The Battle of Antietam, fought on September 17, 1862, was the
bloodiest single day in American history, with more than 6,000
soldiers killed--four times the number lost on D-Day, and twice the
number killed in the September 11th terrorist attacks. In
Crossroads of Freedom, America's most eminent Civil War historian,
James M. McPherson, paints a masterful account of this pivotal
battle, the events that led up to it, and its aftermath.
As McPherson shows, by September 1862 the survival of the United
States was in doubt. The Union had suffered a string of defeats,
and Robert E. Lee's army was in Maryland, poised to threaten
Washington. The British government was openly talking of
recognizing the Confederacy and brokering a peace between North and
South. Northern armies and voters were demoralized. And Lincoln had
shelved his proposed edict of emancipation months before, waiting
for a victory that had not come--that some thought would never
come.
Both Confederate and Union troops knew the war was at a crossroads,
that they were marching toward a decisive battle. It came along the
ridges and in the woods and cornfields between Antietam Creek and
the Potomac River. Valor, misjudgment, and astonishing coincidence
all played a role in the outcome. McPherson vividly describes a day
of savage fighting in locales that became forever famous--The
Cornfield, the Dunkard Church, the West Woods, and Bloody Lane.
Lee's battered army escaped to fight another day, but Antietam was
a critical victory for the Union. It restored morale in the North
and kept Lincoln's party in control of Congress. It crushed
Confederate hopes of British intervention. And it freed Lincoln to
deliver the Emancipation Proclamation, which instantly changed the
character of the war.
McPherson brilliantly weaves these strands of diplomatic,
political, and military history into a compact, swift-moving
narrative that shows why America's bloodiest day is, indeed, a
turning point in our history.
General
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