Antietam Battlefield Is Recreating Piper Orchard
By Deborah Fitts
Feb/March 2003

SHARPSBURG, Md. - A large apple orchard that Union troops would have seen as they advanced on the sunken road that would later became notorious as Bloody Lane is being recreated at Antietam National Battlefield.

In November the park planted 350 apple trees on 6.5 acres - the first phase of a project that will recreate the 20-acre Piper family orchard, which extended over most of the half-mile distance from the Piper House to Bloody Lane.

Federals approaching the lane would have seen the orchard cresting the hill ahead, said Park Superintendent John Howard. "The orchard set the scene," he said.

The fighting at Bloody Lane was among the most notoriously sanguine of the war, leaving Confederates so thickly strewn that witnesses said one could walk on the bodies without touching the ground.

One Union unit, the 7th Maine Regiment, made it out of the lane in pursuit of the retreating Confederates. The Southerners fell back through the orchard with the Federals in pursuit. Confederate Gen.

James Longstreet finally rallied the remnants of his men, stopping the Union attack about three-quarters of the way to the Piper House.

Three years ago archaeologists armed with metal detectors traced the route of the Federals' attack through the or-chard. After the West Woods and North Woods, orchard restoration represents a next phase in carrying out the park's General Management Plan, which focuses on bringing the field closer to its appearance at the time of the September 1862 battle.

The park is already halfway through a multi-year project to replant the two woodlots, 55 acres in all. Howard said the $50,000 Piper Orchard project was delayed because of a lack of funds to buy the trees. But a regional horticultur-ist for the National Park Service was able to secure the money from the Washington, D.C., Metro system, which is required to set aside funding to compensate for public parks harmed by expansion of the subway lines.

The park arranged with a nursery in Michigan to grow the young trees for the orchard. They supplied eight varie-ties, including Baldwin, English Russet, Fornwalder, Gilpin, Jefferis, Maidenblush, McLellan and Northern Spy.

Howard said there was no attempt to replant heirloom varieties that might have existed in the 1860s, on account of the cost. "These are as close as we can get with the funding allowed," he said. "They're the same shape and size that we were looking for. It would represent the orchard that was there by view, not taste."

The park will be looking for volunteers to manage the new orchard. Howard said possible partners include local farmers, an orchard society, a school or university, or the Future Farmers of America.

Ultimately the Piper Orchard will cover 20 acres, restoring the historical footprint. The park has long-term plans to restore four or five orchards in all; this is the biggest. The Piper family made cider, jelly and other apple products for their larder but also sold apples as a crop, Howard said.

A few peach trees were included in the orchard, which began about 150 feet from the house and extended to 100 yards from Bloody Lane. The orchard still existed in 1895 but by the turn of the century was gone.

Creating the orchard for the first time in a hundred years will help satisfy the first question of many knowledgeable visitors who visit the Bloody Lane area, Howard said: "'Where's the orchard?' This is one way for us to put back the field the way it looked in September 1862."