This is for
Thursday - Early Arrivals - Our own
James N. is going to do a
WONDERFUL tour for us!
The golden yellow arrows and boxes at right show the route I intended to take plus the main stops (the boxes) on Thursday. The lighter yellow arrow and boxes would be a possible side trip for that Friday morning. In between the two is the route to the Kennedy Farm where John Brown planned his raid several months before; this *might* be worked in first thing on Thursday - a quick dash there and back the same way before setting out up 67 along South Mountain.
I've called the Maryland State Parks regional headquarters in Boonsboro (they administer most of the areas we would visit) and was told the good news that they had just reopened all facilities this past weekend! The only small problem is that they're understaffed and so no longer maintain personnel at all sites, but have what she termed a "ridge runner" between them. She also said that it's not until the END of October that park facilities close for the season, though she called October "off season", saying that because of that a ranger can probably give us a private presentation. I intend to send the person whose name she gave me an E-mail and try to make arrangements for that or at the very least to let us into the museums at Washington Monument and at Gapland in Crampton's Gap.
Before setting out Thursday morning I thought I might give a short description of the campaign in the
War Room we always set up, or in the hotel lobby area. A side trip to the Kennedy Farm would only take a half-hour-round trip or so. I figure we can easily spend an hour or two at Gapland State Park and Burkettsville. Afterwards, before getting to Fox's and Turners' there's a creamery (with very good ice cream cups & cones!) near McClellan's headquarters outlook east of the gaps. Fox's has a trail to the N.C. Monument those ambulatory enough will no doubt want to take, plus the readily accessible monuments to Garland and Reno; I also want to give a talk about some of the more grisly aspects of the battle that happened here. I figure on at least about another hour or so here. You know there's little to see IN Turner's Gap, though the lady I talked with said they can probably open Dalghren Chapel for us if we're interested. Washington Monument would be last if things play out right, and probably take another hour or two, depending on the museum there I haven't actually seen. Of course South Mountain Inn opens for dinner on Thursdays at 5pm if that's where we decide to go. If for some reason we were to finish up before 5 at Washington Mon. we *might* run up Alt. US 40 to Hagerstown and visit the Rose Hill Cemetery where a lot of the Confederate dead from Antietam were ultimately buried.
The secondary side trip at left to Shepherdstown would visit several sites that are quite close together for the time allotted: The small battlefield and Boteler's Ford, about which I (or someone else) can describe pretty quickly there (this battle marked the end of the Antietam Campaign); the town cemetery containing more of the Confederate dead from Antietam, plus graves of Stonewall Jackson's aide and biographer Henry Kyd Douglas and at least a couple of Confederate Generals; just across the Potomac, Douglas' family estate
Ferry Hill, an accessible NPS site; and a little up the road
Grove Farm where Lincoln visited McClellan and they were photographed (a private residence - view at a distance from the road only); and a little farther in the outskirts of Sharpsburg, the site of Lee's headquarters for Antietam.
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