This document is not intended to relate the events of the battle in great detail. Although events will be alluded to, several definitive works which describe the battle in great detail already exist. Those works, however, either ignore or relegate to a handful of black and white images any attempt to present a visual description of the battlefield. What you will find here is a study of the actual ground of the battlefield, using wartime and modern photographs, computer generated maps and computer generated 3-D perspective images, and a few other special presentations that you are unlikely to find elsewhere. Short of actually visiting the battlefield, it is hoped that this document will be an indispensable companion to any study of the Battle of Antietam.
At some point, you may wish to visit some of the other sections of this document. The Introduction and Background Information section gives a very broad overview of the events that led up to the battle, and a synopsis of the battle itself, complete with battle maps illustrating troop movements. The maps used in this document represent new research, and you can find out more about them in the About the Maps Used in this document section. For further reading and to learn something about me, see the Bibliography and About the Author sections.
You can follow the tour in one of two manners. If you choose the Chronological tour, you will be able to step through a thread of locations roughly in the order in which events happened. If you choose the Region tour, you will be presented with a map of the battlefield, and you can use your mouse to point and click on a region of interest. The information at each tour stop is the same regardless of how you arrive.
Throughout the tour, hypertext links will point to relevant battle maps, to aid in the interpretation of the scene.
Before you leave, be sure to drop me a note to give me your comments and questions. I'd love to hear what people think about my work.