Search The ScholarShip. This Collection. View Google Analytics Statistics. Show full item record. The Battle of Antietam was the single bloodiest day of the American Civil War and is considered one of the major turning points of the war. This battle was the first of two attempts by Robert E.
Lee to go on the offensive and take the war onto northern soil and into the Union. This battle, while the fighting lasted only one day, resulted in the loss of life of thousands of soldiers both for the North and the South. There is some controversy over who won the battle and which side the battle helped by advancing their campaigns. On September 18th, the Union lost another chance. Instead of retreating, as perhaps he should have done, Lee stayed in his positions.
Despite having the numbers including about 30, fresh troops , with more on the way, McClellan decided not to renew the attack. Lee slipped back across the Potomac to Virginia that night and early the next morning largely unmolested. Except for a short bloody scrap at Shepherdstown, in which the Federals were repulsed, McClellan did not actively pursue Lee for nearly 6 weeks thereafter. Lee, too, suffered disappointment on the Maryland campaign.
Except for the capture of a large quantity of stores, ordnance, and Union soldiers at Harpers Ferry, he did not have much to show for his efforts. He did hold the field after the battle, and did inflict more casualties than he took, but these were not really enough for the battle at Sharpsburg to be considered a Confederate victory.
The morale of the ANV remained high, but they did not get their decisive fight. For observers in England and France, the Confederate failure in Maryland meant there would be no quick end to the War, and also meant that the Confederacy would have to get along without any help from their governments.
While perhaps only a temporary setback for the Confederates, the battle in fact killed the last hope for foreign intervention on behalf of the rebels.
Once Lincoln had issued the Emancipation Proclamation see below , no civilized nation would side against the "defenders of freedom". The battle had political ramifications in the North as well.
Because Lincoln could claim a victory, and it looked as though the fortunes of war might be turning in favor of the Union, the Fall elections of went rather better for Lincoln's Republican Party and "War" Democrats than might have been the case. Lincoln later credited the battle with saving a number of northern and western governor's and legislative seats that otherwise would have gone to "Peace" Democrats, who were opponents of Lincoln's war policy and advocates of a negotiated peace with the South.
The ordinary citizens in the North also felt the impact of the battle in a way not known before in America. A display of Alexander Gardner's Antietam Photographs in New York, and their further publication in newspapers, vividly brought home to them the dreadful carnage of the battle. Like the soldiers who fought, the people who saw these images lost any grand notions of the glory of war, and perhaps better understood something of the reality.
The photographs and stories about the fierce combat at Sharpsburg helped many people to begin to understand the effort and sacrifice it was going to take to win the war. As an extension of the change in the public perception of war, the overall strategy of the North began to evolve toward the concept of "total war". While this process was not complete after Antietam, the trend was clear: most people would eventually recognize that the Union could only be restored following the complete destruction of the South's ability to wage war and survive independently.
It would no longer be possible to go back to the way things were, or peacefully co-exist with a separate South. Lastly, but most importantly, the small victory that Lincoln could claim for the battle of Antietam was enough for him to issue the Emancipation Proclamation. While its impact seemed small at first, the enormity of its scope soon became apparent. Shortly after moving into the woods, a Confederate attack struck the flank of the Union soldiers and in twenty minutes, 2, out of 5, men had fallen killed or wounded.
Following the struggle in the West Woods, by a. Close to 10, soldiers had been killed or wounded during those first four hours of fighting. Due to confusion on the side of the Union and the fact there were no infantry men to push into the battle at this point, the attack sputtered out. By p. Ambrose Burnside, was struggling to cross the Antietam Creek. Burnside and his men were tasked with crossing the Antietam and then attacking the right flank of the Confederate line.
Around p. At approximately p. Just as the Federals reached the end of Lee's line, Confederate infantry, led by Gen. Hill, arrived on the field. These troops had been involved in the capture of Harpers Ferry, on September 15, and had marched approximately fifteen miles on the day of the battle to arrive on the flank of the Union line. They smashed into the Federals, causing the line to fall back toward Antietam Creek.
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