September 20 – 22 2024

After breakfast with Doug, we hit the road for our three night stay in Sharpsburg at Jennifer’s Place Airbnb (The River Bend Retreat ~ C&O Canal ~ Antietam), located in an ideal spot just yards away from the Potomac River and the C&O Canal. 

It’s a large and spacious two-bedroom ideal for a family stay with bunkbeds in the second bedroom and a pull-out couch. 

For dinner we drove ten minutes into Sharpsburg to Captain Benders Tavern, a storefront wide establishment in operation since 1936 and named after the C&O Boatman of the same name.  We were soon seated and ordered, a beer for Joanna and a Chardonnay for me, both at Happy Hour prices to compliment a bowl of the soup of the day and a substantial order of fish and chips.   It was all reasonably priced and tasty as we walked out with a total tab of $46.44.

The next day would be a good one as we embarked on our reason for visiting the area, a full day at Gettysburg National Military Park, which commemorates the battle that is widely considered the Civil War’s turning point, ending the Confederacy’s aspirations to establish an independent nation.  It was the Civil War’s bloodiest battle, claiming over 50,000 combined casualties over three days.  A few years ago, we visited Antietam, its sister battle site, both sobering reminders of the tremendous cost of our national division. 

As we have observed at other National Parks, Monuments, and Historic sites, the park service does an impressive job of highlighting and housing the rich history of the place it honors.  From the battle ground and cemetery at Normandy to Yosemite and other natural wonders, there is often more there than you can take in during a single visit.  This would be the case for us at Gettysburg.  The sheer volume of exhibits in the Visitor Center and Museum is mind boggling, multiple collections of guns, swords, uniforms, and everyday items from the period. 

The park totals 3,785 acres and officially came under federal control on February 11, 1895.  We’d signed up for a guided tour of the battlefield for the afternoon and our museum pass included a presentation of the famed Cyclorama, which was the first thing we made our way to upon arriving in the late morning after the hour drive up from the Airbnb.  The Cyclorama (a type of 360° cylindrical painting) by the French artist Paul Philippoteaux depicts Pickett’s Charge, the climactic Confederate attack on Union forces. 

After being commissioned by Chicago investors, Philippoteaux studied the battlefield and interviewed participants, completing the cyclorama in 1883.  In the past copies were made for display around the country, but the version that hangs in Gettysburg, a recent (2005) restoration of the version created for Boston, is 42 feet high and 377 feet in circumference.  It’s an impressive display and your experience is enhanced by a spoken word description of the battle presented in the painting. 

We next spent a couple of hours touring the museum and its many exhibits, sometimes briefly glancing at the next collection of rifles, uniforms, or day to day items like cups, silverware and personal effects.  As the noon hour approached and our battlefield tour was scheduled for early afternoon, we made our way to the cafeteria for some lunch, opting to split a quesadilla, some chips and a drink.  It took some time for them to prepare hot item and has we started eating, we enjoyed it until Joanna bit down on something hard and discovered it was a small metal screw. 

We notified the staff behind the counter and after some scrambling around on their part we were approached by the manager who apologized profusely explaining that they had no idea how it could have gotten into the food as nothing like that would be near the preparation station, but in the mean time they reimbursed us for our entire meal and we left satisfied with the outcome, glad that Joanna hadn’t broken a tooth as a result of biting down on the screw. 

Soon it was time for us to join our guided tour of the battlefield, which would take about 90 minutes and hit a number of the critical spots of the battle, culminating with a stop at the top of Cemetery Ridge where General Pickett and his 12,000 Confederates troops attacked the center of the Union line at in what is known as Pickett’s Charge.  The Confederate charge was repelled by Union rifle and artillery fire, leading to great Confederate losses. The following day, on the Fourth of July, Lee led his Confederate troops on the torturous retreat from the North.  Between 46,000 and 51,000 soldiers from both armies were casualties in the three-day battle, representing the deadliest battle in U.S. history.

After we returned to the Visitors Center, we hit the gift shop and managed to escape with our pocket books intact and then drove back to the house for an hour or two before heading to Hagerstown for dinner at Schmankerl Stube Bavarian Restaurant.  Their website has a banner heading that advises that reservations are recommended and it being a Saturday night, that would have been a good call.  We were lucky then that although there were no tables available, there was seating at the bar.  We would thoroughly enjoy our time there interacting with the charming bartender, who we surmised might be the manager of the joint.

We’d not had German food in some time and were having difficulty trying to narrow down our options when the solution hit us, we’d just order the Combo Platter for Two with Beef Filet Medallions, Schnitzel, Nürnberger Grillbratwurst, Spätzle, Potato Salad, Sauerkraut, Apple-Flavored Red Cabbage and Green Beans wrapped in Bacon.  For us, the star of the show would be the Nurnberger sausages, which we seek out whenever we eat this cuisine, taking us back to that walled city in the south of the country. 

Of course, we ordered beers to start, a Berliner Weisse for Joanna and a draft Bitburger for me.  I’d later follow up with a Hofbrau House Helles, one of my favorite styles of German lagers.  The food was everything we could have asked for and we did a lot of damage to the large portions set before us.  Knowing we had a cooler with us and a microwave back at the house we took the leftovers with us as well as an order of the Apfel Strudel (Apple Strudel served warm with vanilla sauce) to enjoy later.  It was all incredibly good and for a few moments, we felt like we were back in Munich, one of our favorite cities to visit.  We’ll leave it there and pick it in our next post. 

Links

Jennifer’s Place: https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/22862486?source_impression_id=p3_1732497065_P3O6cSK4OivISguU

Captain Benders Tavern: https://captainbenderstavern.com/

Gettysburg National Military Park: https://www.nps.gov/gett/index.htm

Antietam: https://www.nps.gov/anti/index.htm

Schmankerl Stube Bavarian Restaurant: https://schmankerlstube.com/