I went to visit the Antietam battlefield last week. Located in Maryland, Antietam is only 20 minutes from where I used to be stationed at Camp David. I'd never heard of it when I was guarding the President. In fact, I'd never cared. Only in mid-life does Antietam matter. To me. The one day battle of Antietam was the bloodiest day in American military history. It represented a first, tentative step toward victory in the Civil War. The North lost more men on 9/17/62 but Robert E. Lee's strategic vision was forever squashed on that day. Europe could not be enticed to support a confederacy that was chased back across the Potomac river and Abraham Lincoln would use the occasion to announce his "Emancipation Proclamation," freeing the slaves. The world changed forever at Antietam. I think that deserves a song. You can hear it at http://www.acidplanet.com/components/embedfile.asp?asset=1239236&T=6014.
On Seventeen and September
Back in Eighteen and Sixty-Two
The Civil War was a year and a half
Into bloodshed 'tween Gray and the Blue
Momentum had swung the Confederates' way
General Lee saw an opportune chance
McClellan got wind of old Bobbie Lee's plans
And he marched off from D.C. to dance
On the rolling hills of Antietam
On the rolling hills of Antietam
The armies of Lee and McClellan would meet
On the farmlands of Maryland's peace
One hundred and twenty two thousand young men
Near a creek, on a map just a crease
The canons roared through that bloodiest day
From the rise of the sun till it set
And the cornfield just north of the old Dunker's church
Was as far as the rebels would get
On the rolling hills of Antietam
On the rolling hills of Antietam
North woods, west woods, east woods...fire
Morning in the cornfield...fire
Burnside's bridge is drawing fire, come away
The Sunken Road swallowed regiments whole
The dead like the ties of a railroad in rows
And their afternoon's blood soaked the earth to the creek down below
The Yankees fell like the hard summer rain
And Southerners too who had so much to gain
They were piled up in heaps in that long bloody lane, come away, come away
Now one-hundred and forty-seven years have gone by
Like the sand of an hour in a glass
And the fears of a nation at war with itself
Would retreat as the crisis had passed
For a short time it seemed that the sacrifice made
Would supply all the dead men we'd need
But soon we found out it grew worse without doubt
It was just a down payment indeed
On the rolling hills of Antietam
On the rolling hills of Antietam
