Wars and Battles
Antietam
Sharpsburg, MD

Following the Confederate victory at Second Bull Run, Lee moved his forces across the Potomac into Maryland. This advance into Union territory was later memorialized in James Greenleaf Whittier’s poem, “Barbara Frietchie.” Lee divided his force, sending "Stonewall” Jackson to nearby Harper’s Ferry. Union commander George B. McClellan gained a potential advantage when, on September 13, a Union soldier discovered a copy of Lee’s orders wrapped around a packet of cigars. Lee took up a position near the town on Sharpsburg on Antietam Creek. McClellan waited until September 17 to attack, a delay that enabled Jackson to return victorious from Harper’s Ferry.

The ensuing battle was one of the bloodiest of the Civil War. Ferocious Union Army attacks almost breached the Confederate lines, but the timely arrival of General A.P. Hill helped to keep the lines from breaking.

McClellan has been severely criticized for not mounting a full scale assault on the following day. Instead, Lee was able to retreat southward across the Potomac. The South suffered 13,700 casualties and the North, 12,500.

The impact of Antietam was immense. The South badly needed a victory on Northern soil; this was the only way in which they would be able to secure European assistance. Their failure to hold enemy territory dissuaded the British from establishing diplomatic relations.

Lincoln, long awaiting a significant victory, used the occasion of Antietam to announce the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation.

Following the events of September 1862 the Confederate armies were increasingly on the defensive.

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