September 17, 1862, proved to be a monumental moment in The War Between the States. The battle that day had the power to determine the likely outcome of the war and the life of a nation. Confederate General Robert E. Lee had just succeeded in defeating the Union Army at the second Battle of Manassas and he assumed it would take several weeks for the Union army to recover from their losses. Rather than maintain a defensive strategy, Lee decided to force the Union to fight the war on his terms. He planned his first attack on Northern soil, initiating battle in Maryland.
Lee hoped to achieve several objectives with this strategy; He hoped to give Virginia a chance to recover from battle and his troops to have access to new food and supplies, He hoped to put his Army in a position to attack the Capital of the United States, He hoped to persuade Maryland, a slave state loyal to the Union, to join the Confederacy, and he hoped to gain the support of England and France.
The two armies engaged in battle on September 17, 1862 in Maryland near the town of Sharpsburg and Antietam Creek. Thus the Union name for the battle is the Battle of Antietam and the Confederate name for the battle is the Battle of Sharpsburg. Unfortunately for General Lee, a scout of Union General George B. McClellan had discovered a copy of Lee’s battle orders. The Union army was well prepared.
Lee’s Confederate troops fired upon advancing Union soldiers, but many broke through confederate lines. Throughout the day both side encountered musket and artillery fire. The Confederates could not hold on. General Stonewall Jackson provided artillery cover as General Lee’s troops retreated across the Potomac River.
The battle was the bloodiest in American history. The Union forces suffered 12,400 casualties and the Confederate forces suffered 10,320 casualties. The 22,720 casualties incurred in this one day battle were greater than the deaths in the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, the Mexican War and the Spanish American War combined.
President Lincoln took the Union Victory as on opportune time to issue his first Emancipation Proclamation on September 22. The Proclamation declared the Confederate States must cease fire by January 1, 1863 or Lincoln would free all slaves in Confederate territory. Many historians believe that this proclamation led to England’s decision not to support the Confederacy. Lee failed to achieve his objectives and the outcome of the Civil War had virtually been decided.