ISSUED: 15 August 2022
MEDIA CONTACT: Dana Costa
SHEPHERDSTOWN, WV — The George Tyler Moore Center for the Study of the Civil War and Antietam National Battlefield are sponsoring a daylong symposium commemorating the 160th anniversary of the Battle of Antietam on Saturday, September 10, at Frederick Community College.
The symposium, “Exposed to the Fire of Slavery and Freedom,” will take place from 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. in FCC’s Jack B. Kussmaul Theater, 7932 Opossumtown Pike, Frederick, Maryland. The event is free and open to the public.
Internal conflict over the institution of slavery split the United States in two, leading to a great Civil War. Federal forces repelled a Confederate invasion of Maryland at Antietam, enabling President Abraham Lincoln to issue a preliminary Emancipation Proclamation. This action, combined with the efforts of Congress, enslaved people, and free African Americans, redefined the United States government’s war aims to include the elimination of slavery.
This shift led to freedom for four million people and the country’s reunification. The people who experienced the horrors of Antietam endured terror and fought for their survival. After the war, every American had a stake in the memory of Antietam. Photo courtesy National Park Service
Four key concepts—conflict, terror, freedom, survival, and memory—provide the organizing structure for the new exhibits in the renovated Antietam National Battlefield visitor center, which will be opening this fall. In this series of five programs, historians and National Park Service rangers will further explore the connections between these themes and the Battle of Antietam.
The symposium schedule includes:
- 8:30 a.m.—“A House Divided: Slavery, Secession and Civil War,” Jess Rowley, Antietam National Battlefield park ranger.
- 10:00 a.m.—“A Savage Continual Thunder: A Soldier’s Perspective of the Battle of Antietam,” Keith Snyder, Antietam National Battlefield park ranger.
- 11:15 a.m.—“A Scene of Romantic Horror: How Soldiers and Civilians Survived the Maryland Campaign,” Dr. James Broomall, director, George Tyler Moore Center for the Study of the Civil War, Shepherd University.
- 2:00 p.m.—“Antietam and the Winding Pathways to Black Freedom during the Civil War Era,” Dr. Joseph Reidy, professor emeritus, Howard University.
- 3:15 p.m.—“Myth and Memory at Antietam and Beyond,” Dr. Caroline Janney, director, John L. Nau III Center for Civil War History, University of Virginia.
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