The Heart of the Civil War

Hospital Centers

As war raged during the four-year conflict, local residents witnessed the human cost of the fighting. Thousands of soldiers were wounded in battles and skirmishes, and much of the area resembled one big hospital ward for much of the war. Large government tent hospitals were erected in fields, and many churches, homes, barns, schools, and other public buildings were also used to care for the sick and wounded. In the fall of 1862, just days after playing host to both armies during the battles of South Mountain and Antietam, Frederick was inundated with more than 9,000 wounded and sick soldiers.

Westminster and Hagerstown played similar roles in hospital care, as did smaller towns such as Boonsboro and Burkittsville. Future US President Rutherford B. Hayes recovered in a Middletown dwelling from wounds suffered at nearby South Mountain; future Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes convalesced in Hagerstown at the Howard Kennedy home; and Paul Joseph Revere (inset), grandson of the famed Revolutionary War patriot, died in Westminster from wounds at Gettysburg. In October 1862, President Lincoln visited the wounded at Sharpsburg and made a personal visit to see Gen. George L. Hartsuff, who was being cared for in a private home in Frederick. During the war, 600 sisters from a dozen religious communities served as nurses. Following Gettysburg, the Daughters of Charity, based in nearby Emmitsburg, were among the first at the battlefield to give aid to the wounded.

National Museum of Civil War Medicine

The National Museum of Civil War Medicine (NMCWM) is located in Downtown Frederick, also the wartime site of US General Hospital #1. Through artifacts and illustrations, museum exhibits tell the story of the sick and wounded, surgical and care techniques, hospital structure, the role of nurses, and the challenges of field medicine. Open Mon-Sat 10 am-5 pm, Sun 11 am-5 pm

A satellite museum operated by NMCWM is the Pry House Field Hospital Museum, located on the grounds of Antietam National Battlefield (just east of the main park). Quartered in an historic farmhouse utilized by Gen. McClellan and his Union high command, the museum houses medical exhibits on the challenges faced at Antietam and a unique recreation of a field hospital. Open daily Memorial Day-October 31 11 am - 5 pm, and weekends in May and November 11 am - 5 pm. www.civilwarmed.org Donation

Cemeteries

Approximately 4,000 men were killed at Antietam, and in the days that followed, many thousands more died of wounds or disease. The once peaceful Sharpsburg became a huge hospital and burial ground extending for miles in all directions. Burial details performed their grisly task with speed, but not great care. Graves ranged from single burials to long, shallow trenches for hundreds of bodies. Grave markings ranged from stone piles to rough-hewn crosses and wooden headboards. A few bodies ended up in area church cemeteries and, in other cases, friends or relatives removed bodies for transport home. By March 1864, many graves had become exposed but no effort had been made to find a suitable final resting place for those buried in the fields surrounding Sharpsburg. Later that year, a plan was introduced to the Maryland Senate to establish a state, or national, cemetery at Antietam for the men who died in the Maryland Campaign of 1862. The original plan allowed for burial of soldiers from both sides, but bitterness from the recent conflict and the South's inability to raise funds persuaded Maryland to recant. On September 17, 1867, the fifth anniversary of the battle, President Andrew Johnson and other dignitaries officially dedicated Antietam National Cemetery. Confederate remains were re-interred in Washington Confederate Cemetery in Hagerstown, Mt. Olivet Cemetery in Frederick, and Elmwood Cemetery in Shepherdstown (WV). Approximately 2,800 Southerners are buried in these three cemeteries. More graves of Confederates exist in the heritage area than Union troops. This is due to the fact that more northern families had the financial and transportation means to move their fallen loved ones back home. Men of both armies are buried in various small churchyards and cemeteries throughout the area. The grave pictured (left) marks one of two Confederate officers killed during Corbit's Charge. The bodies of Lt. John William Murray and a comrade, Lt. St. Pierre Gibson, were initially interred in Westminster Cemetery, but Gibson's body was later returned to his hometown of Culpeper, VA. Meanwhile, Lt. Murray was moved to a new site in the cemetery of the Ascension Church shown here. A sycamore tree at his head was planted to provide shade for the fallen soldier. Mere words cannot capture the emotional intensity of visiting the annual Antietam National Battlefield Memorial Illumination ceremony the first Saturday evening in December. Thousands of volunteers place luminaries to represent each of the Union and Confederate soldiers killed, wounded or missing on September 17, 1862.