Noticing xxxii - Antietam

Today I went with a friend, Kate, to see the movie Harriet, about the slave turned underground railroad "conductor" and Civil War nurse and spy Harriet Tubman. I knew nothing about her, so I am happy, now, to know a little bit more. Afterward, Kate googled to see how accurate the movie was (pretty), and she also googled the Civil War raid on Combahee Ferry, South Carolina, which the movie covers briefly toward the end—a raid that Tubman was instrumental in doing reconnaissance for and leading. It turns out, the Combahee River is a hop, skip, and a jump from where Kate's father grew up—in a former plantation main house on Edisto Island. Kate herself grew up in Arlington, Virginia. She was surrounded by the Civil War—and slaveholding—from the git-go.

Me, growing up in California, of course I read about the Civil War in history books, but it had no real meaning: it was just stories, photographs, maps. So a few years ago when my husband was living for a year in Maryland and I went out to visit, it was very moving for me to spend time at a couple of the greatest battlefields: Antietam (the bloodiest day in U.S. history, September 17, 1862, with 22,717 dead, wounded, or missing) and Gettysburg (a three-day battle, July 1–3, 1863, with casualties of between 46,000 and 51,000). The interpretation at both spots is fabulous, giving a very visceral sense of the mayhem and horror.

Antietam, Kurz & Allison lithograph, 1888

Confederate dead on the Hagerstown Road, Sharpsburg

My visit was much more peaceful. I took some photos at Antietam.

The visitor center in the distance. The 12-hour Battle of
Sharpsburg (as it is called in the South) was played out over
a large area centered more or less on that monument.

And one at Gettysburg—the graves of unknown soldiers:

Such a tragedy, that war. And it's too bad we haven't evolved more in the 150 years since.