Antietam National Battlefield Visitor Center Guest Book - Sharpsburg, MD
N 39° 28.446 W 077° 44.674
18S E 263919 N 4372986
There is a simple guest book located at the gift shop counter next to the passport cancellation stamps.
Waymark Code: WMD74C
Location: Maryland, United States
Date Posted: 11/28/2011
Views: 6
When stamping your passport book, be sure and sign in. Leave your e-mail address and they will e-mail you information about events and what not. The operating hours for the visitor center (Open All Year):
From Labor Day to Memorial Day 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
From Memorial Day to Labor Day 8:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.?
Closed Thanksgiving, Christmas & New Years Day
If you are into Civil War history and prefer in the field, hands-on learning, then this is a terrific place to come and visit. The NRHP district is not nearly as busy a Gettysburg and affords extra browsing time and much more convenient parking. I was able to pretty much drive and park anywhere with no hassles. There was no traffic to contend with and best of all I learned about a new and critical aspect of the Civil War.
Also, there are several properties and farmsteads nearby which are also National Park sites, run by the government. I spent about 6 hours there and almost saw everything there was to see. In contrast, at Gettysburg, I have visited 4 separate times, 8 hours on the average each visit and have only seen half the park. Antietam's claim to fame is the site of the single bloodiest day of battle. 23,000 soldiers were killed, wounded or missing after twelve hours of savage combat on September 17, 1862. The Battle of Antietam ended the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia's first invasion into the North and led to Abraham Lincoln's issuance of the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation.