Presidential Visits to Antietam Battlefield-- Part 2: Andrew Johnson's Visit

**  Andrew Johnson, Lincoln's successor,  was next to pay a visit to the battlefield.    While the Radical Republicans in Congress were doing everything they could to impeach him, Johnson traveled to the battlefield on September 17, 1867, the fifth anniversary of the battle, to deliver an address at the dedication of the National Cemetery there.

While his speech that day was not as famous or eloquent as Abraham Lincoln's at Gettysburg, it was at times stirring:  "When we look at yon battlefield, I think of the brave men who fell in the fierce struggle of battle, and who sleep silent in their graves.  Yes, many of them sleep  in silence and peace within this beautiful enclosure after the earnest conflict had ceased."

--Old Secesh