1,000 Places to See in the U.S.A. & Canada Before You Die (25 page)

Haunting Civil War History

Sharpsburg, Maryland

Flush from his victory a month earlier at the Battle of Second Manassas (see p. 249), Confederate General Robert E. Lee set his sights on the heart of the Union in September 1862. But any thoughts of a quick invasion
came crashing down on September 17th at the Battle of Antietam in Sharpsburg—the single bloodiest day in American military history. Like most Civil War battlefields, the site of the carnage is a peaceful scene of rolling farmland today, minus the countless monuments so prominent at Gettysburg (see p. 209). A self-guided driving tour leads to many sites that have entered Civil War legend, including the Cornfield, Burnside Bridge, and Bloody Lane. The Maryland Monument is the only memorial in the world to pay homage to casualties on both sides of a battle; two Confederate regiments and eight Union regiments came from Maryland.

Civil War buffs can decamp in the Jacob Rohrbach Inn, an 1830s Federal-style B&B that was used as a hospital after the fighting stopped. With just four rooms, it promises a personal experience highlighted by the smell of home-baked cookies wafting through the historic quarters on your return from sightseeing.

Or you can opt to stay at the Antietam Overlook Farm. The front porch views are just one of the 19th-century-style inn’s many lures: It sits at the center of a 95-acre mountaintop spread, with vistas that stretch to Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia. A very private getaway, it has five luxurious suites and a grand fireplace to stave off the chill of an autumn evening.

Antietam National Battlefield was the birthplace of triage, the first example of organized emergency battlefield medicine; and dozens of local buildings in nearby Frederick were turned into makeshift hospitals, one of which is now the National Museum of Civil War Medicine, located within its 30-block historic district. The museum’s displays and life-size wax figures explain the use of hospital trains and vividly describe the horrors of Civil War–era operating rooms. The city itself abounds in history: It’s where Lincoln addressed a crowd after the battle, and Clara Barton, who would go on to found the American Red Cross, had her first battlefield nursing experience.

W
HERE:
80 miles west of Baltimore. Tel 301-432-5124;
www.nps.gov/anti
.
J
ACOB
R
OHRBACH
I
NN
: Sharpsburg. Tel 877-839-4242 or 301-432-5079;
www.jacob-rohrbach-inn.com
.
Cost:
from $119.
A
NTIETAM
O
VERLOOK
F
ARM:
Keedysville. Tel 800-878-4241 or 301-432-4200;
www.antietamoverlook.com
.
Cost:
from $165 (off-peak), from $190 (peak).
M
USEUM OF
C
IVIL
W
AR
M
EDICINE:
Frederick. Tel 301-695-1864;
www.civilwarmed.org
.
B
EST TIMES
: Sat after July 4 for Salute to Independence, when the Maryland Symphony Orchestra is accompanied by fireworks and live cannon fire; Sept 17 for special commemorations at the battlefield; 1st Sat evening in Dec, when the battlefield is illuminated with 23,000 candles, one for each casualty, placed by over 800 volunteers.

A line of cannons serves as a somber reminder of one of the Civil War’s bloodiest battles.

Home of Maryland’s First Settlers

Maryland

The Pilgrims had already landed at Plymouth Rock (see p. 64) when 140 English settlers waded ashore onto this unassuming, marsh-edged peninsula between the Patuxent and Potomac rivers in 1634 and became
Maryland’s first colonists. St. Mary’s City was the original center of the Maryland colony and served as its colonial capital for its first 60 years (before the position was given to Annapolis; see p. 117). Today St. Mary’s is an outstanding 800-acre living history museum and archaeological park with costumed interpreters who demonstrate the skills of living in the 17th century, as archaeologists continue to unearth and reconstruct the original town site. The cruciform shape of the first statehouse now rises again over re-creations of Smith’s Ordinary (offering “dyett and drink”), a Native American settlement, and a reconstructed
ship that brought the first settlers here from England, with costumed sailors aboard to answer your questions.

Interpreters in 17th-century settings tell the story of Maryland’s first years.

St. Mary’s County grew rich on its fertile soil, and numerous manor houses built on tobacco fortunes still stand. Sotterley Plantation, a colonial port of entry from the early 18th century, was once allegedly lost in a dice game. Older than Monticello or Mount Vernon in neighboring Virginia (see pp. 239 and 250), the Georgian manor house that sits on a bluff overlooking the Patuxent River can be visited with guided tours from May through October. If you’re looking for a hotel with a similar piece of history, you’ll find it at St. Michael’s Manor. Built around 1805, it sits near Long Neck Creek on land granted to Governor Leonard Calvert in 1639 and is now an inn. Four guest rooms are decorated with quilts and antiques, and a working vineyard fills 3 of the property’s 10 acres.

At the very tip of the peninsula stands Point Lookout, where Confederate prisoners were held at Fort Lincoln during the Civil War. Point Lookout is now a state park, and includes one of the county’s three lighthouses. Across the Patuxent River in Calvert County is the town of Solomons, where the popular Calvert Marine Museum is worth a day trip: It holds the second-largest collection of fossils from the Miocene era outside the Smithsonian.

W
HERE:
106 miles south of Baltimore.
H
ISTORIC
S
T
. M
ARY’S
C
ITY
: Tel 800-762-1634 or 240-895-4990;
www.stmaryscity.org
.
When:
varies; see website.
S
OTTERLEY
P
LANTATION:
Hollywood. Tel 800-681-0850 or 301-373-2280;
www.sotterley.com
When:
grounds daily; manor house tours Tues–Sat, May–Oct.
S
T
. M
ICHAEL’S
M
ANOR:
Scotland. Tel 301-872-4025;
www.stmichaels-manor.com
.
Cost:
from $65.
When:
Mar–Dec.
P
OINT
L
OOKOUT
S
TATE
P
ARK:
Scotland. Tel 301-872-5688.
C
ALVERT
M
ARINE
M
USEUM:
Solomons. Tel 410-326-2042;
www.calvertmarinemuseum.com
.
B
EST TIMES
: Mar 25 (Maryland Day); mid-June during the St. Mary’s Country Crab Feast; mid-Oct during the St. Mary’s County Oyster Festival.

Historic Charm on the Chesapeake Bay

Maryland

On the Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake Bay, Talbot (TALL-but) County is a region defined by water, with pristine wetlands and quiet coves promising a slower pace of life. Start your visit at Easton, the unofficial
capital of the region. Browse well-stocked antiques stores and stroll picturesque streets lined with gracious homes. Then check in for the weekend at any of the seven guest rooms
at the Inn at Easton, a newly restored 1790s Federal mansion with a cosmopolitan ambience and an outstanding restaurant.

Oxford, one of the oldest towns in the state, is the perfect place for an afternoon amble past street-side gardens to the waterfront, and it’s a chance to enjoy one of the best-preserved Colonial settlements in the country. The Robert Morris Inn, built in 1710 as a home for a shipping agent, today houses 34 rooms. Dine at the inn’s excellent restaurant and enjoy the crab cakes that James Michener—who was a guest at the inn while writing
Chesapeake
—called “the best on the Eastern Shore.”

A ferry links Oxford to the Victorian village of St. Michaels, a busy shipbuilding center in colonial times. Today, yachts pack the harbor on summer weekends while the 1879 Hooper Strait Lighthouse stands guard. At the outstanding Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum at Navy Point, watch expert boat-builders at work or aspiring students who learn traditional skills through an apprentice program. Everyone seems to wind up next door at the casual and fun (and forever busy) Crab Claw, whose hot spiced Maryland blue crabs are plucked from waters just over yonder.

You can sail right up to the Inn at Perry Cabin.

Secure your boat-lover’s fantasy as a pampered guest at the Inn at Perry Cabin, an exclusive, romantic getaway in a proud 19th-century mansion right on the Miles River. Its 81 rooms are simply but handsomely decorated, and the elegant restaurant offers water views across the manicured grass.

Tilghman Island was first charted by Captain John Smith in the early 1600s. It is home to the largest working fleet of skipjacks on the bay. A seagull is your morning wake-up call at the Lazy Jack Inn, an 1850s waterfront home with views over the harbor.

W
HERE
: Easton is 63 miles southeast of Baltimore.
Visitor info:
Tel 410-770-8000;
www.tourtalbot.org
.
T
HE
I
NN AT
E
ASTON:
Tel 888-800-8091 or 410-822-4910;
www.theinnateaston.com
.
Cost:
from $200.
R
OBERT
M
ORRIS
I
NN
: Oxford. Tel 888-823-4012 or 410-226-5111;
www.robertmorrisinn.com
.
Cost:
from $110; dinner $35.
When:
Apr–Nov.
M
ARITIME
M
USEUM:
St. Michaels. Tel 410-745-2916;
www.cbmm.org
.
T
HE
C
RAB
C
LAW:
St. Michaels. Tel 410-745-2900.
Cost:
$12.
I
NN AT
P
ERRY
C
ABIN
: St. Michaels. Tel 800-722-2949 or 410-745-2200;
www.perrycabin.com
.
Cost:
from $310.
L
AZY
J
ACK
I
NN:
Tilghman Island. Tel 800-690-5080 or 410-886-2215.
Cost:
$109 (off-peak), from $139 (peak).
B
EST TIMES
: 3 days in May for the Mid-Atlantic Maritime Festival in St. Michaels; Aug for Tilghman Island’s monarch butterfly migration; late Oct for Tilghman Island Day.