Plan: Convert Antietam HQ to medicine museum

Is this a preservation move?

Directors of the Frederick-based museum [National Museum of Civil War Medicine] have signed a one-year agreement with the park service and are negotiating a renewable, five-year deal to turn the Pry House into a museum.

McClellan directed the battle of Antietam from this house.

The Pry House will provide additional display space for the museum's collections and more conference space, he said.

How convenient. But what about my collections? Is Longstreet's HQ still available for storage and display of my collections?

Someone has lost his mind. According to this it's a man named Howard:

Antietam National Battlefield Superintendent John Howard on Tuesday called a planned Civil War medicine museum set to open next year on the Pry Farm a "match made in heaven." [...] "We're very supportive of it," Howard said. "We think it's a great idea.

The destruction of historical significance: a great idea. That's what a modern, up-to-date National Park service does.

And in a world crazed by heritage tourism, here's a switch:

Some Washington County Commissioners, however, weren't as excited. County Commissioners President Gregory I. Snook told the museum group's executive director, George C. Wunderlich, during a meeting Tuesday that it wasn't likely the county could afford his request of $25,000 a year to help with the facility's costs. Commissioner Doris J. Nipps said she was concerned about traffic the center would generate near the battlefield and whether the museum notified the public of its plans. "Have you had any discussions with the neighborhood? Because this will increase traffic," Nipps asked Wunderlich. Wunderlich said he had not told residents of the plans because he wanted to notify the commissioners first. "I didn't want you all to read it in the newspaper first," he said.

Go, irate locals, go.