Commentary: Recounting the bloodiest battle in American history
On Sept. 17, 1862, the bloodiest battle in American History occurred at Antietam Creek near Sharpsburg, Md. In a series of engagements throughout the day, over 22,700 men were killed, wounded or missing.
It was the first major battle to take place on Union soil when Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee entered Maryland to confront the Union Army of the Potomac led by Mjr. Gen. George B. McClellan.
The day of battle began at dawn when Mjr. Gen. Joseph Hooker swept across the cornfields, which were mowed down by the mass of bullets entering the field. Action followed into the Sunken Road, also known as “Bloody Lane.”
Union Mjr. Gen. Ambrose Burnside’s troops captured the stone bride over Antietam Creek, but Confederate Mjr. Gen. A.P. Hill’s division arrived from Harpers Ferry in time to attack Burnside’s troops and stop his advance.
While McClellan held ample reserves to employ in his fight against Lee’s army, he was too cautious to use them and thus allowed Lee to withdraw his army back into Virginia.
For his failure to follow through, President Lincoln relieved him of his command. Although the day of battle was tactically inconclusive, because the Confederate troops had withdrawn first from the battlefield, it was, in military terms, a Union victory, however slim.
Because the Southern Confederacy was the first to leave the field, the battle was considered a Northern victory. This gave Lincoln the opportunity to present the Emancipation Proclamation a few months later.
This proclamation gave the slaves of the rebellious South their freedom (but not the slaves held by Northerners. Lincoln was unwilling to antagonize them in the war effort).
The purpose of the Emancipation Proclamation was to address the deep underlying issue of slavery, which had driven a wedge between the North and South and had caused the war in the first place.
If the North was to win the war, the debate over slavery must and would now be settled. Thus, slavery would ultimately be abolished in the United States.
In addition, it was also intended to break the spirit of the Southerners as they fought to keep their slaves and assert their state rights over the federal government’s domination.
The proclamation was also intended to hamper the use of slaves by the Southerners while giving over 200,000 former slaves the ability to help the North.
Finally, the Emancipation Proclamation was intended to inspire the soldiers of the North to an even greater cause than that of just preserving the Union.
A huge price was paid with the loss of life and the devastation that resulted from the Civil War, which was a fight over whether or not slavery would continue and whether or not our nation would survive.
This conflict, which lasted four years, from 1861-65, was the most costly of all our wars. More than 600,000 men were killed; this is more than all of our wars combined!
Every family was touched by this conflict to preserve freedom and to preserve the United States of America. We all give thanks for this sacrifice of others on our behalf!
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SHERRY NORD MARRON, who has a doctorate in American Studies, is a former adjunct professor at Orange Coast College and the University of Connecticut.