User:Wehwalt/sandbox/Antietam

Inception
After the Second Battle of Manassas in late August, 1862, the victorious Confederate Army of Northern Virginia moved north into Maryland—their commander, General Robert E. Lee hoped to isolate Washington, D.C. Facing him was Union General George B. McClellan at the head of the Army of Virginia, the former general in chief of Union forces until relieved by President Abraham Lincoln.

McClellan assigned six corps of his army to shadow Lee's. The Union general was aided by an immense piece of luck—one of Lee's officers had left a copy of the Confederate orders behind in an abandoned encampment. Lee had divided his army, so as to guard his retreat. McClellan moved to cut off Lee's retreat, but not knowing Lee's strength, reacted with what Lincoln later called "the slows", allowing Lee to make a stand at Sharpsburg, Maryland (near Antietam Creek). McClellan found Lee there on September 15, 1862, but it was not until the morning of the 17th that the battle began. In the interim, the troops of General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson were able to rejoin Lee's. Had McClellan attacked on the 16th, he might well have defeated the understrength Confederate forces, possibly capturing Lee.

The day saw bitter fighting, beginning with an attack by General Joe Hooker on the Confederate left, with both sides sustaining heavy casualties, as did assaults on a Confederate position at the Sunken Lane, which was taken but was so full of dead soldiers that it was thereafter known as the Bloody Lane. General Ambrose Burnside's command was to take the Rohrbach Bridge (now Burnside Bridge), southernmost of three crossings of Antietam Creek, and beginning about 10 am the fighting was concentrated there. Burnside was able to take the bridge, at great cost, and proceed to the heights overlooking Sharpsburg. Expectations of a decisive Union victory were shattered when Confederate General A. P. Hill's division, having just arrived from Harpers Ferry by forced march attacked Burnside and he pulled back.

The day ended in a bloody stalemate, with both armies more or less in place. Lee remained in place for another day, resting his men, then retreated into Virginia before McClellan could decide to attack him. McClellan reported the Battle of Antietam as a smashing Union triumph, which it was not, though it is considered a Union victory since the Confederates were the first to leave the battlefield and it ended Lee's foray into the North. Casualties were heavy, with 25,000 men dead, slightly more than half of them Confederates, one of the highest single-day tolls of the war. The victory caused President Lincoln to issue the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation on September 22.