July 04, 2014

**Antietam Friday**

**Happy Independence Day! Let freedom ring!!**

Antietam National Battlefield is a stunning place for many reasons, just one being that natural beauty is abundant. Even a casual drive produces many great photos like the one above, which shows the Visitor Center in the center distance. To its right is the New York State Memorial. The light-colored dot to the far left of the building is a water tower (not a monument!). There appears to be other tall obelisk-style monuments to the right, but I can’t determine what they are.

**HONORED TODAY**

PVT. SIDNEY H. HAGER

Co. K, 23^RD North Carolina Infantry

Died September 18, 1863 at age 20

Pvt. Hager, who enlisted in June 1861, was likely wounded at “Iverson’s Pits” during the fateful assault on July 1^ST. He suffered an amputation of the left leg sometime after the battle and was later taken to Camp Letterman, where he died of infection resulting from his wound. Pvt. Hager was buried at Oakwood Cemetery in Raleigh.


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