On September 17, 1862, Robert E. Lee's Confederate Army of Northern Virginia met George McClellan's Union Army of the Potomac near the small town of Sharpsburg along the banks of Antietam Creek. In the single bloodiest day of fighting of the Civil War - and in all of U.S. history - 23,000 soldiers were killed, wounded or missing. |
Today, the battlefield is the home to almost one hundred monuments and over two hundred historical markers.
Tour the Battlefield or Search by State or Type
You can find monuments and markers on this site by army, state and category using the menus on the left. Or you can tour the battlefield via interactive maps that link to pages featuring monuments, markers and terrain features. |
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Union Regiments and Batteries
The greatest number of monuments are to Union units. These were put up by states as well as indivdual regimental organizations in the years after the war. A few states have a moument or marker to every regiment they sent to the field. Others, such as New York, have a large state monument, but individual regiments may or may not be recognized. Several states have no memorials to their troops at all. |
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Only a small number of monuments honor units of the Confederacy at Antietam, or as it is known in the South, Sharpsburg. After the war the people of the South had no money for memorials on a distant battlefield. Later, state organizations concentrated on battlefields that were better known or closer to home. An exception is Maryland, home of the battlefield and to units on both sides. |
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There are several types of monuments to individuals on the battlefield. Six generals who died or were mortally wounded - three Confederate and three Union - are remembered by "mortuary cannon" that mark the spots where they fell. The single equestrian statue on the battlefield honors Confederate commander Robert E. Lee. Other monuments include a future President of the United States, an angel of mercy, and the true hero of Antietam: the private soldier. |
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War Department Markers
In the 1890's the War Department created a series of over 200 interpretive markers to tell the story of the battle. These usually describe the actions of specific units and are divided into Union markers (numbered 1- 124) and Confederate markers (numbered 300 - 388). Additional markers point out terrain features, some of which are unchanged from 1862. |
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