Antietam

By JULIE E. GREENE Staff Writer Tickets are now on sale for the 135th Commemorative Re-enactment of the Battle of Antietam Sept. 12-14, said Coordinator Greg Larson. As many as 50,000 spectators and 15,000 re-enactors are expected to attend the event at the Artz Farm on Rench Road between Sharpsburg Pike and Downsville Pike. Three phases of the Sept. 17, 1862, battle will be recreated by re-enactors - The Cornfield, "Bloody Lane" and A.P. Hill's assault. Tickets can be purchased in advance at the following locations: Boonsboro - Boonsboro Pharmacy, 7628 Old National Pike.

By JULIE E. GREENE Staff Writer The 135th Commemoration of the Battle of Antietam was so successful organizers already are talking about holding the event every five years. Event co-chairwoman Susan Saum-Wicklein said Monday she and co-chairman Dennis Frye talked casually this past weekend about making the commemoration a regular event. Saum-Wicklein said she thought Frye's estimate of 100,000 spectators was a little high, although official counts were not yet available.

HAGERSTOWN gregs@herald-mail.com The Battle of Antietam was 142 years ago, but a new book offers a fresh look at where the battle happened. Halli Casser-Jayne, of Shepherdstown, W.Va., said she hopes her book, "Still Life Images of Antietam," will bridge the gap between history and art. "The book is very 'now,'" Casser-Jayne said Thursday as she sat behind neat stacks of the book at the Hagerstown-Washington County Convention and Visitors Bureau's visitors center on North Potomac Street, signing copies for the book's premiere.

CHAMBERSBURG, PA. -- Abraham Lincoln said at Gettysburg that "the world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here," words echoed Monday by Letterkenny Army Depot Commander Col. Steven Shapiro. Lincoln was, in one respect, wrong. The Gettysburg Address is much noted and long remembered, as is the sacrifice of those who have given their lives in this nation's wars. Memorial Square was ringed by veterans from five wars, bands and a few hundred onlookers Monday for the 140th Memorial Day, some old soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines stiffening to attention for "The Star-Spangled Banner.

By STEVEN T. DENNIS Staff Writer A new novel by author Kathleen Ernst looks at the Battle of Antietam from a new perspective - how it affected the friendship of two young women who lived in Sharpsburg and took different sides in the war. The "Bravest Girl in Sharpsburg" is based on real women who lived in the town during the battle, Teresa Kretzer and Savilla Miller. Kretzer and Miller lived a few houses away from each other and were both near 20 years old but had very different thoughts on the Civil War, Ernst said.

By KERRY LYNN FRALEY Staff Writer Organizers appreciated Allegheny Power System's offer to string temporary power lines to the Artz farm property during next month's commemoration of the 135th anniversary of the Battle of Antietam. But it just wasn't an option in providing needed power to the Sutlers' Village booths, said event coordinator Greg Larsen. "It would have been less expensive, but we had to say 'no' to try to maintain integrity," said Larsen, who instead searched for a silent generator to do the job. The three-day event commemorating the Sept.

waynesboro@herald-mail.com Mary Bedlinger Mitchell was 12 years old on Sept. 17, 1862, when the Battle of Antietam, the Civil War's bloodiest single day, raged in Sharpsburg, just three miles from her home. Mitchell lived with her mother, brother and sister on a farm known today as Rosebrake, about one mile south of Shepherdstown, W.Va., on W.Va. 480. She was born in 1850 in a house called Bedford, which was burned by Union troops later in the war, said James T. Surkamp, a Shepherdstown historian.

Several years ago, the descendants of the men who were members of the Irish Brigade from New York and Massachusetts and fought at Antietam during the Civil War asked area Boy Scouts to place flags on the graves at the National Cemetery. Boy Scout Troop 14 has taken on this project. On Sept. 13, members of Troop 14 placed U.S. flags on the graves of 30 Irish Brigade soldiers at the National Cemetery. The Scouts visited other grave sites in the cemetery and learned of the history of the battle and the significance of remembering fallen soldiers.

More than 50,000 people are expected to attend this weekend's commemoration of the Battle of Antietam. During the three-day event, more than 10,000 re-enactors in historically accurate uniforms will re-create four major parts of the battle over three days, which should be quite a spectacle. But what did the event that they'll commemorate really mean to the outcome of the Civil War? For some answers, I turned to Tom Clemens, a professor of history at Hagerstown Communtity College who teaches a course on the Civil War. Clemens said he agrees with historian James McPherson.