Nearly 150 years after the Civil War, the bloody Battle of Antietam is still studied and analyzed. At day’s end in the countryside surrounding Maryland’s Antietam Creek, more than 23,000 American soldiers were dead, missing or wounded. Stephen R. Potter, PhD, will speak on “Antietam and the Archaeology of Tactics” Saturday, March 28, from 4-5 p.m. at the N.C. Carolina Museum of History.
“Battlefield archaeology as a discipline has been growing for the last 25 years,” said State Archaeologist Steve Claggett. “It contains investigative techniques that have been very valuable at sites like Antietam, the Little Big Horn and here in North Carolina at Guilford Courthouse.”
Potter, an archaeologist with the National Park Service, will discuss tell how archaeology provided evidence of Confederate attacks against Union soldiers on Sept. 17, 1862, in Antietam’s North Woods, and how it uncovered clues to help identify the Southern units.
The free program is presented as part of the Joffre Lanning Coe Lecture Series by the Coe Foundation for Archaeological Research. The lecture is co-sponsored by three Department of Cultural Resources divisions – the N.C. Museum of History, Historical Resources, and State Historic Sites and Properties – as well as the N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences.
North Carolina native Dr. Joffre Lanning Coe (1916-2000) was one of the foremost authorities on archaeology in Eastern North America. His books include the landmark 1964 publication, “The Formative Cultures of the Carolina Piedmont,” and “Town Creek Indian Mound,” published in 1995.
For more information about the Coe lectures and other events at the N.C. Museum of History, call (919) 807-7900. The Museum of History is part of the Department of Cultural Resources, the state agency dedicated to the promotion and protection of North Carolina’s arts, history and culture. Now podcasting 24/7 with information about the Department of Cultural Resources, all available at www.ncculture.com.