The battle of Antietam during the Civil War deserves to be remembered by all those fighting for justice today. On Sept. 17, 1862, more than 2,000 men gave their lives to halt a slaveholders’ army. It was the bloodiest single day of fighting ever to take place in North America. Within days, the first major legal step was taken to abolish slavery in the United States.
The battle took place near Antietam Creek in western Maryland. Twelve hours of hard fighting gave the Union Army a partial victory. That outcome provided Abraham Lincoln the political protection he needed to begin steps that would transform the Civil War from an effort to preserve the Union into a revolutionary war to abolish slavery.
Five days after Antietam, Lincoln convened his Cabinet and announced that, if the Confederate states were still in rebellion on January 1, 1863, he would free all their slaves. On New Year’s Day in 1863, he issued the Emancipation Proclamation. This executive order freed only the slaves in those states or parts of states that were in rebellion. It did not abolish slavery throughout the United States. However, it transformed the nature of the war, and unleashed a process that led inexorably to the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which did abolish chattel slavery throughout the United States.
The stage for the battle was set in early September 1862. Emboldened by several victories, General Robert E. Lee moved the Army of Northern Virginia into Maryland, a slave state that had remained in the Union. A major Confederate victory would strengthen pro-Confederate sentiment in the North right before the 1862 mid-term elections. It might even convince some European powers to intervene on the side of the Confederacy.
Lee believed that the commander of the Union’s Army of the Potomac – General George B. McClellan – was cautious to the point of cowardice. Lee also thought that McClellan’s army would be demoralized from recent defeats. As historian Stephen W. Sears has pointed out, these assessments were “only half right.”
McClellan was a supporter of slavery who constantly made excuses for why he would not fight. At Antietam, McClellan’s conduct fully justified Lee’s contempt for him. McClellan had learned Lee’s plans and had more troops than Lee did. Still, he refused to move decisively, and allowed Lee’s army to escape after the battle.
But if McClellan violated all the principles of war at Antietam, the same cannot be said for his soldiers. Forced to attack in “driblets” (as one Union general put it), the soldiers of the Army of the Potomac fought bravely.
This courage was displayed vividly in the fight to take “The Sunken Road” – a small depression at the edge of a farm. After several attacks failed, the task fell to the Union’s Irish Brigade. Shouting its battle cry (“Clear the way!”) in Irish, the Irish Brigade advanced across an open field. Within minutes, hundreds of its soldiers were killed or wounded. Ever since, the Sunken Road has been known as the “Bloody Lane.”
In all, 2,108 Union soldiers were killed at Antietam; 9,549 were wounded; and 753 ended up missing. The carnage was so terrible that – as one Union soldier put it – “the whole landscape for an instant turned slightly red.” This sacrifice saved the day. Lee was forced to retreat back into Virginia.
The bravery of the Union soldiers at Antietam did not end the Civil War. Lee’s army would invade Union territory again, and the war would drag on for two more long years. After the Civil War ended, the revolutionary Reconstruction state governments in the former Confederacy would be overthrown in a brutal counter-revolution. Still, there is no disputing the fact that the Emancipation Proclamation and the 13th Amendment are direct results of the Union victory at Antietam.
There are moments in history when the future of humanity rests on what a relatively few people are willing to endure. While there is still much work to be done, the fight for a new America can fairly be said to have begun on a long September day in 1862 beside a winding creek in western Maryland — on a day when the very landscape itself seemed to turn red.
BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS:
Many books have been written about Antietam in the 160 years since the battle. Here are some I’d recommend:
“Crossroads of Freedom: Antietam (Pivotal Moments in American History) by James M. McPherson (ISBN: 0195135210)
This study is a combined diplomatic, political, and military history. It covers the battle itself, but also the key events preceding it and the battle’s consequences.
“Landscape Turned Red: The Battle of Antietam” by Stephen W. Sears (ISBN: 978-0-618-34419-2)
While James McPherson concentrates on the political and diplomatic consequences of the battle, Stephen Sears focuses on the military action itself. “Landscape Turned Red” is a detailed, precise account. It vividly conveys the horror of war and the ebb and flow of a bloody battle whose outcome was in doubt for much of the long day. It includes numerous maps showing the position of the opposing armies at different points in the day. These are especially helpful.
“George B. McClellan: The Young Napoleon” by Stephen W. Sears (ISBN: 0-306-80913-3)
In addition to his study of the Antietam battle, Stephen Sears has also written a full-length biography of the Union commander at Antietam – George B. McClellan (1826-1885). This book covers the whole of McClellan’s life, not just his role at Antietam. While Sears bends over backwards to interpret McClellan’s actions in the most positive way possible, in the end, McClellan comes across as an arrogant son of privilege blinded by his own egotism and narrow-mindedness. Sears is way too sympathetic to McClellan, but the book is worth reading for all the fascinating information it contains.
“The Emancipation Proclamation And Other Documents of Freedom” [Smithsonian Edition] (978-1-58834-708-4)
This is a beautiful small hardcover with the full text of the Emancipation Proclamation and other important documents (such as the District of Columbia Emancipation Act). In a sense, the blood spilled at Antietam made this book possible.
Chris Mahin is a writer, speaker and teacher on contemporary U.S. politics and history, particularly on the significance of the American Revolutionary War and Civil war eras for today. He is the Electoral Desk on the People’s Tribune Editorial Board.
