Battle on an Agrarian Landscape: Introduction

Cannon at sunset, Antietam National Battlefield

NPS

In the 1990s, the National Park Service and URS Greiner, Inc., conducted a survey to locate, identify, and inventory archeological sites within Antietam National Battlefield. This work focused on the archeological remains of the Battle of Antietam, its aftermath, and the farms and small plantations that made up the cultural landscape. This Spotlight is on research at three sites within the park — the Mary Locher/Alfred Poffenberger cabin, the North Woods, and the Mumma Farm — and presents a brief introduction to some of the archeological methods, techniques, and interpretations.

The tour begins with Battlefield and Farmsteads which describes the effect of the battle on one tenant farmer and his family, the Alfred Poffenbergers. The second stop in the tour is entitled Battle in the North Woods and showcases some of the battle-related artifacts found in this area. It offers a different interpretation from that based on historical records. Finally, Battlefield Images, Computer Visualization, and the Study of Cultural Landscapes describes how modern computer graphic techniques are used to study historic images for the purpose of determining the location of structures no longer visible on modern landscapes.