In the early 1900s Ezra A. Carman wrote a sweeping and detailed manuscript chronicling the Maryland Campaign of 1862. As the colonel of the 13th New Jersey Infantry, he was a participant in the battle. He "served as a trustee on the Antietam National Cemetery Association Board from 1866 to 1877 and as an 'historical expert' and member of the War Department's Antietam Board for Antietam National Battlefield Site from 1895 to 1897." Drawing from extensive interviews with fellow veterans, including numerous walks on the battlefield, the manuscript provided a unique and detailed history of the campaign. Unfortunately, it was never published. However, it has served as a starting point for most books written about the battle ever since.
The Visual Antietam series publishes Carman's manuscript with a heavy emphasis on maps and photographs. Visual Antietam Vol. 3: Ezra Carman's Antietam Through Maps and Pictures: The Middle Bridge To Hill's Counterattack contains forty (40) images, both period and modern, allowing the reader to see the battlefield today and as it was only days after the battle. Thirty-two (32) original maps explain the troop movements during the course of that morning and afternoon east and south of Sharpsburg.