Displays at Antietam That Are Under Review for Removal

We are looking at the displays and literature from around the National Parks having to do with the Civil War and Reconstruction that have been flagged for examination for removal. Several controversial exhibits are at the Antietam Battlefield in Sharpsburg, Maryland. The photos that are being reviewed that you will see on this page were taken by Interior Department staff because they thought they might be contrary to the president’s order that the National Park Service “restore sanity” to telling the story of United States history.

In the first exhibition a cartoon is used to show the politics of disagreement in the 1860 presidential campaign with Abraham Lincoln on the left. Steven Douglas, the Democratic candidate, is to the immediate right of Lincoln, John Breckinridge, a Southern Democrat, is to Douglas’s right, and John Bell, the Know Nothing, is on the extreme right. Lincoln was the only candidate calling for slavery being restricted. At the bottom right is an explanation of the political structure of the campaign with each candidates’ views on slavery.

The endangered exhibits list next turns to a headline from the Charleston Mercury announcing that South Carolina has seceeded. Does the Interior Department think that you can understand the Civil War without knowledge of the secession crisis? If this was removed, would that help foster national unity?

The next endangered exhibit is a timeline showing the increasingly fractured “UNION.” It begins with describing the National Compromise of 1820 in which there was a prohibition on introducing slavery into Northern territories. Then in 1850 there was a compromise of the 1820 Compromise which increased tension between Northern Free Staters and Southern slaveowners. Next is the Kansas-Nebraska Act which set the stage for armed guerrilla warfare in Kansas followed by the Dred Scott Decision, the Lincoln-Douglas Debates, John Brown’s Raid, and the descent of the United States into Civil War.

The next panels describes the Secessionists who fought at the Battle of Antietam. The panel quotes politician, and later warrior, Henry Benning who gave his explanation of the cause of the war.

A short panel describes the effect of the army on a civilian family.

Next is a panel with Wisconsin officer Rufus Dawes explaining his view of why secession took place.

The Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation was issued soon after the (marginal) Union victory at Antietam. This is also an endangered panel. Any historian could tell you that Lincoln had wanted to issue the Proclamation earlier but that Secretary of State Seward persuaded him to wait until the Union Army had won a victory. So, the Battle of Antietam could be seen as a necessary cause for the issuance of the Proclamation.

The next panel details how enslaved African Americans escaped to Union lines where they were treated as “contraband” and protected from slave catchers.

Here is a description of the decision to withhold the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation.

There is also a description of how enslaved people were undermining the Confederacy by withholding labor and actively supporting Union forces.

A panel describes the organization of the United States Colored Troops which was authorized on January 1, 1863 in the Emancipation Proclamation issued as a result of the Union victory at Antietam.

One of the “new” developments of the 1970s and 1980s was the tying of Reconstruction Civil Rights law to the Civil War. Before that period, most Civil War themed National Parks barely made mention of Reconstruction. Their history ended at Appomattox.

There is a panel on the Freedmen’s Bureau.

There is a brief description of a formerly enslaved resident of the Antietam area gaining his freedom.

At the end are several panels on what history gets presented. As anyone who visits Civil War battlefields know, these are not natural landscapes. They are constructed memorials. Who gets included and who gets left out?

There are two quotes at the end of the presentation, one from a world famous African American and the other from a Confederate general.

There is also a panel describing the impact of the battle on a family which includes references to enslaved people living bear the battlefield.

The president’s Executive Order says that some of the National Parks harm the “United States by casting its founding principles and historical milestones in a negative light.” The president says that proper history should “foster unity.” He writes that “Rather than fostering unity and a deeper understanding of our shared past, the widespread effort to rewrite history deepens societal divides and fosters a sense of national shame.” The president sketches out how the National Park Service should approach history:

“It is the policy of my Administration to restore Federal sites dedicated to history, including parks and museums, to solemn and uplifting public monuments that remind Americans of our extraordinary heritage, consistent progress toward becoming a more perfect Union, and unmatched record of advancing liberty, prosperity, and human flourishing. ”

When we look at the endangered exhibits at Antietam, we should ask ourselves what is missing. President Trump says he does not want to have signage or exhibits that “fosters a sense of national shame.” He says that the words a visitor encounters must only aim towards “national unity.” Many of the exhibits at the park describe massive battles between armies from different sections with different ideas where nearly 4,000 Americans were killed, often at the hands of other Americans, and the total casualties were more than 22,000. Yet none of the descriptions of the battle between entirely white units are up for removal! People who wanted to kill and maim follow Americans still occupy the place of treasured heroes.

I have been to Antietam many times and the wayside panels describe how men on both sides wanted to kill their enemies on the fields and in the river where the battle was fought. These descriptions do not foster a feeling of “national unity.” In fact the Confederacy was established to end that national unity. Does that mean that these markers and exhibits describing the battle, which constitute the overwhelming majority, should be removed to follow the presidents order? It must, but they are not on the list of endangered exhibits and signage. Because while the president’s order calls for “national unity” in the National Park’s retelling of our history (even when it is telling the story of our CIVIL WAR) it is really not aimed at unity at all. It is aimed at excluding the history of African Americans at our parks.