August 30, 1890

September 17, 1862 is well known in US Civil War history because it was the date for the one-day Battle of Antietam, the single bloodiest day in American history. The Army of Northern Virginia, under the command of Robert E. Lee, had invaded the North for the first time and was attempting to scare the Union into a surrender. 

The Army of the Potomac, under the command of George McClellan, pursued the Confederates and met them near Sharpsburg, Maryland on Antietam Creek, a battle that resulted in a combined 22,000+ casualties. No clear winner emerged but the battle was viewed as a strategic victory for the Union and ended the first invasion by the Confederacy into the North.

Photo: nps.gov

By 1890, the US government designated five Civil War battlefields as military parks to be administered by the War Department: Chickamauga and Chattanooga, Shiloh, Gettysburg, Vicksburg and Antietam. Of the five, Antietam was given the least attention because it was viewed as being in the middle of nowhere and was given the least amount of money for its designation as a military park.

Photo: Hilary Grabowska

Ezra Carman is considered the leading expert on the Battle of Antietam. Whenever a new interpretive program is developed at Antietam National Battlefield, the park rangers first look at Carman's manuscript on the battle before moving forward.

Carman led the 13th New Jersey Volunteer Infantry at the Battle of Antietam, but it was not just his experience at the battle that made him an expert. In 1894, Carman was appointed to the board that was working on establishing the Antietam park and he was assigned tasks that included mapping the battle, marking important locations, acquiring land for the battlefield park and directing visitors to the important locations. To do this, Carman consulted hundreds of Confederate and Union veterans of the battle as well as citizens of the area. Very rarely in his manuscript does he include his own experiences from the battle.

Photo: 8cv.org (Brevet Brigadier General Ezra Carman)

The battlefield was administered by the War Department until 1933 when President Franklin Roosevelt had all military parks transferred over to the National Park Service, an agency that was only 17 years old at the time. When Antietam was turned over, only 65 acres were protected; locations like Dunker Church and Burnside Bridge were still in private hands. But local historical societies had begun purchasing land associated with the battle to preserve them and turned the land over to the National Park Service once the NPS could accept donations.

Photo: onlinelibrary.wiley.com

This past July, the Civil War Trust acquired 44 acres at the heart of the battlefield and will turn it over to Antietam National Battlefield.  This piece of land, beside the "Bloody Cornfield" actually saw more casualties than the cornfield, according to Dr. Thomas Clemens. Ezra Carman's work is not finished yet and his research is still being used to remember those who gave their lives on the single bloodiest day in American history.

Photo: Antietam National Battlefield brochure map