Larger version of this image is available here at the Washington Post.com, but you might have to register to see it.In Wednesday's Post, there's a boring reflection on Antietam, a Civil War battlefield in Maryland. I think the Battle of Antietam was the bloodiest one-day battle in the Civil War (if not all of American military history). But, there's a map of the battlefield--I've included above--and it points out little-known events that occurred at Antietam, including the site of a "suicide attack" ordered by a drunk colonel.
Driving down to Atlanta from DC, we ended up stopping at a lot of Civil War sites. And there's not a lot to see at some of them. At one stop--the Stonewall Jackson Shrine in Virginia--people were taking pictures of the Park Service's informational signs. For Antietam, at least, the Park Service has a webpage detailing the types of things that you will see at the battlefield. I'm not sure what to make of these different items, but I was reminded of our conversation about markers. The Park Service identifies specific "monuments" but all of these (can we call them markers?) are monuments of a sort.
1 comment:
The markers at battlefields are absolutely crucial, because the field itself usually has few obvious physical markers of the battle. In some places (Gettysburg, Little Bighorn) they become historic in their own right. What's interesting is that there has been a shift from marking the action on the field to preserving the land and keeping the markers off of it.
I have taken, for the record, many, many pictures of markers and signs. Among other things, it can be an efficient mode of note-taking when you are doing research.
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