Battle Of Antietam: The Second Deadliest Day In American History

When 3,650 people died on September 17, 1862, it became the deadliest day in American military history and the second deadliest day the country has ever seen, behind the 1900 Galveston Storm. The Battle of Antietam, also known as Battle, changed part of the American Civil War in Sharpsburg due to casualties, and in part thanks to the new technology of photography that brought the horrors of the battlefield to newspapers across the country . While the Battle of Antietam was an important moment in the Civil War, it was also an event filled with missed opportunities.

Both sides needed a win

The Union Army believed that victory over the Confederacy would be fast and easy, but in the summer of 1862, it became clear that the southern states were a formidable enemy. The Confederacy defeated this house with its defeat of Major General John Pope and Union soldiers in the Second Battle of Bull Run. President Abraham Lincoln was ready to announce his liberation declaration, but he knew it would carry more weight if it came on the heels of a decisive Union victory.

To make matters worse, Lincoln was facing a midterm election that threatened Congress' flip control from Lincoln's Republicans to anti-war Democrats. Confederate General Robert E., of course. Lee was well aware of this, and hopes that some more unions can contest the midterm elections for Democrats, thus supporting Lincoln's congressional support.

General George B. McClellan, a suspected leader

Battle of Antietam Union General George b. All was important to McClellan, who planned to attack the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia only last summer by a counterattack from Lee. On the occasion of kicking the Union army, while they were down, Lee moved his troops north to Maryland and captured the city of Frederick, where he pushed his army into the Northern Territory and split his army into two. Took Hagerstown to split into. , Maryland and Martinsburg, West Virginia. He called his plan Special Order 191.

As Lee's men marched out of their camp at Frederick, however, someone made an important mistake. General McClellan's army marched into the abandoned Confederate camp and Sergeant John M. Bloss and Private Barton W. Mitchell discovered three cigars wrapped in a sheet of paper lying on the ground. Expecting nothing more than a good smoke, he soon realized the Special Order 191 of the paper. A blissful McLean immediately began to thwart Lee's plan of battle, but at the same time, Lee found out that his plan was missing and was hurrying to regain his army. .

Prelude to battle

On 14 September, Confederate generals D.H. Hill and James Longstreet and their units stationed Union troops near the South Mountains outside Sharpsburg, and to their surprise suffered heavy casualties. When Lee heard of this, he initially ordered to return to Virginia, but changed his mind when he discovered that Confederate General Stonewell Jackson had seized Harper's Ferry. With this notice, Lee ordered his army to regroup at Sharpsburg on a small river known as Antium Creek.

As the sun rose on the farm on either side of Antietam Creek on the morning of 17 September, General Hill and Longstreet parked their men on the west side of the creek, while the rest of the Confederate troops set up a left bank and saw General McClellan. A large number of forces gathered along the eastern bank. Union soldiers fired the first shots, causing the bloodbys to come and turn 30 acres of corn meat into puddles belonging to farmer David Miller.

The bloody lane

With his force of about 2,600 men, General Hill dug one of the embankments of a small farm alley known as Sunken Road and Major General William H.W. Prepared to fight over 5,500 men of a Union unit in command of the French. After nearly three hours of panic, close fighting, Sunken Road has become red with the blood of Gir. About 5,000 people were killed or injured along this small road, which was later called "Bloody Lane".

At another site nearby, a small unit of 500 Confederate soldiers wavered after a wave of displays from the Ninth Corps under the command of Union General Ambrose Burnside. After a three-hour battle, Burnside and his men finally took the bridge, only to be beaten back by the Confederate consolidation that had come in the nick of time.

After 12 hours of intense fighting, night fell on the blood farm fields of Antium, and the donkeys on both sides are relieved to evacuate 23,000 wounded wounded in battlefield hospitals and regroup their remaining men.

After the battle of antimat

The next day of the Battle of Antiattam, General Lee prepared his men to go back to Virginia, and General McClellan chose not to attack the batsmen and confine the Southers, even if it was once and for all the Confederate. Could have ended the army. He later defended this action (or inaction), insisting that he fulfill his mission to boot the Confederates from Maryland and prevent them from claiming victory on Union Earth, but President Lincoln resented that Were that McClean wasted the ideal opportunity to eliminate him. . On November 5, 1862, Lincoln officially released McClain from his command.

From a historical point of view, the Battle of Antietam was not a clear winner, but Lincoln used the battle as a point of rally, claiming Union troops prevented the Confederates from advancing to the north. Taking the victory in hand, he issued his liberation declaration five days later, and Republicans retained control of Congress after the midterm elections.

Two days after the fight, photographer Alexander Gardner took a series of 70 photographs of dead soldiers in the Antietam that were still not buried. Photography was still a relatively new technology in 1862, and his photographs first depicted an American battlefield in such detail. Black-and-white portraits shocked the public with their graphic depiction of the horrors and tragic losses of war in the Battle of Antietam.