News Release

Antietam Battlefield Memorial Day Commemoration

American flags are placed on every grave in the cemetery by local school children for Memorial Day.

NPS Photo

News Release Date: May 21, 2019

Contact: Antietam Battlefield Visitor Center, 301 432-5124

Antietam National Battlefield will present a Memorial Day Program on Monday, May 27, 2019 starting at 11:00 a.m. at the park’s National Cemetery. The Cemetery is located on Rt. 34, just east of Sharpsburg, MD.

Memorial Day, originally called Decoration Day, is a day of remembrance for those who have died in service of the United States of America. On May 5, 1868, three years after the Civil War ended, Maj. Gen. John A. Logan, the head of an organization of Union veterans — the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) — established Decoration Day as a time for the nation to decorate the graves of the war dead with flowers. Ever since 1868, this day of remembrance has been commemorated across the country and in 1971 Congress declared Memorial Day a national holiday.

This year’s program at Antietam includes author and historian Dr. John Neff as the keynote speaker. Mr. Neff teaches at the University of Mississippi and is the director of the University’s Center for Civil War Research. He is the author of the book, Honoring the Civil War Dead: Commemoration and the Problem of Reconciliation.

Music will be provided by the Hagerstown Choral Arts and there will be a cannon salute by the park’s volunteer group, Battery B, 4^th U.S. Artillery.

Immediately after the ceremony there will be a special Ranger guided Battlefield Tour at 1:30 p.m., starting at the visitor center.

The town of Sharpsburg will commemorate Memorial Day on Saturday, May 25th, with a ceremony on town square at 11:00 a.m. and the annual Memorial Day Parade starting at 1:30 p.m.