterans hospital they brought her here for her final resting place and just one more i'll share ernest fletcher just behind us he was a navigator on a b-24 his plane was shot down over germany on a bombing run the last bombing run he needed before he would have been sent home in the late 1940s uh the united states government went to all the families of these soldiers and airmen that had been buried overseas and said would you like your your family member to come home and 60 of those families said yes which is why we have over 200 world war ii veterans buried here in our national cemetery too so we hope that you visit antietam we hope that you spend some time here in this sacred place and when you do it it's an opportunity to reflect especially as we've been sharing with you all weekend the maryland campaign but if you want to take a moment just to take some quiet time quiet space to reflect on the cost and the sacrifice there's no better place than here at antietam national cemetery thank you so much keith when you come here you know i hope that you will consider interacting with the rangers with a great team here that's not just a brain trust but who has worked here and has understood and come to understand the full range of emotion and the full range of personality that makes up something as complex as a battle a campaign an era of american history so so do come to these battlefields and i want to thank keith and i want to thank his team and i want to thank you all for helping us to support to to preserve not only more than 450 acres um of the antietam national battlefield park but 2 000 acres in the maryland campaign including south mountain and shepherdstown and harpers ferry so thank you all for watching we still have more to come and thank you thank you for all your preservation support you

Channel: American Battlefield Trust

Views: 7,618

Keywords: American Battlefield Trust, Civil War Trust, Antietam National Cemetery, History of National Cemeteries, Antietam Tour, American Battlefield Trust Antietam, Civil War Trust Antietam, Antietam Anniversary, Garry Adelman, Keith Snyder, Antietam Monuments, Antietam Preservation

Id: -Iv76AUQhhQ

Length: 9min 16sec (556 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 20 2020