The stone observatory on the Bloody lane is now finished and ready for visitors. The view from this point alone is worth a visit to the famous Bloody lane as you can take in the entire right to the left nearly four miles. There will be, when all planted, nearly four hundred markers, giving one a good idea of the entire battle field with the advantage of the good roads. Every body ought to visit it and make a study of this great battle.
And now, appearing as GATH...
Submitted by StephenRecker on Sat, 05/11/2013 - 10:52pm
Today I had the great privilege of appearing as George Alfred Townsend (GATH) at the dedication of three new museums up on South Mountain Battlefield. When I first arrived I found out that it had been arranged to have over a dozen of GATH's descendants in attendance. The first person I met was George Alfred Townsend IV. After spending the last month immersed in GATH's world, this was pretty intimidating. He was the nicest guy you would ever meet, but it was strangely unnerving.
Anyway, my little talk went well and afterwards I ate lunch with some of the other family members. It occurred to me that this was as close as they would ever get to meeting this ancestor of theirs and as we sat in the little Appalachian Trail dining spot, which was made of the exact rocks and timber that GATH's buildings would have been made of, and as I quizzed his young Great-Great-Great-Grandson about his soccer games and what he likes about school, I realized that this young man probably feels about me the exact way that he would feel about GATH had he been brought up for the day one hundred and twenty years ago. They were really nice folks and I feel honored to have been a part of this reunion.
And then to cap it off, I realized tonight that I am the exact age that GATH was when he built the Correspondent's Arch. Good Night, GATH.
About
Hello. I'm Stephen Recker and welcome to my blog. In it I will be discussing the different projects I am working on related to the American Civil War with a focus on photography related to the battle of Antietam. I am particularly interested in how the battlefield has been interpreted throughout the years. I will be discussing how it was done then and how new technologies can be brought to bear to bring life to those old materials as well as new ones. See the 99 Places Every Antietam Battlefield Guide Should Know.
Sharpsburg Items
Antietam Valley Record
Thursday, September 5, 1895