Antietam Markers

I just started the first round of Antietam battlefield historical markers and monuments for HMDB. Prior to this weekend, the site was under-represented. Mostly as the sheer number of markers, monuments, and things to photograph and track is simply too daunting to tackle without some method and measure. There are well over 240 War Department tablets alone, counting those at Harpers Ferry, South Mountain, and Shepherdstown sites. Add in the monuments, memorials, and NPS interpretive markers and the tally probably exceeds 380 if not 400.

One clarification, however, from an editorial standpoint, HMDB started life defining a “marker” as a permanent, outdoor device that relates an aspect of history. A general exception was made early on for “war memorials” to avoid splitting hairs. Instead of hashing over the details, I’ll just go with my rule of thumb – a marker should stand out with a text narrative relating an event. So while many of the unit memorials fit well within my personal definition, some of the memorials may not. We’ll have to send “Old Simon” to the editorial board when the time comes, for adjudication for example.

The approach taken is similar to that used for Chancellorsville (which is about 80% complete, scroll down to see the “virtual tours”) . Myself and a few other contributors divided the markers and memorials geographically to form “virtual tours.” Each of these tours were then linked off a master trail head. The same system was used, but scaled up from, battlefields at Monocacy and Third Winchester. The system presents well for the map displays. If the user is so disposed, can opt to print out the series to a PDF writer. Such could make a handy, if rudimentary, tour guide.

For Antietam, I’ve opted to add a new aspect to the documentation. While “virtual tours” grouped under the trail heads will work for some associations, it would be nice to track a unit through the battlefield by its markers. Or perhaps view all the memorials from a particular state. To achieve this, I’m leveraging the features for both related markers and defined series. The War Department tablets (or Antietam Battlefield Board markers as some have called them) are grouped under their own separate series – Antietam Campaign War Department Markers. As these and others get fleshed out, I’ll work in relations as done here for Manning’s Brigade.

The intent, beyond just having the place-markers of the battlefield documented, is to provide a place where the information surrounding the points of this battle can be resourced – links to other sites, comments, and the all important photographs.