March 16, 2013: Clemens/Frye lectures, book signing, and dinner
The Shepherdstown Battlefield Preservation Association Inc., and the Save Historic Antietam Foundation Inc. (SHAF) are co-sponsoring a book signing dinner on Saturday, March 16 at the War Memorial Building in Shepherdstown, WV. The dinner will celebrate the publication of Dr. Tom Clemens’s second volume of Ezra Carmen’s The Maryland Campaign of September 1862 and the publication of Dennis Frye’s book: September Suspense: Lincoln’s Union in Peril. Tom is the president of SHAF and Professor Emeritus of Hagerstown Community College. Dennis is Chief Historian at Harpers Ferry National Historical Park.
War Memorial Building – Historic Shepherdstown Commission
The book signing will be from 6:00 – 7:00PM during a cocktail hour. Dinner will be served afterwards. After dinner, Tom and Dennis will discuss the subject of their books. In addition, an auction of Civil War related items will be held at the dinner. The cost is $45 per plate. More details and reservations can be made at: http://www.battleofshepherdstown.org/Dinner2013.html
If you would like to donate a Civil War related item to the auction, please let us know. We hope to see you all on March 16.
Antietam Guides Annual Dinner
The following post first appeared on the blog of Antietam Battlefield Guide Randy Buchman (Enfilading Lines) on Nov. 16, 2012.
This evening, the Antietam Battlefield Guides, Western Maryland Interpretive Association, National Park associates, and varied friends gathered at the South Mountain Inn for our annual dinner.
The Inn – known as the Mountain House during the Civil War – is located on the National Turnpike where it traverses South Mountain at Turner’s Gap just above Boonsboro, MD. (You can link to the history of the Inn HERE.) This is one of the gaps where the Confederates sought to hold off the advance of the Union Army on Sunday, September 14thof 1862 – just three days before the Battle of Antietam. The Rebels were successful in holding the gap until darkness fell, but then retreated to the west through Boonsboro and ultimately over the Antietam Creek to the Sharpsburg Ridge.
In this blog I often include unpublished journal remarks of Abner Doubleday. He was a brigade commander under General Hooker during the Battle of South Mountain – fighting on the right of the Union line. This would position him to the north of the National Pike – ultimately at a higher mountain location from which a road would descend and empty onto the Pike at the location of the Mountain House.
Doubleday wrote in his journal entry as he began his September 15 remarks: “In the morning I assembled the division and went down to report to General Hooker. He was seated with Sumner on the porch of the tavern in the gap. Sumner told Hooker if he did not hurry up he would be ahead of him in the pursuit of the enemy. General McClellan was not aware that the enemy had gone until some time after daylight. I reported to Hooker the victory we had gained on the right of the road, and he was much pleased.”
It was too cold for us to meet on that porch this evening, but we did gather in the upper room of the old Inn – which is also located at the very spot where the Appalachian Trail crosses the Pike. This is the spot where tomorrow morning the most famous of ultra-marathons – the JFK 50 – will turn onto the Trail for a 16-mile segment taking the participants to the Potomac River near Harpers Ferry.
Park Superintendent Susan Trail spoke to the group, reflecting particularly on the recent 150th commemoration. She called it “the four most amazing days of my career.” Today also marked her first anniversary at Antietam.
The Guides organization also recognized the three new guides who have joined the organization this year – having passed the grueling qualification process.
O.T. Reilly
An award was given for the first time – the O.T. Reilly Award – which was given to John Schildt. Those familiar with the literature written on the Battle of Antietam know that quite a number of books have been penned by John. He has made a lifetime study of the battle, the battlefield, the participants, and the local population of the time. It is certainly appropriate that John would receive this upon his 50+ years of giving tours to varied groups. O.T. Reilly (1857-1944) was a lifelong Sharpsburg resident who began giving tours at age 15. He would often give up to seven tours a day! He personally met literally hundreds of the veterans, and O.T. was truly the first tour guide of Antietam.
The Guides have given about 800 tours this year.
Antietam Guide Books
Our Guides are always hard at work researching, speaking, and publishing in order to further all of our knowledge on the Battle of Antietam and the Maryland Campaign. Two of our veteran Guides, Steve Recker and Tom Clemens have two new publications out just in time for the 150th Anniversary of Antietam, this weekend.
Steve Recker has put together a staggering collection of rare photographs of the Antietam Battlefield that not only help us understand the Battle, but the evolution of the National Battlefield we all know today. His latest book is titled, Rare Images of Antietam: and the photographers who took them, and will be available this weekend. You can order a copy through Steve’s page here, or pick one up this weekend at the Battlefield. Steve will be speaking at the Antietam National Battlefield Visitor Center on Friday (9/14) at 1pm.
Any good student of the Maryland Campaign knows how incredibly priceless the work of Antietam Historian, and veteran of the Battle, Ezra Carman is. Carman sat as the Historian of the Antietam Battlefield Commission, and as such, collected hundreds of soldier interviews and accounts of the Battle. However, for generations, Carman’s manuscript sat unfinished, and underutilized. Recently, Antietam Guide and Historian, Dr. Tom Clemens, toiled for years to organize, annotate, and research Carman’s unfinished work. In 2010, Clemens published Vol.I of Carman’s work, which takes readers up to the Battle of South Mountain. Vol. II,which will be available this weekend, is almost entirely dedicated to Carman’s research of the Battle of Antietam. It is from this research that a series of invaluable ‘time stamped’ maps were created of the action at Antieatm, as well as the text we all see on the War Department Tablets. So order your copy today, or pick it up at the battlefield this weekend. You can also hear Tom speak on the subject at 10am on Sunday (9/16) in the Speakers Tent near the Visitor Center.
Welcome to the official site for the Antietam Battlefield Guide Association. The Antietam Guides are a group of historians dedicated to providing outstanding interpretive tours of the Antietam Battlefield, as well as other sites related to the Maryland Campaign of 1862. The Antietam Guides are booked through the Antietam National Battlefield Museum Store. This site offers a listing of our battlefield guides, as well as updates about our programs, what our guides are up to, and information about Antietam National Battlefield. We hope to see you at the park soon!
Antietam Battlefield Guides 