Come to the Pry House to hear Antietam Battlefield Guides discuss understudied topics from the 1862 Maryland Campaign and the Battle of Antietam.

Historical Painting of the Battle of Antietam
On Saturday, October 26th at 2:00 PM at the Pry House Field Hospital Museum, historian and Antietam Battlefield Guide Stephen Recker will present “Alexandria to Antietam: Exploring McClellan’s Route in the 1862 Maryland Campaign.” Based on extensive original research, this talk explores the little known sites and rare photos. Stephen will discuss intrigues along the route of Union General George McClellan and his army from when the general stepped off the boat in Alexandria through his regaining of command in Washington and his pursuit of Robert E. Lee into Western Maryland.
Stephen Recker is a collector of rare Antietam photographs and relics. Items from his collection can be seen on battlefield waysides, in the newly renovated museum at Antietam National Battlefield, as well as in his book Rare Images of Antietam, and the Photographers Who Took Them. Recker is a member of Antietam Battlefield Guides, a service he founded in partnership with WMIA, the non-profit at Antietam National Battlefield. He produced Virtual Gettysburg, a critically acclaimed interactive Civil War battlefield tour; Antietam Artifacts, a CD-ROM with images of rare postcards from the Maryland Campaign of 1862; and www.virtualantietam.com, and recently edited and published Shadowing Grant: Reminiscences of the United States Hospital Transport Services in the Civil War 1864-65. Recker is a graduate of Boston’s Berklee College of Music and lives with his family in Maryland.
At 3:30 PM authors and Antietam Battlefield Guides Matt Borders and Joe Stahl will outline their recent book Faces of Union Soldiers at Antietam. The Battle of Antietam, fought near Sharpsburg, Maryland, was the bloodiest day in American history, with more than twenty-three thousand dead, wounded and missing. In their recent book, Faces of Union Soldiers at Antietam, Matthew Borders and Joseph Stahl share their expertise and grant glimpses into the lives of those who fought to preserve the Union. This talk will focus on six individual soldiers who fought on the field that day. The images of the soldiers, many of which have never been published before, give faces to the fighting men at Antietam, as well as insight into their lives.
Matthew Borders has an MS in historic preservation. He is a park ranger at Monocacy National Battlefield and is a member of the Save Historic Antietam Foundation and the Frederick County Civil War Round Table.
Joseph W. Stahl has an MBA, and is retired from the Institute for Defense Analyses. He is also a member of the Company of Military Historians, Save Historic Antietam Foundation and Hagerstown Civil War Roundtable, and is coauthor of Identification Discs of Union Soldiers in the Civil War. Both authors are NPS Certified Battlefield Guides at Antietam National Battlefield and Harpers Ferry National Historical Park.