Antietam

Yesterday Walt and I drove to Sharpsburg, Md., to see the Antietam Battlefields. It's funny how historical places become so much more interesting as you get older.  I didn't know much about this battle, which took place on September 17, 1862, but Walt has read a lot about it and he filled me in.  Antietam was the bloodiest one-day battle of the Civil War and ended the first Confederate invasion of Union territory.  Of nearly 100,000 soldiers engaged in the battle, 3,650 men were killed and more than 18,000 were wounded or missing. Leading the Union Army was General George B. McClellan and leading the Confederate Army was General Robert E. Lee. Both survived the war, although McClellan was relieved of his command a month later in November 1862, for what Lincoln called "a bad case of the slows." Four days after the bloody battle, President Lincoln issued the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, which marked a turning point in the Civil War.

Antietam is a beautiful area, very peaceful and calm and there were lots of people walking the roads around the battlefield. The battle lasted 12 hours and you can follow the course of the battle, either by car or on foot, from the beginning near the Dunker Church, through the surrounding farmland and cornfields.

 There are lots of monuments, of course, honoring all the different regiments, both Union and Confederate.

Most of dead from the Union Army are buried in the Antietam Cemetery. Interestingly, the Confederate soldiers are buried separately, in nearby cemeteries.

It was fascinating to see markers like this one and to realize that these soldiers fought right around where we live (we live near Dranesville and Great Falls).

We also went to see The Artist on Saturday night, which we really liked. I was afraid I would be bored with a silent movie, but not at all.  It's so refreshing to see such a creative and thoughtful movie, especially when it seems like there is so much junk at the movies. We have seen most of the movies that were up for Best Picture this year, and liked all of them, but I am glad The Artist won! And love Jean Dujardin, mais oui!

Great Falls

Walt and I went for a long walk yesterday morning at Great Falls. Neither one of us has felt very good this weekend, so we thought some fresh air might help. It was cold out but it was nice to see so many people out and about, enjoying the park. It's such a great place for kids to run around the paths and scramble up and down all the rocks. There is a path along the river and then other paths that go through the woods, with lookouts along the river. We used to come here in the summer with our kids and have breakfasts here. I remember doing that with Mom and Dad, and with Patty and Mark, too. The park is great all year, of course, but I particularly like it in winter. There is something about the starkness of the rocks and the water, and the noise of the falls. Usually you see kayakers around, but we didn't see any today.

Calm waters after the falls

I am always amazed to see the high water marks. It's so hard to imagine the water being this high.

I love all the rocks,  and everywhere you see stone walls, which are the remains of the old Patowmack Canal, which was built next to the river, so that river traffic could skirt the falls. Interestingly, the Canal was the idea of George Washington (Happy President's Day, George), who believed that the passageway from the Potomac River to the Ohio River was key to the future of our country.

Here is Walt standing on one of the locks from the old canal.

And I loved the bark on this tree--I came home and looked it up online and I believe it is a native dogwood. We will have to go back in the spring and check if it is indeed a dogwood. Later in the afternoon, we went to see The Descendants, which we both liked a lot. And so much for the snow we were supposed to get and the weather people have been talking about for days. Not one snowflake!! What a winter. I'll stop complaining soon.