I don't want to Harp......

Big day yesterday as we visited Both the Antietam (Sharpsburg) Battlefield and ended the day at Harpers Ferry before returning to Gettysburg for our final night there.

Left is the "Infamous Sunken Road" on the Antietam battlefield where the Confederates poured such a deadly fire into the advancing Union troops through the corn fields until they themselves were flanked and trapped in the road where they in turn were slaughtered by the union troops.

Seen left is also Burnside's bridge. Here was fought a heroic battle to force the bridge against strong defence from about 400 - 500 troops from Georgia.
Three times they tried and they were successful on the third attempt, but after much loss of life.

After a couple of hours we left to drive down to Harper's Ferry where we toured the small lower town. Harper's Ferry was very important during the civil war and changed hands 8 times during the course of the war. It was also the site of the "Infamous" John Brown who tried to start a slave revolt there before the war. Seen right is the fire house that he turned into a fort. It was Here that Captain Robert  E Lee at the head of Federal troops captured Brown when the slaves refused to join his rebellion.

Surprisingly small at 30 feet by 10 feet it was located with its back to the river and was a strong position defended by a small band. Without the slaves revolting it was a lost cause.




It was also an important railroad town for the B&O railroad and although not used as much today its importance in the past can clearly be seen by the amount of bridge abutments still left in the river today.

Above can be seen the railroad station (ex B&O) now Amtrak that serves the town. Also seen is a shot of the town. The Ranger says that only 200 people now call it home A great day yesterday.

Today we went to Lancaster home of the Amish people. They occupy a 10 mile by 10 mile area. They are a farming community that stays within their borders though they do venture out to markets to sell to the ungodly (us).

 


They are very religious but do speak well to the ungodly. They don't seem to use thou and thee and other church type words. They don't like their photos taken as they believe in the biblical adage of thou shall have no brazen idols and so don't have any photos of themselves. To the left can be seen their mode of transport. The children have bicycles that are the push type like scooters with out pedals.

To the right can be seen one of their farms. They are I believe a communill type farm and from the road are huge.








After that we left Lancaster to travel to our next destination Washington. A very boring drive using Interstate highways. We did drive past Baltimore which we return to in two days time.

Of note is that the Hotel we are staying at is run by the Russian mafia I believe as Every one of the staff talks Russian. Be prepared for a ransom note Lois!

Neil W

PS Don't pay it!

PPS Enjoyed the telephone call will call next week.