Our annual meeting for 2026 will be on Sunday, September 27, and in addition to our usual report of activities, finances, and election of officers, we will focus on our 40th year of official existence. Shepherd University’s Civil War Center is holding a weekend-long seminar on battlefield preservation in general, and Antietam in specific. Their seminar ends at 2:30, and we will begin our annual meeting shortly afterwards. We will begin with a short ceremony on the front lawn of the Grove Farm house, just east of the paved wayside interpretive plaza on Shepherdstown Pike west of the town of Sharpsburg. (This has very limited parking, but the owner of the Grove Farm has allowed us to park on the sides of his driveway to the house and/or the parking lot at the Sharpsburg Train Station. Both will involve some walking.) At this ceremony, we will briefly discuss how SHAF came to be and events related to this site.
After this short ceremony, we will move into Sharpsburg and meet in the Headquarters of Antietam Institute, which is located at 101 W. Main Street at the center of town. Park behind the Jefferson Security Bank building and enter the door on the left of the drive-thru. (In the event of bad weather, we will hold the Grove Farm ceremony indoors at this same place.) We will post an agenda and financial report online in advance of the meeting. For those who do not wish to attend the ceremony at the Grove Farm, you may make yourselves comfortable at the AI headquarters until the rest of us arrive.
We will have SHAF hats and sweatshirts for sale at the meeting, and some framed prints to auction off, as well.
Thank you, and we look forward to seeing you soon.
