In this special 162nd battle anniversary edition of the podcast, co-hosts Tom McMillan and John Banks dive into some of their favorite soldier stories — from the United States soldier who carved his name into a window sill at the Dunker Church to four soldiers who wrote to loved ones as they lay mortally wounded on the battlefield and others.

"7 AM at which I am wounded," one of the them, a soldier from Michigan, wrote in his journal. "This is written on the spot wherein I lay. May God bless me and forgive all my sins, through Jesus Christ."

The podcast is sponsored by Civil War Trails, which since 1994 has connected visitors with small towns and big stories across a network that now spans six states.

Join McMillan and Banks for regular podcasts about Antietam, the Maryland Campaign and the Civil War — the most compelling period in American history.

McMillan is author of Our Flag Was Still There and other books. Banks is author of A Civil War Road Trip Of A Lifetime. Find them on Facebook at Author Tom McMillan and John Banks' Civil War Blog. Banks' popular Civil War blog is here.

On Episode 21 of "The Antietam And Beyond Podcast," Antietam Institute president Chris Vincent visits with co-hosts Tom McMillan and John Banks about battlefield farmsteads, his 132nd Pennsylvania ancestor, The Final Attack Trail, the upcoming Institute fall conference and much more. Vincent and his wife, Amy, own the historic Jacob Rohrbach Inn bed & breakfast in Sharpsburg, Md.

For information on the Antietam Institute, go here. | For information on the Jacob Rohrbach Inn, go here.

The podcast is sponsored by Civil War Trails, which since 1994 has connected visitors with small towns and big stories across a network that now spans six states.

Join McMillan and Banks for regular podcasts about Antietam, the Maryland Campaign and the Civil War — the most compelling period in American history.

McMillan is author of Our Flag Was Still There and other books. Banks is author of A Civil War Road Trip Of A Lifetime. Find them on Facebook at Author Tom McMillan and John Banks' Civil War Blog. Banks' popular Civil War blog is here.

On Episode 20 of "The Antietam And Beyond Podcast," Bob Kalasky, author of Shadows of Antietam, talks with co-host John Banks about his groundbreaking photographic work on the battlefield. (Co-host Tom McMillan is on vacation in Ireland.)

Kalasky — “The Shadow King” — is a leader in a unique subset of Civil War buffs and historians: the photo nerd. Several times a year, the professional massage therapist makes a 3 1/2-hour drive from his home in Ohio to the Antietam battlefield in western Maryland to prove or disprove a photo theory.

At Antietam, he has slept in his car, endured the landing nearby of a tornado and even watched in awe as three banks of fog moved around him and living historians. A supernatural force, perhaps?

True story: After John purchased Kalasky’s book, family CFO Mrs. B spied “massage” on his credit card bill. She gave him the side eye for at least 24 hours.

Buy Kalasky's book from The Kent State University Press.

The podcast is sponsored by Civil War Trails, which since 1994 has connected visitors with small towns and big stories across a network that now spans six states.

Join McMillan and Banks for regular podcasts about Antietam, the Maryland Campaign and the Civil War — the most compelling period in American history.

McMillan is author of Our Flag Was Still There and other books. Banks is author of A Civil War Road Trip Of A Lifetime. Find them on Facebook at Author Tom McMillan and John Banks' Civil War Blog. Banks' popular Civil War blog is here.