Antietam's 150th commences

This past week has been a busy one for me - hence not a whole lot of time to work on the blog. I would like to wrap up my series on William H. Shaw and the 32nd Massachusetts this weekend, and move on to some other research I am exploring, but we shall see.

It has been quite a busy week in the Civil War community as well. Those of you who follow the Civil War blogosphere closely have probably seen the following links, but for those who do not - please enjoy:

- This week sees the 150th anniversary commemorations of the battles of South Mountain and Antietam. The Civil War Trust has released its Antietam Battlefield App. It also has other resources online, including Antietam 360. And, if you would like to understand the battle a bit better, the Trust also has an excellent interactive map presentation. A hat tip to the Student of the American Civil War Blog for these links.

- I've been impressed with Antietam National Battlefield's facebook efforts to promote the anniversary. They have posted videos on their page every day since the start of the Maryland Campaign anniversary. The videos are not very long or detailed, but a great idea to keep the anniversary in everyone's mind throughout the month. If you haven't liked them on facebook, it's well worth the click.

- The exciting news of the week: the release of the trailer for Steven Speilberg's Lincoln.... This. Looks. Awesome. I have long been wary of getting my hopes up over Civil War movies (ever since I saw Gods and Generals), but I cannot help but have high hopes for this one.

- And finally, sticking with the Maryland Campaign theme on the blog today, the anniversary seems to be producing a good deal of new scholarship on the campaign. Currently I am reading Richard Slotkin's The Long Road to Antietam. Though this blog is primarily focused on Gettysburg - I reserve the right to branch out of course, so I will write up a review for the Library Corner when I finish. I also look forward to the end of this month, and the publication of Scott Hartwig's To Antietam Creek. Hartwig of course serves as the chief historian at Gettysburg National Military Park, and has worked on this project for a very long time. I believe I first heard that he was writing a study of the Maryland Campaign back when I still was at Gettysburg College in the early 2000s. Needless to say, this book will shoot to the top of my reading list.