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Antietam Institute Education Center

The Institute is extremely excited to announce the opening of our new Education Center! Over the last few weeks, institute volunteers have been busy painting and organizing the education center which is located at the square in Sharpsburg on the first floor at 101 W. Main Street.

The center will be used to host small events and hold our research library of Maryland Campaign material and books. The center will be open once a month from 1:00 – 3:30pm or by appointment. Institute staff will be on hand to answer questions about the Maryland Campaign, help with membership and event registrations.

We will have a grand opening on Saturday, April 5 at 1:30pm with light refreshments. At 2pm, Institute president and author of Artillery of Antietam, Jim Rosebrock will give a presentation on “Civil War Artillery 101: A basic understanding of Field Artillery at Antietam”. Institute publications will be available to purchase.

Each month the center will be open with a featured presentation beginning at 2pm.

April 5: Jim Rosebrock – Artillery 101

May 3: Matt Borders – Life of a Civil War Soldier

June 7: Justin Mayhue – Small Arms Weapons at Antietam

July 12: Meet the Authors of Commanders of Antietam

August 2: Kevin Boyer – Artifacts of the Maryland Campaign

September 6: Joe Stahl – CVDs and Identification Disks of Soldiers from the Maryland Campaign

October we will be closed due to our fall conference

November 1: TBA

December 6: TBA

(Details of the programs and speakers will be post here at a later date and on our Facebook page)

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Winter 2024 Publications Catalog

OPEN OUR WINTER PUBLICATIONS CATALOG FLIPBOOK

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2023 Memorial Illumination

On Saturday, December 2, 2023, the 33rd Annual Memorial Illumination was held at the Antietam National Battlefield to honor the 23,000 casualties from the Battle of Antietam on September 17, 1862.

The Memorial Illumination began in 1989 and is held every year on the first Saturday in December. The idea behind the illumination is to help visitors grasp that number of soldiers that were killed, wounded, or missing in a hauntingly beautiful way.

Preparation begins weeks before the annual Illumination, when volunteers assemble each individual luminary – a brown paper bag filled with sand to weight it down and a special long-burning candle with an extra-long wick, manufactured by Root Candles in Ohio – and pack them in boxes that are stored until the event.

The morning of the event, volunteers gather at the battlefield to get their assigned location for placing the luminaries. More than 1,100 volunteers comprised of scouts, church groups, school groups, friends, and park volunteers, go about the task of placing 23,110 luminaries on the northern portion of the battlefield.

Institute members and park volunteers helping put out luminaries.

After a short ceremony at the end of the day to recognize the hard work of the volunteers and those behind the scenes, the procession of cars begins at 6pm.

If you have not been to the Memorial Illumination, it is a must see. Be sure to add it to your “Bucket List”. Thanks to institute members, Sharon Murray, Henry Stiles, Ken Derrenbacher, and Laura Rowland for sharing some of their photos from this year’s event.