Antietam - Bloodiest Day in the History of America

As I said in the correction to my last blog, I wanted to devote one separate entry to Antietam. As we travelled around Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, and later Kentucky, we crossed uncountable numbers of civil war battlefields. They are everywhere out here. You can't travel around over here and not encounter them.

We'd heard about the famous battle at Antietam creek and decided to go there. It was the single most bloody one-day battle in America's history.

"The Army of the Potomac, under the command of George McClellan, mounted a series of powerful assaults against Robert E. Lee’s forces near Sharpsburg, Maryland, on September 17, 1862. The morning assault and vicious Confederate counterattacks swept back and forth through Miller’s Cornfield and the West Woods."

 The old Dunker Church that survived the battle, just on the edge of the west wood.
The people were called Dunkers because they  believed in full immersion into the river at baptism.

  Me standing at the edge of the west wood. The little Dunker Church is in front of me.

Oh how deceiving is the peace and beauty of this gently rolling Miller's farmland, cornfields and woodlands.

Who would now guess the horrors these trees saw, and the blood that seeped into this land?

A mock soldiers' camp. This would have been a common sight here.

  The sunken roadway nicknamed "Bloody Lane" because of all the bodies and the blood of that dreadful day.

Geoff walks along the other side of the sunken roadway, so peaceful and green now.

 Click on this writing to read the real historical account of this battle.

View across the battlefield from the Observation Tower.

The extent of this battlefield was astounding.

"Late in the day, the third and final major assault by the Union army pushed over a bullet-strewn stone bridge at Antietam Creek."

I wonder... if the night is still enough... if the breeze blows in just the right direction... if all is quiet... do you still hear the moans and cries of the wounded and dying...?

Morgantown, Antietam, Front Royal to Shenandoah & Luray Caverns

We left Wheeling and stayed that night just out of Morgantown. The next morning we headed for Antietam Civil War Battlefields. We then went on to Front Royal, the gateway to the spectacular Blue Ridge Parkway, and the next day went through Luray Caverns.

Remember John Denver's song? "West Virginia, mountain momma, blue ridge mountain, Shenandoah River..." Well, we did the Skyline Drive along the Blue Ridge Mountain trail. Below us in the valley was the Shenandoah River.

Spectacular. But... it just happened to be Memorial Day weekend. That's USA's version of our ANZAC day, only they have a long weekend to remember all the veterans from all their wars past and present. So... us and about 50 million others did the Skyline Drive. Even so, it wasn't too bad. 

It was a little hazy that day so the photos don't show it all off as beautiful as it really was.

Yeah, couldn't keep my hands off his muscles.

 

We stopped the night at Front Royal and drove through pretty little civil war towns out to the Antietam Battlefield. You'll have to see my next blog for details of that. 

After Antietam we stayed the night at Luray and the next day went to see the Luray Caverns.

Luray is a small town, but very pretty.

 They seem to like their murals here too.

Luray Caverns are really worth seeing. There's also motor museum there, and an American history museum where one of the volunteers gave us a demonstration of how to fire a musket.


I hoped to capture some orbs or plasma flashes inside the caves. When I put the photos onto the computer I did notice a few.

In one part of the caverns they did find some human bones. They turned out to be a native American girl of about 16 years. They think the bones were washed into the cave from an above burial.

 Wonderful formations.

Stalactites hang from the roof. Stalagmites grow from the ground. (Just in case you wanted to know.) 

Towards the bottom of the photo you can see what looks like two little bright balls. 


Those are 2 very bright energy orbs right above the place where the young girl's bones were found.

Besides the caverns, there was a great carriage and motor car museum.

When we finished looking at all the old carriages and cars, we headed over for a quick musket loading and firing demonstration.

After our history lesson, we headed on down to see the mighty Shenandoah River in person.

Yes, I did stick my toes in the water.

Couldn't help myself.