“Mr. Brady has done something to bring home to us the terrible reality and earnestness of war. If he has not brought bodies and laid them in our dooryards and along our streets, he has done something very like it…

With these printed words, a correspondent for the New York Times tried his utmost to describe the photographs taken by Alexander Gardner just two days after the Battle of Antietam that were put on display at Matthew Brady’s Studio in New York City in October of 1862.

Visitors fined up for blocks on Broadway eager to see the first photographs of dead soldiers taken before they were buried. These photographs were not the pencil sketches or oil paintings people were accustomed to. Rather, they were of swelling corpses and distorted faces of men in the agony of death. Visitors pondered whether this war was worth the toll it was taking of American lives.

To the present day this same question is constantly debated.

The American Civil War still holds a fascination for visitors to battlefields protected by the United States Park Service. Reading and researching aspects of the Civil War is very important. However, walking in the footsteps of these two American armies bring to life not only military decisions and strategies but also the personal journeys of soldiers caught up in our country’s violent struggle.

Retiring in December 2024, I completed twenty-five years as a Career Seasonal Park Ranger at Antietam National Battlefield. I was fortunate to provide interpretative talks, tours, hikes and musical performances to thousands of visitors From United States Congressmen foreign dignitaries, military units, school groups to families passing through on vacation, all were drawn to the historical and personal drama of visiting the most preserved and protected battlefield in this country.

Graduating with a Bachelor of Science and Master of Arts from West Virginia University, pursued a career in Public Education for thirty-two years. In addition, I was commissioned as an Army officer and completed twenty-eight years in the Army Reserve. As a Certified Guide at Antietam National Battlefield, it would be my great pleasure to take you on a journey back in time to that day in September, 1862 when so many Americans were willing to risk their lives for their county and for each other.