Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Pry Ford on Antietam Creek




Last Monday, my colleagues fellow Antietam volunteer Jim Buchanan and intern Justin McIntyre went off the beaten path so to speak and hiked over to the area where the Pry Ford is located. The photos here are taken from the east side of Antietam Creek generally facing west. If you click on the slide show you will see in Google maps exactly where I shot the photos.

If you are around the park on weekends, there is a great chance you will meet up with Jim if you visit the Philadelphia Brigade monument in the West Woods at stop 5 on the battlefield tour. Jim is a student of the West Woods fighting. Last Monday he was looking for the area where the Union Second Corps crossed the Antietam early on September 17th, 1862. Sumner's lead division under John Sedgwick very likely crossed in the area that these photos were taken. Withing hours of crossing there, Sedgwick's division would meet its destiny in the West Woods. In desperate fighting, over half of the 5,000 men in this division would become casualties in under one hour. Come and see Jim and he will show you where this action occured.

7 comments:

  1. I'm enjoying your blog Jim. I especially like the way you display these photos (and with captions) as opposed to static portrayal of imagery. Best, Robert

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  2. Thank you Robert

    I am fortunate to live so close to the battlefield and I get to take a lot of photos. You will see more of these down the road.

    Regards
    Jim

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  3. Can you slow down the pictures Jim?

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  4. First time visitor. I enjoyed looking thru you blog. It brough back fond memories of my only visit to Antietam maybe ten years ago. It a long way from Minnesota but I intend to go back there and Gettysburg. Thanks a lot

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  5. Hope you get back soon. It is a beautiful place

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  6. Here's a soldier who died in the West Woods at Antietam: Justus Wellington of the 15th Massachusetts. I own an ambrotype of Justus.

    John Banks

    http://www.nextech.de/ma15mvi/ma15mvi-p/p82.htm#i1026

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