The Only Sculptured Cavalry Monument at Antietam: Unknown Antietam 159

welcome back everybody thanks so much for joining us i'm gary adelman american battlefield trust and you're with us here at antietam 159 and we are in a place of the battlefield not too many people stop and we're doing unknown antietam so we're going to double down on that at this particular stop however you might recognize some of the things behind me here you can see the east woods over there you might have a look at the mansfield memorial shaft mansfield commanded a core here and was mortally wounded uh not far from where we stand right here in the american battlefield trust along with our partners at the national park service and the save historic antietam foundation have been integral in saving all the land that you see immediately behind me and to start talking about this let's bring on again our good old friend dennis fry save historic antietam foundation and otherwise hey gary yeah you know really this is really important right here this is the east woods we are standing in the east woods and in fact we would be right in the east woods here this avenue that we're on is a is an avenue that was built by the war department back in the 1890s this road wasn't here at the time and this would have been major forest this would have been a much larger forest it would have looked much more like the uh a more mature growth that you would see around us rather than this low growth well the reason for this is as gary just pointed out this has just recently been purchased oh yeah let me let me re-emphasize the word recently purchased about six acres as you mentioned there was a house that stood in here a ranch house that was built in the 1950s and ultimately an industrial type building went in there that really mucked up this area so the trust came in purchased it safest organtino foundation assisted with the restoration the state of maryland provided the trees they were planted and now we have all this beautiful east woods restoration that's coming along so we're really pleased with it yeah this is great dennis thanks so much and we could not do this without um our partners coming into this area and maybe the east woods will start to become as well known for the fighting that took place on the 16th and the 17th as places like the west woods and the cornfield maybe that'll eventually happen now you talk about obscure here dennis uh you know one thing that we all know about antietam is that the union soldiers came with powerful cavalry forces they charge through the cap through the cornfield with ten thousand cavalry and then comes the confederate cavalry under jeb stewart and they're pounding out of the sunken road and there's a big cavalry fight right in the middle of the battlefield no what yeah yeah that last 30 seconds just erase that from eternal memory erase it you all know that's false history that was on purpose so dennis set us straight we're near a monument what's up with the cavalry antietam why don't we talk about this well we don't talk about the caveat antenna because the cavalry doesn't see much action in antietam now we're going to stop at another point near the middle bridge uh which is where the boonesboro sharksburg turnpike is and there is some cave reaction in that area but we have one cavalry monument here on the battlefield look at this look at this wonderful monument right here of thousands of people drive by this monument every year and never stop never look at it never examine it because there's no place to park where we are this is this is just part of the battlefield route this is a monument to the 12th pennsylvania cavalry it's one of the numerous monuments a total of 19 pennsylvania monuments here at antietam this is the only cavalry monument that features a cavalry men that we can see here on this battlefield and it's really interesting come on up let's take a look at something the sculpture is magnificent it's one of the best renditions of a cavalryman that you'll see but notice that the the you don't really see the sword you don't really see the saber that's not what's focused here the focus is more along the lines of let's come up a little bit more to the front is the carbine the soldier with his carbine the cavalryman with his carbine look at that sculpture look at the detail look at that face the hat the hair you can almost feel the hair blowing in the wind here at antietam today and those eyes so focused so concentrated so determined pennsylvania 12 pennsylvania cavalry did these guys see a lot of action here no in fact they were pretty much behind the lines taking care of union stragglers and confederate prisoners of war that's what their principal job was but they were in this sector this is the first core sector the 12th course sector and this is where they were located and do you know it's interesting let's take a look here for a moment all the campaigns all the places that the 12 pennsylvania cavalry fought look at this look at this now you're going to recognize most of those names most of those places many of you been to many of those places the american battlefield trust has purchased land and protected battlefields that you see there on this list well in fact let me just get in here at 2nd manassas to be sure at south mountain at antietam um at fishers hill at monocacy um at winchester second and third winchester certainly at cedar creek and the list goes on good point thomas well see that's the interesting thing about this gary is you usually don't see all battles represented on one monument here you have everything that they participated in in one monument because this is the sole monument the only monument the single monument to the 12th pennsylvania cavalry on all the battlefields this is it and it's interesting they chose antietam so i want to finish with this let's ask everyone why why they weren't in the front they weren't in the action they barely fired a shot their job is principally to the rear dealing with prisoners and stragglers so why would you build a monument here at antietam when you have all these other actions where they saw more more heavy fighting why would you do it here at antietam you know the answer to that you know the answer to that gary you're going to tell us because this was established as a national federal preserve in 1890 and none of those other sites were not a single one of them antietam is the second oldest national battlefield in the united states established in august 1890 and since nothing else was federal property and nothing else represented a preserve that's why this monument is here they chose federal property u.s ground a place where they fought so their monument be preserved forever uh under the responsibility of the federal government so here it is isn't it gorgeous i might add also that the sculptor uh is a very famous sculptor he actually did the washington monument the george washington monument in pittsburgh which is the uh princeton indian war uh monument so that's the same sculptor's name is putch edward ludwig albert push well instead of asking dennis if he's going to pose the exact way that the cavalryman is there he's holding his uh carbine let me end with this if i may you know antietam is not like other battlefields in the way it was preserved dennis mentioned already that uh you know it was one of the first two um to be preserved but unlike chickamauga preserved at that time the authorization was not to purchase large tracts of land but rather you know segments around roadways through the battlefield and therefore only portions of antietam were preserved and most of this battlefield has been preserved in the last 30 35 years including the cornfield the lead up to the sunken road the epicenter of the battlefield by the national park service the safe historic antietam foundation and of course the american battlefield trust so we hope you enjoy seeing some of your handy work we hope that you can catch us elsewhere on the battlefield in the meantime go to battlefields.org to get inspired you

Channel: American Battlefield Trust

Views: 8,180

Rating: 4.9918032 out of 5

Keywords: American Battlefield Trust, Civil War Trust, antietam battlefield tour, unknown antietam, antietam video tour, 159th anniversary of antietam, unknown civil war

Id: W-uSpUEu6V0

Length: 7min 45sec (465 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 16 2021