The original Cemetery Commission's plan allowed for burial of soldiers from both sides. On March 23, 1865, the state established a burial site by purchasing 11¼ acres for $1,161.75. Firey introduced to the Maryland Senate a plan to establish a state, or national, cemetery for the men who died in the Maryland Campaign of 1862. By March of 1864, no effort had been made to find a suitable final resting place for those buried in the fields surrounding Sharpsburg. In other cases, friends or relatives removed bodies from the area for transport home. A few ended up in area church cemeteries. Grave markings were somewhat haphazard, from stone piles to rough-hewn crosses and wooden headboards. For example, William Roulette, whose farm still stands behind the Visitor Center today, had over 700 soldiers buried on his property. Graves ranged from single burials to long, shallow trenches accommodating hundreds. The peaceful village of Sharpsburg turned into a huge hospital and burial ground extending for miles in all directions.īurial details performed their grisly task with speed, but not great care. Approximately 4,000 were killed, and in the days that followed, many more died of wounds or disease. That one fateful day more than 23,110 men were killed, wounded, or listed as missing. The Battle of Antietam, or Sharpsburg, on September 17, 1862, was the tragic culmination of Robert E. Library of Congress History of the Antietam National Cemetery The first burials Ironically, on the battlefield that led directly to Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, African-American graves from WWI were segregated to this out-of-the-way corner. If you walk to the back of the cemetery you will notice a few separate graves. Fireman Roy was killed during the attack on the USS Cole and was buried in the Cemetery on October 29, 2000. Recently an exception to the closure was made for the burial of Keedysville resident Patrick Howard Roy, United States Navy. Veterans and their wives from the Spanish-American War, World War I, World War II, and Korea were buried here until the cemetery closed in 1953. In addition, more than 200 non-Civil War dead are also buried here. There are also a few of the larger, traditional stones that mark unknown graves. These stones contain the grave number, and if you look closely on a few stones, a small second number represents how many unknowns are buried in that grave. All of the unknowns are marked with small square stones. There are 4,776 Union remains (1,836 or 38% are unknown) buried here from the Battle of Antietam, South Mountain, Monocacy, and other action in Maryland. Antietam National Cemetery is one of the 130 cemeteries of the National Cemetery System, a system that began during the Civil War.