Antietam National Battlefield
National Battlefield · Sharpsburg, Maryland
The farmland around Sharpsburg where, on 17 September 1862, roughly twenty-three thousand men were killed, wounded or went missing in a single day — the bloodiest day in American history, before or since. Lee's first invasion of the North was stopped here, and the result gave Lincoln the victory he had been waiting for to issue the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation five days later. Unlike Gettysburg, the ground still looks like 1862: open fields, low monument density, and a cornfield that is still planted in corn.
5831 Dunker Church Road, Sharpsburg, Maryland, 21782, United States
The battlefield roads and grounds are open daily from dawn to dusk; the visitor centre generally 9 AM to 5 PM, closed Thanksgiving, 25 December and 1 January. A MODEST ENTRANCE FEE APPLIES, per person or per vehicle and valid several days, with federal passes accepted. THE ANTIETAM ILLUMINATION on the first Saturday in December places a lit luminary for every casualty across the fields — it is free, it draws very large numbers, and the access arrangements change each year, so check the park before planning around it.
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