This past Sunday, Bill and I headed out to the Antietam National Battlefield in Sharpsburg, Maryland. It turned out to be one of those days where nothing seemed to go as planned photographically. The weather forecast was a little iffy – partly cloudy with a 30% chance of rain for most of the morning. We ended up with patches of glaring light – and lots of flat light with gray overcast skies.

Looking at the light, we knew we weren’t going to be able to do the photography we had planned on doing. So instead, we took the opportunity to do some experimenting. Bill mainly used his new infrared DSLR. I took lots of bracketed exposures so that I could try some High Dynamic Range (HDR) compositions and some blended exposures in Photoshop.

The Civil War battle at Antietam was the bloodiest day of the Civil War. history. There were 23,000 casualties during the battle. on September 17, 1862 on the battlefield in western Maryland. Although neither side could claim victory in the battle, Antietam ended the first Confederate campaign in the north. A week after the battle at Antietam, on September 22, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation that freed all slaves in states in rebellion as of January 1, 1863.

One of the main points of action during the battle took place as Major General Ambrose Burnside’s (Union Army – Ninth Corps of the Army of the Potomac) troops tried to cross a bridge over Antietam Creek. For over three hours, 500 Confederate soldiers from Georgia (2nd and 20th Georgia Infantry) on the hill above the bridge crossing the creek prevented the Union troops from crossing the bridge. Finally at 1PM, the Union troops crossed the bridge and later that afternoon advanced up the slope and drove the Confederate line back almost to Sharpsburg.

I’d hoped to photograph the bridge in soft morning sunlight within an hour or so of sunrise. We were there in time, just didn’t get the light. So here are some of our photos from the area of Burnside Bridge. I’ll need to make another trip to Antietam to try to get the photo I was hoping for.

This first photograph was taken from the north bank of Antietam Creek and is one of my first attempts at creating an HDR image.

(c) 2008 Patty Hankins

This next view of the bridge is from along side the bridge on the south bank of Antietam Creek looking across the creek. This is the area the Union forces were trying to cross the creek from. It is another HDR image.

(c) 2008 Patty Hankins

One of the many cannons on the Antietam National Battlefield. This cannon is located near Burnside Bridge. The photograph was taken from the bridge.

(c) 2008 Patty Hankins

The next two photographs were taken from where the Georgia troops were dug in. The view of the bridge shows how a few hundred Confederate soldiers could prevent the Union Army from crossing the bridge – all they had to do was shoot down the hill at the men gathered on the other side of the creek.

(c) 2008 Patty Hankins

Bill took this infrared photograph from just about the same place I took my photo from. One of the features of infrared photography is that since the leaves reflect near infrared light, they appear near white in the final image.

(c) 2008 William Lawrence

Our final photograph from the Burnside Bridge area of the Antietam National Battlefield is an infrared photo Bill took of the hills and woods surrounding the creek.

(c) 2008 William Lawrence

The Antietam National Battlefield park is located on Highway 65 in Sharpsburg, MD. The park is administered by the National Park Service, and is open from dawn to dusk every day. There is a $4 per person/$6 per family fee to visit the park. The park service has developed several brochures and walking trail maps that interpret the battlefield. They are available online and at the visitor center.