Last year, the America’s National Parks™ Store at Antietam National Battlefield added four new titles to its popular lineup of books written by the Antietam Battlefield Guides. Part of the Eastern National team at the site, the Antietam Guides are a group of historians who offer interpretive tours of the battlefield and other sites related to the Maryland Campaign of 1862. Their deep subject-matter expertise helps enhance and extend the visitor experience of the park.
Visitors to the Antietam park store will find the following titles published by the Antietam Guides last year:
- Faces of Union Soldiers at Antietam by Joseph Stahl and Matthew Borders
- Too Useful to Sacrifice: Reconsidering George B. McClellan’s Generalship in the Maryland Campaign from South Mountain to Antietam by Steven R. Stotelmyer
- Images of America: Antietam National Battlefield by Kevin R. Pawlak
- Islands of Mercy: Hospitals in the Maryland Campaign September, 1862 by Dr. Gordon Dammann and John W. Schildt
These books join a lineup of existing works that help tell the story of the Maryland Campaign.
Here are last year’s top five best-selling titles by Antietam Guides:
- The Maps of Antietam: An Atlas of the Antietam (Sharpsburg) Campaign, including the Battle of South Mountain, September 2 – 20, 1862 by Bradley M. Gottfried
- Antietam: The Soldiers’ Battle by John M. Priest
- Rare Images of Antietam: And the Photographers Who Took Them by Gary Kross* and Stephen J. Recker
- Too Useful to Sacrifice: Reconsidering George B. McClellan’s Generalship in the Maryland Campaign from South Mountain to Antietam by Steven R. Stotelmyer
- The Maryland Campaign of September 1862: Vol. II: Antietam by Ezra A. Carman* edited and annotated by Thomas G. Clemens
* Not a certified Antietam Battlefield Guide
In addition to leading battlefield tours and publishing works about the Battle of Antietam and the Maryland Campaign, many of the guides are frequent lecturers at Civil War seminars and forums, volunteers at the park, and participants in other activities that help connect the public with the park and its history. “Antietam Guides continue to build on the scholarship of the historic events of the late summer of 1862,” says Jim Rosebrock, who served as chief guide 2011-2019. “Every year, new magazine articles, books, blog posts, and speaking engagements from our community expand the knowledge of the Maryland Campaign.”
Tours with the Antietam Battlefield Guides can be booked on-site through the America’s National Parks store or by calling (301) 432-4329. Proceeds from the tours and purchases at the park store support education and preservation at Antietam National Battlefield.
Image: Matt Borders, left, gives a tour to Antietam National Battlefield visitors. Matt is among the Antietam Battlefield Guides whose books are available in the America’s National Parks™ Store at Antietam National Battlefield. Photo: Antietam Battlefield Guides.
