The following essay covers the commemoration and history of remembrance of the Battle of Antietam from immediately following the battle to its seventy-fifth anniversary celebration. In some respects, this work is a case study of larger themes and topics on Civil War memory in that it attempts to shed light on how memory of the war evolved and reflected the time in which it took place. Throughout the work I focus on a few key themes. One of those central themes is the politicization of Antietam’s commemoration. During the seventy-five year period covered in the following essay, politicians and partisans used commemoration and monumentalization as an avenue to express both sectional and party political rhetoric. However, the central argument I put forth revolves around the issue of anti-southern sentiment among Union veterans. Previous and contemporary historians argue that during the 1880s and 1890s a spirit of reunion and reconciliation swept across the American landscape and with the culminating effect of the Spanish-American War, the chasm between the North and South closed. Conversely, I argue that although reconciliation dominated the late nineteenth-century, anti-southern sentiment and rhetoric persisted well into the twentieth-century. I attempt to trace the history and persistence of anti-southern sentiment throughout the seventy-five year period covered in the essay.
The first chapter covers the early commemoration history of Antietam, including the photographs taken by Alexander Gardner as well as the dedication and creation of Antietam National Cemetery. The second chapter examines the extensive monumentalizing of the Antietam battlefield, including both state and regimental monuments. The third and final chapter looks at the semicentennial and seventy-fifth anniversary celebrations of the Battle of Antietam.