I went there once, a hurried pilgrim on my way home. Time to stop but not reflect. I vow to go there again, to walk the fields in silence, to meditate upon this number — 23,000 — the tally of soldiers killed or missing during the Battle of Antietam on September 17, 1862.

It was the single greatest one-day loss of American life. It happened less than two hours from here.

The landscape now is serene. It’s up to us to imagine the horror.


Burnside Bridge on September 1862 (photo by Alexander Gardner, courtesy Library of Congress) and in 2008.