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.
T minus one month
Well, it has been an exciting summer. I have been working away on my book and have done a lot of tours as well. There have been a lot of great new Antietam books and I have been trying to keep up on them. But for the most part, it has been about finishing my book, Rare Images of Antietam and the Photographers Who Took Them.
But as usual, I was trying to finish up the last big section that needed to be designed, the East Woods, and I called the preeminent 10th Maine historian, Nick Picerno, to see if he had any clues about some photographs John Gould had taken back in 1889. Long story short, between the two of us we figured out that the originals were down at Duke University. So, with just weeks to go before my book goes to the printer, Nick and I were off to North Carolina to sift through 3,500 documents in search of information.
We found the original images and they are amazing. Four of them have made it into the book and I am thrilled beyond words. I am also grateful that I did not find them a month AFTER I went to the printer. We also found verbose descriptions of over two dozen images Gould took in 1891, but did not find the originals. Oh, well, have to leave some meat on the bones.