Antietam National Cemetery

The cemetery holds the remains of over 4,700 Union soldiers killed at Antietam and other nearby battlefields. Legislation to establish a cemetery at Antietam was introduced in 1864 by Maryland State Senator Lewis P. Firey. Though it was originally intended to receive both Union and Confederate dead, anti-Southern feeling among the Northern states prompted a Union-only policy. (Southern dead were sent to other cemeteries in the area, including Elmwood Cemetery in Shepherdstown, Rose Hill Cemetery in Hagerstown, and Mt. Olivet Cemetery in Frederick.) Prominent local doctor Augustin A. Biggs was chosen as the designer and first superintendent of the cemetery, and work began in 1866, with former Union soldiers as most of the laborers. Six thousand coffins were provided by the U.S. government for the dead, who were interred by state (when known). The dedication ceremony took place on September 17th, 1867, and was attended by President Andrew Johnson, who gave a speech for the occasion. Altogether, the cemetery holds 4,776 Union remains from Antietam, South Mountain, Monocacy, and other Maryland battles. Over two hundred other soldiers from later wars (Spanish-American War, World Wars I and II, Korean War) are buried there as well. The cemetery was closed to future burials in 1953, though an exception was made in 2000 for a Keedysville soldier killed in the USS Cole explosion.