Klan plans rally at Antietam battlefield

? The site of America’s bloodiest day will soon host a Ku Klux Klan rally.

The KKK announced plans this week to get together on June 10 at the Antietam National Battlefield. The National Park Service has approved the white supremacist group’s application for a permit to use the park to exercise its free speech rights.

“It would be very difficult to find a reason why a First Amendment permit would be denied,” Battlefield Supt. John W. Howard said.

On Sept. 17, 1862, more than 23,000 men on both sides were killed, wounded or reported missing at the western Maryland battlefield near Sharpsburg.

The Confederacy’s failure to achieve a clear victory at Antietam gave President Lincoln the political strength to issue the Emancipation Proclamation freeing slaves in the South.