ON A BABY-BLUE SKY fall afternoon, Richard Clem and I stand among the remains of cornstalks in a field on the old Otho J. Smith Farm near the Antietam battleground. The South Mountain range stretches across the horizon to the east; roughly 350 yards away stand large, modern farm buildings. A hint of cow manure wafts through the air.
Clem, a wiry octogenarian with a soft, deep voice, quickly shifts into storytelling mode…and I love it.
“John, I remember coming out here relic hunting, and when the sunlight hit the field just right, you could see the glass glistening from the broken medicine bottles from that hospital.”
“Mr. Smith’s barn stood in the hollow out there. This hospital site was a mystery for many years.”
“Right over here on this hill I found that ID disc of that VER-mont soldier.”
A decade ago, I connected with Clem—a retired wood worker and lifelong Washington County, Md., resident—for a story
