I visited Antietam National Battlefield yesterday. I have wanted to see the park for years and I was not disappointed. Antietam may be the most impressive Civil War site that I've visited, mainly because the battlefield still looks largely like it did 149 years ago. You can imagine the terrible fighting that took place there because there is no commercial or residential development surrounding it as there is at far too many Civil War sites.
Of course, Antietam was one of the most significant battles of the war, but it also had an important role in media history. Alexander Gardner made some of the best-known photographs of the war at Antietam, pictures that for the first time showed the shocking casualties from the fighting. Although photographs such as the Confederate dead at Dunker Church or the Bloody Lane are better known, my favorite has always been the Union burial party (above). To me the single tombstone, under the large tree with the soldiers sillhouetted against a bleak sky, captures the tragedy and valor of the war.