Antietam National Cemetery was dedicated September 17, 1867. It holds the remains of 4,776 Union dead from the battles of Antietam, South Mountain, Monocacy, and other actions in Maryland. Over 200 post-Civil War veterans and their families are also buried here.
Although the original plan included Confederate dead, public opinion caused 2,800 southerners to be buried at Washington Confederate Cemetery in Hagerstown, Maryland; Mt. Olivet Cemetery in Frederick, Maryland; and Elmwood Cemetery in Shepherdstown, West Virginia.
The cemetery layout covers over 11 acres centered on the large monument to the Private Soldier, known as "Old Simon." The men are arranged by state, with 1,836 in a large section for the unknown. There are also monuments to the 4th and 20th New York Infantry Regiments and Company F, 1st United States Sharpshooter Regiment.
The Cemetery also includes a beautiful Lodge Building and the Cemetery Supententent's Quarters which is now the park headquarters.
From the tablet:
"Not for themselves, but for their country..."
Antietam National Cemetery
Here lie 4,776 Union soldiers, more than a third of them unknown. Built by Maryland and other Union states, the Cemetery was dedicated five years after the battle. In 1878 it was transferred to the War Department and in 1833 the Cemetery and the Battlefield site were transferred to the National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior.
The Cemetery was closed for further burial in 1953. In adition to the Civil War dead, 261 veterans of later wars are also buried here."*
* An exception was made for the October 29, 2000 burial of Keedysville resident Patrick Howard Roy, United States Navy, who was killed during the attack on the USS Cole.
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