Battle Of Antietam Essay

The Battle of Antietam was the bloodiest single day in American history, it ended in a Union victory and gave Abraham Lincoln the opportunity to issue the Emancipation Proclamation ("The Battle of Antietam: A Turning Point in the War"). The battle was fought primarily on September 17, 1862 in Sharpsburg, Washington County, Maryland General Robert E. Lee on the confederacy and General George B. McClellan on the Federals. Approximately 23,000 men were killed or wounded in the fields, woods and dirt roads. The battle was also a turning point of the American Civil War because the reason for fighting shifted from keeping the South from seceding to abolishing slavery when Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. There were many small

On September 17, 1862 the Union ninth corps under the command of Maj. Gen. Ambrose Burnside faced the task of attacking the confederacy on the far side of the bridge. The geography around the bridge was in favor of the few thousand Confederates who defended it. Even though the Union had a numerical advantage the difficult terrain and Confederate defense made it difficult for Burnside to capture this Antietam crossing. It took several hours for the Union to successfully capture and cross the bridge. The battle estimated around 3,700 casualties; the bridge has been known as Burnside Bridge ever since ("Antietam: A Savage Day In American

Lincoln found slavery heinous, but he knew that neither Northerners nor southerners would support the abolition of slavery as a war aim. By mid-1862, Lincoln saw slaves fleeing to join northern armies; which convinced Lincoln that abolition had become the morally correct war aims. He waited until he had a Union military success before he gave the proclamation. Five days after the battle of Antietam, Lincoln gave the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation. As of January 1, 1863 all slaves in the rebellious states “shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free.” The proclamation did not free all slaves, rather only those slaves living in states not under Union control. The Emancipation Proclamation led to the 13th amendment, which was passed at the end of the civil war, and abolished slavery ("Emancipation