Existing comment:
"This Is Not The Way We Bury Folks At Home"
-- Pvt. Roland Bowen, 15th Massachusetts Infantry
In the days following the battle, Union soldiers buried thousands of bodies from both armies. Burial details performed their grisly task with speed, but not great care. Graves ranged from single burials to long shallow trenches which held dozens. In 1864 a National Cemetery was established to provide a more proper burial for the dead of Antietam. Three years later, construction was complete and the bodies of Federal soldiers were then reinterred. Confederate soldiers remained in the fields, but eventually were re-buried at three local cemeteries. The National Cemetery not only provided a final resting place, it also established a site for people to gather and reflect upon the sacrifices made by these men.
Photographer Alexander Gardner captured these images of the initial battlefield burials. Gardner titles these two images "Graves of Federal soldiers at Burnside Bridge" and "Federals buried. Confederate unburied, where they fell."
The creation of the Antietam National Cemetery transformed the scattered remains of the Union dead into neat rows of graves, organized by state. The colossal statue of the "Private Soldier" was added and dedicated on September 17, 1880. |