3 Best Sights in Frederick and Western Maryland, Maryland

Time has returned Antietam National Battlefield, the site of the bloodiest one-day battle of the Civil War, to its tranquil antebellum appearance, with woodlands giving way to sloping cornfields bound by rough-hewn fences. On September 17, 1862, more than 23,000 Union and Confederate troops were killed, wounded, or missing here. The gruesome battle led Abraham Lincoln to issue the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation. A self-guided tour by car follows 8½ miles of well-preserved battlefield including Dunkard Church and Bloody Lane. An hour-long documentary is shown at the visitor center at noon each day, and there is an exhibit of Civil War artifacts. You can also hike the battlefields with an audio tour or accompanied by a ranger. Stop at the Pry House Field Hospital Museum (an extension of Frederick's National Museum of Civil War Medicine), where a re-created operating room and implements used to care for the wounded are displayed.

Along the Potomac River stands the only remaining stone fort from the French and Indian War. Built in 1756 and named after Frederick Calvert, the sixth Lord of Baltimore, Fort Frederick's stone walls protected Maryland's frontier settlers. Today, a visitor center displays artifacts from the French and Indian War and several times a year, staff and volunteers dressed in 18th-century period clothing give visitors a taste of life in the Colonial era. The park also offers hiking trails, skiing, boating, and canoeing.

In the summer of 1864, Confederate general Jubal Early (who has perhaps the most memorable name in Civil War history), marched 15,000 troops toward Frederick in hopes of capturing the capital. At Monocacy Junction, a stop on the B&O Railroad, they encountered a force of Union soldiers about a third their size. Despite being outnumbered, the Union troops managed to stall the Rebels by burning a key bridge across the Monocacy River, thereby thwarting a takeover of Washington, D.C. Roam the fields surrounding the park with an audio tour, available in the visitor center, to better understand what's sometimes called "The battle that saved Washington, D.C." Recently, Monocacy has been making headlines for a major new discovery: National Park Service archeologists have uncovered the site of the largest known slave habitation site in the Mid-Atlantic region. The remains of several dwelling houses and artifacts dating back to the 1790s have been uncovered. The site is associated with L'Hermitage, a plantation established by French planters who came to Maryland from Saint-Domingue (known today as Haiti). By 1800, it was home to 90 enslaved laborers—the second largest slave population in Frederick County at the time, and among the largest in Maryland.