Landscape of Graves

After the Army of Northern Virginia retreated across the Potomac River on September 18-19, 1862, Union burial parties began interring the Federal dead on the Antietam battlefield before tending to the Confederate dead. Long trenches were the preferred method for burying those bodies, and every piece of soft ground became a welcome spot for graves. Soldiers would be buried in nearly every farm field within miles of Sharpsburg.

In 1864, local farmers complained to the state government that they were unable to properly plow the