Join us on Monday, July 15 as historian D. Scott Hartwig follows the experiences of Major Rufus Dawes of the 6th Wisconsin through the Battle of Antietam and its aftermath.  What made Dawes a good leader?  What challenges did he face on September 17 and after that date, as he grappled to process what he had been through.  Dawes’s experiences, while unique to him, also help us understand what many, on both sides, went through at Antietam.

D. Scott Hartwig retired in 2014 as the supervisory park historian at Gettysburg National Military Park after a 34-year career in the National Park Service, nearly all of it spent at Gettysburg. He won the regional Freeman Tilden Award for excellence in interpretation in 1993 and was a key player for the design of all aspects of the new Gettysburg museum/visitor center. He is the author of To Antietam Creek: The Maryland Campaign from September 3 to September 16, published in September 2012, by Johns Hopkins University Press. His second volume, I Dread the Thought of the Place: The Battle of Antietam and the End of he Maryland Campaign, was published in August 2023 by Johns Hopkins University Press.

Come join leading historians and scholars as they discuss intriguing topics about their latest works and research on the Maryland Campaign and the Civil War during our Civil War Summer Lecture Series.

These indoors programs are sponsored by the Jacob Rohrbach Inn and will be held in McKinley Hall at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church on Monday evenings at 7:00 p.m.  The church is located at 209W Main Street with a small parking area off the alley. More parking is available on Main and Hall Streets. These lectures free and open to the public. Each week we hold a drawing in which the proceeds support the Save Historic Antietam Foundation. Be sure to check our Facebook page for updates and changes to the schedule.