May 20, 2008

May 20, 2008

It poured again all night. I am beginning to think the East is one big rain forest. By morning the rain has stopped so we take the park shuttle back into the historic town of Harpers Ferry, WV. There we walk the railroad bridge across the Potomac River to Maryland. Our intent was to hike up the cliff to an overlook for a good view of the environs. Aimee is cold and vetoes the idea. Instead we walk along the riverbank and the C&O Canal that follows the Potomac. The entire length of the canal and adjoining towpath is now part of the C&O Canal National Historic Park and the Potomac Heritage National Scenic Trail.

After this quick tour, we are back in the RV for a short drive to Sharpsburg, MD and Antietam National Battlefield. We watch a movie about the battle in the Visitor Center. In September 1862, Robert E. Lee led his Confederate troops across the Potomac to bring the war to the North. When Harpers Ferry troops failed to retreat with his advance he was forced to split his army, sending half back to capture them. By shear luck, Union General McClellan found a misplaced copy of Lee’s battle orders, giving him a strategic advantage. McClellan attacked in what turned out to be the bloodiest single day of the war, 24,000 lost. Both sides fought with antiquated bloody frontal assaults. Despite the North’s numerical superiority, the battle ended in a draw; Lee, however, retreated ending his Northern campaign. Lincoln took advantage of the “win” and issued his Emancipation Proclamation freeing slaves in Rebel states, adding slavery elimination to Union war goals, and hoping to preclude intervention by England.

After the movie, we take an audio tour drive around the battlefield. It is mostly open fields crossed by fence-lined roads that have become immortalized in the first journalistic photography. One of the battle sites is a beautiful bridge that is hard to believe was the site of major carnage. At one stop I overhear a guide giving a lecture to a busload of senior citizens. The guide’s voice is very distinctive and so familiar. I remember him from the Vicksburg audio tour we took two weeks ago! He is Edwin Bearss, the former Chief Historian of the National Park Service.

We had to laugh when we saw a monument in the form of a Minie Ball. During our Civil War tours, we often read about this innovative lead rifle bullet (named after a Frenchman); it is the most common artifact found at the battlefields.

We spend the night at one of Yogi Bear’s Jellystone campgrounds in nearby Williamsport, MD.