Burnside Bridge Area: Cultural Landscape Inventory, Antietam National Battlefield, National Park Service

Gorres, Meredith; Weldon, Daniel

The Burnside Bridge Area is a component landscape of the larger Antietam National Battlefield cultural landscape, here after referred to as ANB. ANB was listed on the National Register of Historic Places as a historic district when the register was created in 1966, with a formal nomination approved in 1982 with additional documentation completed in 1999, receiving approval from the Keeper in 2009. The entire battlefield is listed under Criterion A for its association with the Civil War Battle of Antietam (September 16‑18, 1862). In the original National Register nomination, Burnside Bridge, along with its associated road, Snavely’s Ford, and the surrounding farmsteads, are listed as a contributing resource to the overall battlefield landscape. The nomination contains inadequate documentation for many of the resources within the cultural landscape of the Burnside Bridge Area. The study area for this CLI is located approximately one mile southeast of the town of Sharpsburg in Washington County, Maryland, within the southern boundaries of the ANB along the banks of Antietam Creek. The boundaries for the cultural landscape are defined by the extent of fighting during the Battle of Antietam associated with the Burnside Bridge. The area in question is under the exclusive ownership of the National Park Service or under a series of scenic and conservation easements held by the National Park Service that encourages the preservation of the surrounding landscape. The War Department and the National Park Service through a series of transactions and land acquisitions that occurred between 1890 and 2003 acquired fee simple ownership of the land. The landscape consists of +/‑ 296 acres of the total ANB parent landscape’s 3,263.49 acres. The Burnside Bridge cultural landscape is positioned within the larger geographic region known as the Antietam Drainage, defined as lands adjacent to the course of Antietam Creek prior to its convergence with the Potomac River. Geologically, the character of the associated lands is well‑drained alluvial soils punctuated with limestone outcroppings. The land proved suitable for farmland, with the majority of the surrounding parcels still in agricultural production today. A series of rolling hills and low ridges cradle and converge towards the lower elevation of the Antietam Creek. Scattered wood stands cleave to the hillsides and portions of the upper elevations, while open field expanses crown the tops of the hills and the lower ridges. The area of study is classified as a vernacular landscape consisting of elements pertaining to different eras and distinct landscape activities. While elements of the landscape are designed, such as the commemorative memorials, collectively the landscape has evolved into its current configuration in an organic manner. Landscape features associated with agricultural practices, military commemoration, and visitor facilities dot the landscape. Examples of character defining features include commemorative monuments, such as the McKinley Memorial, surviving elements of Sherrick, Otto, and Rohrbach farmsteads, and the centrally located Burnside Bridge. The Burnside Bridge cultural landscape is a site as the landscape served as the setting for the fighting in the immediate proximity of the Burnside Bridge during the Battle of Antietam.

Burnside Bridge Area: Cultural Landscape Inventory, Antietam National Battlefield, National Park Service

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