48stateroadtrip.com

No, they didn’t die on Day 81 of my trip. This trip is not that powerful or deadly. OTOH, the intensity of death per day at Antietam relative to size of the USA+CSA was 15,000 times the intensity of Iraq (I wrote about this once). Of course, Iraq is no Korea. Oh well. It’s a pretty battlefield. Antietam, I mean. Had to drive back into Maryland to get there, but it was worth it, I think. Nice skies, grain, fences, and a whole lot of dead people.

Civil War. It was a battle in the Civil War (the Battle of Antietam, sometimes referred to as Battle of Sharpsburg) and a fairly important one I understand. Somehow this sort-of win made Lincoln feel good about issuing the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing all the slaves except for those living in states that Lincoln was actually president of at the time. Well, basically.

This is the New York monument at the battlefield. I like the idea that the three people on the right are monks going to their, I dunno, holy obelisk. Makes it seem more like an Anton Corbijn-directed Depeche Mode video. If only it were in black-and-white.

Watching the approaching Yankees from the Rebel position.

I think this was the Connecticut monument. The guy on it looks like he’s 12. It’s situated alongside Bloody Lane, a sunken road that was sort of advantageous for the Southerners to be in until it wasn’t.

Bloody Lane.

Paved road, not bloody.

Clouds, plus one of those fences they always set up around Civil War battlefields.

So I thought it was kind of a pretty battlefield. Nice clouds, for example. It makes you kind of sad to stand there and think about it. I mean, that’s a lot of dead guys. And then I remember that my relatives left the country 15 years before the Civil War to see if they could get a better deal in Mexico. So that makes it only as sad as a horrible, bloody civil war happening in someone else’s country. Someone else’s country that had recently annexed you. It’s slightly mitigating is what I’m getting at.

bkd

I liked Ft. McHenry better than Freedom Hall in no small part because it wasn’t entirely swarmed with people. I’m guessing having to figure out how to drive through the huddled masses of Baltimore thins out the crowd a little. Certainly the lack of useful signage doesn’t help a lot either.

Nice fort, though.

15 stars, 15 stripes.

It was at half-mast because it was national dead firefighters day or something. I think the flag’s at half-mast more often than full-mast these days.

All cannons should be this black.

Outside the fort — on the land side.

I guess early 19th century forts are more exciting to run around than look at pictures of. (Yes, I ended a sentence with a preposition. It was easier that way.) Still, it’s a cool fort. It’d have been even cooler if they’d preserved the truce ship out in the harbor that Francis Scott Key was sitting on when he wrote the poem. And the flag they have there only had 15 stars on it even though there were like 18 states. Looks good with 15, though — maybe we should go back.

bkd

Seriously, how vain do you have to be to spend tax payer money in order to put your name on every welcome sign in the state? That’s just crass. Hope you lose next primary.

At least they *have* a sign — but at what cost?!

As an out-of-stater, let me attest to the fact that I did not feel any more welcomed into Maryland by the fact that the stupid governor put his name on the sign. Such arrogance.

Man. “Public servant” — hah! The public’s money serves him.

bkd