Monument to the Unknown Confederate Soldiers killed at Antietam
from a postcard postmarked 1908

In 1864, State Senator Lewis P. 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 (the Battle of Antietam). On March 23, 1865, the state established a burial site by purchasing 11.25 acres for $1,161.75. The original Cemetery Commission's plan allowed for burial of soldiers from both sides. However, the bitterness over the recent conflict and the devastated South's inability to raise funds, persuaded Maryland to change her mind. Consequently, only Union dead are interred there. Confederate remains were re-interred in Washington Confederate Cemetery in Hagerstown, Maryland; Mt. Olivet Cemetery in Frederick, Maryland; and Elmwood Cemetery in Shepherdstown, West Virginia. Approximately 2,800 Southerners are buried in these three cemeteries, over 60% of whom are unknown. More than 2,000 Confederate soldiers who died during battles of Antietam and South Mountain are buried at Washington Confederate Cemetery. The remains were relocated here from the battlefields nearly a decade after the war ended. Only 346 graves are identified. Text courtesy of the National Park Service

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