Hagerstown Cemetery

Before heading to Fort Frederick we stopped at Rose Hill Cemetery in Hagerstown. Over 2000 Confederate dead from the battles of South Mountain and Antietam are buried here. I was surprised to see that there were no head stones at all, not even stones that said unknown. Near the monument, which is a joint Maryland-Virginia-West Virginia monument, there is a plaque that shows where various people and groups were buried. Some have names of people while others simply say "19 boxes, 38 bodies unknown". Pretty strange to have no head stones at all. Also although the plaque showed definite lines of burials it was nearly impossible to determine where they now were so I wasn't sure if I was standing on a grave or not.

This was the first of two cemeteries we visited that day, the other being Mt. Olivet Cemetery in Frederick.

Before we got to Frederick we also made a quick stop in Williamsport looking for a museum (we never did find) and also made a run down to Antietam to get a special use permit for Mike so he could shoot sunrises and sunsets without incurring the wrath of the park law enforcement. We also ran into Mannie, of blog fame, for the first of several times. He's a truly great guy. We asked him tons of questions over the next week and he never got tired of us, or at least never showed that he was tired of us. Thanks Mannie!