Crossroads Of Freedom Antietam Analysis

In September 1862, a battle was fought in a small town in Maryland. More lives were lost than any other battle or war that the United States has ever experience before or since. This battle had no true winner but it did have consequeses that changed the course of the Civil War. In James M. McPherson’s book Crossroads of Freedom Antietam The Battle That Changed the Course of the Civil War, he shows how small events added up to lead to the Battle of Antietam and ultimately to the North winning the Civil War.
Early in the War the Union won several key battles including Ft. Donaldson, Nashville, and the two-day bloody battle of Shiloh. They also captured bases for the blockade fleets and drove Confederate armies out of West Virginia but the

The Unions leaders had General George B. McClellan. He commanded the Army of the Potomac. He was very well loved by his men and always wanted the best for them but at the expense of the Union. He disliked abolitionists and the Republican Party and had very little respect for Abraham Lincoln himself but his biggest problem was that he was a perfectionist. Because of this, McClellan was almost always ready to move but not quite. He was afraid to risk failure so he never would risk doing anything. On the other hand, the Confederates leaders had General Robert E. Lee, who commanded the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia. He was considered a big risk taker. McClellan was not too worried about Lee or his army thinking that Lee was weak and too cautious but Lee was anything but that. General Lee gathered as many men as was available and attacked General McClellan on June 26, 1862 repeatedly for seven days. McClellan retreated thinking his army was outnumbered two to one when in actuality he had 70,000 men while the South only had 25,000. The newspapers exploded with the news. The South was ecstatic while the North’s morale dropped very low. McPherson showed how Lincoln had written his famous Emancipation Proclamation but had stored it in a desk drawer waiting for a victory. That Lincoln was afraid that he would never give his speech as the North was not doing very well at that