ÿþ<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> <html> <head> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> <meta name="Description" content="The Civil War Round Table of Chicago is dedicated to the study of all aspects of the American Civil War, bringing together those who wish to expand and share their knowledge, as we promote the interchange of ideas." /> <meta name="Keywords" content="CWRT, thecwrt.com, Chicago, Civil War, American Civil War, The Civil War Round Table of Chicago" /> <meta name="Language" content="English" /> <meta name="robots" content="all" /> <title>The Civil War Round Table of Chicago - Battlefield Preservation Mission</title> <link href="../style1.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" /> <!--Begin Google Tracking Script--> <script type="../text/javascript"> var _gaq = _gaq || []; _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-2216704-2']); _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']); (function() { var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true; ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 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McPherson s book, The Crossroads of Freedom the battle that changed the course of the Civil War. The preservation of the Antietam battlefield would use a different model than the Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park.<br /><br /> The Antietam Memorial Association was created in 1890, though the efforts of Rev. C. L. Keedy and Maryland Congressman Louis E. McComas. McComas proposed a park establishment bill in the House of Representatives on June 7, 1890. McComas was given no support for his bill, so in true Congress fashion he had an earmark added to a civil bill which included a provision of 15,000 dollars to begin the surveying, location and preserving of Antietam and all lands would be under the care and supervision of the Secretary of War. The spending bill became law on August 30, 1890 and with this bill came the start of preservation of the Antietam battlefield.<br /><br /> McComas tried again to have Congress pass his park establishment bill but the House of Representatives did not follow the Committee on Military Affairs recommendation on Antietam importance. This issue was never brought up again and with the defeat of McComas in his reelection bid in 1890, Antietam lost their political sponsor. This would result in Antietam developing in a different fashion compared to Chickamauga with its large amount of acreage and large monumentation. Congress would save money by acquiring small amounts of the original fields of battle and save money by passing only sustaining appropriations in the years to come. This decision by Congress meant not all battlefields would be preserved along the Chickamauga Plan.<br /><br /> The War Department created an Antietam board in July 1891 to organize the work at the battlefield. As board members it chose Colonel John C. Stearns of 9th Vermont Infantry and ex-Confederate Major General Henry Heth. The problem was neither officer was a veteran of the battlefield nor did they report to the secretary of war himself. Congress and the War Department were taking a different view of how the work was going to be done on the Antietam battlefield.<br /><br /> Over the next three years the park was showing little signs of development under Stearns and Heth. These men were old and sick, the battlefield had changed over the years and landowners wanted to sell all, not part, of their land. By January 1894 the Antietam battlefield had two hundred wooden signs around the battlefield to mark troop positions. They also started the process of working with landowners on the possibility of acquiring land. A major change came in the summer of 1894 with the new Secretary of War Daniel S. Lamont. Work on the Antietam battlefield would change with his activist supervision of Antietam and creating a new team to implement these plans.<br /><br /> Stearns would resign as member of the board and Heth would stay on as the Confederate representative. Lamont appointed as president of the Antietam board Major George B. Davis. Davis had served in the 1st Massachusetts cavalry during the war, was a competent administrator, authority on military law, advisor on battlefield preservation and president of board publishing the Official Records. The Union representative and historical expert was Antietam veteran Ezra Carman, who was the colonel of the 13th New Jersey and brevetted brigadier general after the war. He worked in the War Department and had actively petitioned for a position on the Antietam board. The last member of Lamont team was Jed Hotchkiss, former  Stonewall Jackson cartographer, because an expert topographer was needed to aid in the board s mapmaking efforts.<br /><br /> The Antietam battlefield would be transformed during the time period from October 1894 to August 1895 and 17 acres of land, 5 miles of macadamized roads and 200 tablets would be placed to preserve the Antietam battlefield. The board worked with the landowners on the selling of their land to the battlefield and Carmen and Davis both wrote the text for the tablets displayed on the battlefield. The board left it to the states themselves or veterans to place monuments to individual regiments. The board would be dissolved and only Carmen would spend any further time on Antietam which placed him as the supreme authority on the battle and the battlefield. In 1933 the Antietam battlefield would become part of the National Park Service.<br /><br /> In 2013 our annual tour will be to Antietam and our co-chairs for the tour will be Mark Matranga and Mary Abroe. Please consider the Save Historic Antietam Foundation when donating to the Antietam battlefield. The mission of SHAF is the preservation and protection of historic sites within the Antietam valley that are related to the Battle of Antietam, the Maryland Campaign, or other Civil War activity in the region. <br /> <br /> Contact information for SHAF is P.O. Box 550, Sharpsburg, MD 21782, 301-432-2996 and www.shaf.org.br /> </div> <p align="center"><a href="../battlepresreport.html">Back to Top</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <a href="home.html">Home</a></p> </td></tr></table> &nbsp;</div> </div> </div> <div class="footer"> Copyright 2009, The Civil War Round Table of Chicago.</div> </body> </html>