Local historian Wilmer Mumma recalled that “both printed and copyrighted a picture and souvenir guidebook, and often got into open conflicts as to who owned what and who was more correct in his facts. This sometimes led to fisticuffs in the street over would-be customers.”

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Burgan left Sharpsburg in 1924, but Reilly’s battles continued as the War Department transferred care of Antietam Battlefield to the National Park Service, which promptly took aim at him. “It has been learned that two persons living in the town of Sharpsburg conduct visitors over the Battlefield Site and explain the movements of troops during the battle,” the 1934 NPS Annual Report reads. “They have not been required to pass an examination to determine their fitness nor have they been licensed by the Government (as was the practice at Gettysburg). It is understood that they do not as a general rule solicit on the highways but conduct visitors who request them to do so. A further study of this phase of the situation will be made and reported on at a later date.”

Reilly fired back in the Register: “John K. Beckenbaugh, the newly appointed superintendent of the Antietam Battlefield, comes out in his new uniform. We understand anyone acting as a guide will have to take an examination, be rated and wear a uniform like at Gettysburg. Mr. Oliver T. Reilly, the noted Antietam Battlefield guide, because of his residence on the field during the Battle of Antietam, doesn’t have to depend upon the history of others to gather the information necessary to depict accurately the battle that occurred on this historic spot.”

Still a fighter at 79, Reilly watched the approach of the battle’s 75th anniversary with characteristic energy: “I want to get older. I want to be here to see the great gathering next year. I am living on borrowed time.” He would, in fact, live, and write, into the next decade.

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