The Irish Brigade at Antietam

I’ve written before about the Irish Brigade in the American Civil War. At Antietam, I found their monument.

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Mumma Cemetery at Antietam

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In the middle of the Antietam National Battlefield, you come upon a cemetery.

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In 1862, Samuel and Elizabeth Mumma resided on 150 acres of this land, including the cemetery, with their ten children. By the time of the battle, the cemetery had existed for more than 60 years. Prior to the Mummas, the Orndorff family owned this farm, and Major Christian Orndorff was interred in the cemetery in 1797. The Mummas acquired the property in 1811.

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As troops approached Sharpsburg, the Mumma family fled their farm and took shelter at a nearby church. When they returned after the battle, they discovered that Confederates had burned their farmhouse to prevent it from being used by Union sharpshooters.

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In the 1870s, the family deeded the land to allow burials of other community members, particularly congregants from nearby Dunker Church – itself constructed on land donated by the family prior to the war.

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A Different Kind of Monument

On the way home this weekend, we made an impulsive stop at Antietam National Battlefield just outside Sharpsburg, Maryland. It was a whim, but we really couldn’t have picked a better time. Not only was there an artillery demonstration by a crew of re-enactors, but there was a textile display, and one of the central pieces was this quilt. It’s different from what I used to post about. The Pry Memory quilt was created when, following the battle, the Pry family moved to Tennessee. The signatures on the quilt blocks allowed the piece to be traced back to its origins.

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