The Battle of Antietam, a cataclysmic event that transpired on September 17, 1862, is a crucial chapter in the timeline of American military history. This gory and deadly confrontation between Confederate General Robert E. Lee and Union General George B. McClellan is often remembered as the deadliest one-day battle of American warfare. McClellan, the Union General, made a grave mistake by sending less than three-quarters of his troops against Lee's full force, a strategic blunder that allowed Lee to hold ground by shifting forces. Lee was banking on shifting the focus of fighting away from the South and into Federal territory, with the Confederate victory potentially leading to the capture of the Federal capital and influencing the impending congressional elections in the North. President Abraham Lincoln was relying heavily on McClellan to bring him the victory he needed to keep Republican control of Congress and issue a preliminary Emancipation Proclamation. …show more content…
Union General McClellan dispatched Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker's First Corps across the creek to find Lee's left flank. The battle began when Hooker's Union Corps launched a potent assault on Lee's left flank, with repeated Union attacks and equally vicious Confederate counterattacks sweeping back and forth across Miller's cornfield and the West Woods. As the sun climbed higher in the sky, the third and final major assault by Maj. Gen. Ambrose E. Burnside's Ninth Corps pushed over a bullet-strewn stone bridge at Antietam Creek. Just as Burnside's forces began to collapse the Confederate right, Maj. Gen. A.P. Hill's division charged into battle, driving back the assault and saving the day for the Army of Northern