History of Antietam National Cemetery (History of the cemetery - page 5 )

ONE of the striking indications of civilization and refinement among a people, is the tenderness and care manifested by them towards their dead, in the location and erection of suitable resting places for their remains, and their embellishment and ornamentation in an appropriate and becoming manner, thus robbing the grave of its' terrors and death of its repulsiveness, by appealing to the sense with all that is beautiful in Nature and Art.

But when the departed, with unselfish disinterestedness, have rendered the offering of their lives as a sacrifice upon the altar of their country, it becomes not only a privilege, but a duty, which gratitude demands and rejoices in.

Animated by such sentiments as these, as well as by the dictates of a common humanity, the originators of the Antietam National Cemetery relaxed no efforts in the accomplishment of their design, to locate on this Aceldama, which was truly a field of blood, a suitable spot for the establishment of this national Necropolis.

The blood of the red man and the white man alike, have dyed with their crimson hue, though at distant intervals of time, the waters of the Antietam.

Tradition informs us that a most bloody affair occurred on the Antietam, near its mouth, more than a century before the sanguinary conflict between Generals McClellan and Lee, between those hostile and warlike tribes of savages —the Catawbas and Delawares, who, it is said, were engaged in strife when