Antietam, Battle of (1862).In the late summer of 1862, as the
Civil War raged on, simultaneous Confederate invasions of Kentucky and Maryland led England's leaders to consider recognizing the independence of the
Confederate States of America. Invading Maryland, Robert E.
Lee divided his forty thousand–man army into four parts to capture Harpers Ferry, Virginia, held by Union forces. After Union General George B. McClellan, commanding 87,000 soldiers, cautiously probed the Confederate position at South Mountain on 14 September, Lee collected most of his army along the banks of Antietam Creek, near Sharpsburg, Maryland.
The battle of Antietam commenced on 17 September when Federal troops began a series of uncoordinated attacks against the Confederate left. By late morning the Federal attack had shifted to the Confederate center. Here the Confederates took cover in a sunken farm road, later known as “Bloody Lane.” By midafternoon, the battle had shifted to the Confederate right. After taking Rohrbach or “Burnside's” bridge, the Federals advanced toward Sharpsburg. Only the timely arrival of Ambrose Powell Hill's Confederates from Harpers Ferry saved the rebel army's line of retreat. The Confederates abandoned the field on the 18th.
The date 17 September 1862 has the dubious distinction of being the bloodiest day of the Civil War, indeed, of all American history; total casualties amounted to 22,719 killed, wounded, or missing. In the aftermath of the battle of Antietam, England abandoned its consideration of Confederate independence. Following the battle, Abraham
Lincoln issued the
Emancipation Proclamation, which freed all slaves in areas of rebellion as of 1 January 1863. What had begun as a war for the Union now became a war for freedom.
Bibliography
Stephen W. Sears , Landscape Turned Red: The Battle of Antietam, 1983.
Gary W. Gallagher, ed., Antietam: Essays on the 1862 Maryland Campaign, 1989.
Jonathan M. Berkey