The Antietam and Its Bridges: The Annals of an Historic Stream (Classic Reprint)

Chapter I ij ,A long the Antietam .i MTHERE is a stream running through Washington County, Maryland, from the Pennsylvania line to the Potomac River, whose name will be famous as long as America endures, the placid A ntietam. It has been impossible to trace the meaning of its name, but tradition says that it is of Indian origin. It is probably the name of an Indian chief, and in early times its musical syllables were spelled in various ways. We find it written A nteatem, and oftener yet in the rather cannibalistic form of A nti-E atem. It is a beautiful, wide stream, meandering slowly through a country of great beauty and interest. Sycamores lean their dappled trunks across it, and water willows mark its course with soft masses of grayish foliage while they hide it from view. A tangle of blackberries and wild roses, of papaws and hazel bushes, of elder and poisonous ivy, fringes its banks. I ts waters are not sparkling; they often carry a large amount of muddy matter which gives the stream a thick and turgid appearance, and after heavy rains it will carry this earthy charge for days. But it is peacefully beautiful, and flows through one of the richest farming lands in A merica.
(Typographical errors above are due to OCR software and don't occur in the book.)

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