In September 1862, the landscape of Western Maryland became the focus of a nation divided in two, the focus of a nation that held its breath as Robert E. Lee’s thus far victorious Confederate army advanced north across the Potomac River to deal the final blow to a United States that seemed to be on its last leg.  Lee began his campaign with the goal of defeating a Union army on northern soil and gaining independence for the eleven states of the Confederacy while Abraham Lincoln, president of the United States, and George McClellan, commanding the Union Army of the Potomac, struggled to keep the young United States as one nation instead of two.  This decisive campaign culminated along the banks of Antietam Creek in western Maryland and stopped the Confederacy’s quest for independence while helping to grant freedom to a whole race of people and changing the course of the Civil War and of the United States itself.  The importance of the Maryland Campaign cannot be fully understood unless you join me in seeing one of the best-preserved battlefields in the United States and walking in the footsteps of the soldiers and civilians who experienced the bloodiest single day in American history.

I became a student of America’s greatest struggle after my first trip to the Gettysburg battlefield in southern Pennsylvania when I was nine years old.  There, a licensed battlefield guide sparked my interest in the Civil War and it has grown ever since.  I hope that as a guide, I too can inspire others to find their passion and realize how important the Civil War was in shaping the United States that we know today.

I graduated from Shepherd University in 2014 with a major in the Civil War and Nineteenth-Century America.  I write regularly for the Emerging Civil War blog and published my first book in 2015: Shepherdstown in the Civil War: One Vast Confederate Hospital.  I am also actively involved as a member of the Board of Directors of the Save Historic Antietam Foundation and the Shepherdstown Battlefield Preservation Association.

I hope you will join me as we traverse the fields of Antietam that were marred by the horrors of war and forever changed the lives of not only the soldiers but also the civilians that lived around the once peaceful town of Sharpsburg, Maryland.  Come with me to the iconic Dunker Church, walk with me through the infamous Cornfield, step into the Bloody Lane, and cross the Burnside Bridge and experience one of the most important days in American history with me at Antietam National Battlefield.

I can accommodate tours of any size and can personalize your tour to fit a particular interest that you may have in the battle.  You can book a tour with me by calling the Antietam Museum Bookstore at 301-432-4329 or 866-461-5180.