Not For Themselves, But For Their Country

Not For Themselves, But For Their Country. Inscription from the Private Soldier Monument in the center of the Cemetery. , After the battle over 4,000 bodies were buried in mass graves, along rock outcroppings, and in farmers' fields. Many more soldiers died of wounds or disease. The peaceful village of Sharpsburg was turned into a huge hospital and burial ground, an unsafe and unpleasant situation for a war-torn community., The State of Maryland stepped forward to help in March 1865 by purchasing land, "for the purpose of a State and National Cemetery, in which the bodies of our heroes who fell in that great struggle and are now bleaching in their upturned furrows, may be gathered for a decent burial and their memories embalmed in some suitable memorial.", The original plan called for Union and Confederates to be reinterred in the National Cemetery, but only Federal states had the money for the project, thus only Union soldiers are buried here. Confederate dead remained in shallow graves, in some cases for ten years, until they were reinterred in three established local cemeteries in Hagerstown and Frederick, Maryland and Shepherdstown, West Virginia., Today, over 5,200 soldiers lay at rest in the National Cemetery. Their service spans from the Civil War to the Korean War. Deemed full in 1953, the cemetery was closed and since then only a few exceptions have been made, most recently a sailor killed during a terrorist attack on the U.S.S. Cole in 2000.,

"When we look on yon battlefield, I think of these brave men who fell in the fierce struggle of battle, and who sleep silent in their graves. Yes many of them sleep in silence and peace within this beautiful enclosure after the earnest conflict has ceased." , President Andrew Johnson speaking at the dedication, September 17, 1867

, [Captions:] , Union soldiers acted as burial parties and hastily dug graves. Alexander Gardner's title for this photograph is Federal buried, Confederate unburied, where they fell. The sketch below depicts burials in front of Bloody Lane., This shovel and bent bayonet were used at Antietam to drag and bury bodies., Thousands came out for the cemetery dedication in 1867 (above), and for the dedication of the Private Soldier monument in 1882 (below)., This headboard marked the grave of Confederate Lt. Arthur W. Speight in the 3rd North Carolina Infantry who was killed here and buried on the field. He was later moved to one of three Confederate cemeteries.