Volunteers honor the memory of those who fell at Antietam

Dec. 3, 2006
By JOSEPH M. DELEON News-Post Staff
jdeleon@fredericknewspost.com

   FREDERICK — While Sue and Cal Doucette were on a trip through Shepherdstown, W. Va. about 10 years ago, they came across a flyer advertising the annual illumination ceremony at Antietam National Battlefield.
     They drove to the battlefield to see 23,110 luminaries — sand-filled paper bags with a candle inside a plastic cup. The candles represented soldiers killed, wounded or missing in action during the Battle of Antietam.
     The Doucettes have been setting up and taking down luminarias to honor the battle ever since.
     They moved to Gettysburg, Pa., more than a year ago, partly to retire, but mostly to be close to the heart of the Civil War.
     The self-proclaimed Civil War fanatics have alter egos — Ms. Doucette portrays Sarah Emma Edmonds, one of nearly 400 women who enlisted as soldiers during the Civil War. Mr. Doucette depicts Horace Greeley, editor of the New York Tribune during the Civil War.
     “It's things like this that draw you in and make the Civil War interesting,” Ms. Doucette said. “Being Civil War buffs, this place is dear to our hearts.”
     She is one of more than 1,400 volunteers who set up luminarias along a six-mile stretch of Antietam National Battlefield on Saturday.
     A line of cars, which often exceeds two miles in length, follows the route after the sun sets.
     Groups of 20 to 50 volunteers are assigned different portions of the 3,000-acre battlefield. Park officials give each group a marking rope, boxes of paper bags prefilled with sand, plastic cups and candles.
     It's up to the army of volunteers to set up and take down the memorial of glowing bags.
Setting up the bags
     Volunteers unwind the marking rope across the battlefield. Knots tied 15 feet apart mark where luminaries must be placed. Every 15 feet, volunteers lay down another line of luminaries.
     Mr. Doucette arrived Saturday at 7 a.m. to make sure everything was set up for his 25-member group.
     By 2 p.m., the group had laid down nearly 1,000 brown paper bags anchored with sand. Their grid of lunch bags covered the lawn north of the visitor's center.
     Across the field of rolling hills, a group of about 25 Boy Scouts from Troop 1509 in Alexandria, Va. laid down more than 3,000 luminaries in three hours.
     Andrew Wyse, a sophomore at St. Stephen's & St. Agnes School in Alexandria, stood near a monument outside the visitor's center with several other scouts.
     It was the 16-year-old's first time volunteering at the illumination. He couldn't wait until dusk.
     “It's interesting for its historic aspect because it pays tribute to the battle,” he said. “I've heard about it and seen pictures before, but this is my first time actually being here — it's pretty powerful.”
     Kim Kersting and her 11-yearold son Tom of Boonsboro trudged through a corn field lighting luminaries at 3:30 p.m. They were two of nearly 50 volunteers from Boy Scout Troop 20.
     Ms. Kersting and her son made several passes along the line of bags to make sure the candles stayed lit.
     “I like the challenge of keeping them lit,” Tom said as he twirled the long camping lighter around his finger like a six-shooter. “But five of mine did go up in flames.”
     Some of the bags burst into a mini fireball when the wind pressed the paper bag too close to the open flame. A trail of smoke followed by the smell of burning grass occasionally wafted past, but volunteers quickly stamped out the fire and replaced the burned-out bags with fresh ones.
     While it was the Kerstings first year volunteering, driving through the lighted display has been a family tradition for years.
     “We've waited for hours in line, but when you're with family it doesn't seem that long, you don't mind because you're chitchatting,” Ms. Kersting said. “People are willing to wait because it's such an amazing thing to see.”
Sweeping the field
     The morning after the illumination is Mr. and Ms. Doucette's favorite part of the memorial. They arrive before the sun rises to pick up what's left of the luminaries.
     They call it sweeping the field.
     Trains pass in the distance, sounding an eerie whistle as mist rises from the Potomac River, Ms. Doucette said. The battlefield is empty, dark and cold.
     As the sun rises over the battlefield, row after row of brown paper bags stand at attention.
     They take each bag and turn it over to spread the sand on the ground, as if spreading the dead's ashes across the battlefield.
     The burnt candle and paper bags are tossed into a trash bag they carry behind them.
     “It hits you in the pit of your stomach as you pick up each bag, it represents a man who had a family, children, a home,” Ms. Doucette said. “It's our way of honoring them so they aren't forgotten.”