Two days ago, the 147th anniversary of the Battle of Antietam, passed without notice. Yet, 17 September 1862 was as tragically significant to the generation of the American Civil War as 9/11 (2001) is to Americans today..
A year and half after the Union and Confederate forces first sparred at Fort Sumter in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina, no end to the conflict appeared on the horizon. Instead of exacting a quick defeat upon the rebels, General George McClellan, the reputedly brilliant young commander of the Army of the Potomac, had continuously asked his boss, President Abraham Lincoln, for additional soldiers and time to train his army to engage an enemy with larger forces. Yet, Confederate superiority only existed in McClellan's mind, and Lincoln, who was under great political pressure to achieve decisive victories, found himself at odds with his commander's myopic lassitude.
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By keeping an army in the field and simply avoiding surrender, the Confederacy was able preserve its government and potentially survive as an independent nation. Only a month before Antietam (or the 'Battle of Sharpsburg' as it is commonly known in the South), Union hope of turning the tide against the rebellion dimmed as General Robert E. Lee led his Army of Northern Virginia to victory at the Second Battle of Manassas. Below the Mason-Dixon line, the Confederate government, headed by former US Senator and Secretary of War Jefferson Davis of Mississippi, was buoyed by Lee's success. Rather than continue to fight a strictly defensive war, Davis wanted to capitalize on the momentum of victory and strike into Union territory. On 7 September, he revealed his intentions saying, 'We are driven to protect our own country by transferring the seat of war to that of an enemy who pursues us with a relentless and apparently aimless hostility.' Where, however, was the most strategic place to attack?
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Davis and Lee chose the state of Maryland. It was indeed a good choice. Similar to Missouri, Maryland possessed a number of slaveholding families sympathetic to the Confederate cause. Hence, Lee believed the Army of Northern Virginia could attract considerable support with a successful incursion into the Union state and potentially reverse its allegiance. If the Confederacy were able to win a significant battle just prior to the November mid-term elections, voters in the North could plausibly turn to candidates wishing to end the war on a negotiated status quo - thus leaving the Confederate States of America intact. Many historians criticize Davis for putting his smaller forces at risk of defeat. Why, they say, didn't he continue to pursue his successful defensive war and follow in the footsteps of George Washington's victory against the British Empire? There was one crucial difference, however. Washington was ably aided by the French whereas Davis had no allied forces in the field. That was precisely the point. Davis rightly surmised that a major Confederate victory in the North had the potential to win state recognition from London and possibly draw British forces into the war to protect their cotton trade. In fact, the British government had been considering the idea of entering the war on the Confederate side for months. Thus, Davis and Lee were correct in thinking that a major Southern victory could alter both the course of the war and history.
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Early in the morning of 17 September, the Army of Northern Virginia, a force of 55,000 led by Robert E. Lee, engaged George McClellan and his Army of the Potomac of 90,000 strong. At the outset of the battle, two volunteer soldiers from Indiana discovered an official document wrapped around three cigars in an area that had been recently abandoned by the Confederates. The contents of the paper shocked its readers. 'Special Order 191' revealed the whereabouts of Lee's thrice divided army. From this intelligence, McClellan could have thrown the Army of the Potomac in between Lee's forces and defeated them one by one. In keeping with his character, however, McClellan hesitated and failed to seize a genuine opportunity to end the war with a decisive Confederate defeat. As a result, Lincoln's confidence waned further in his commander.
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When the Battle of Antietam ended twelve hours later, a combined total of 23,000 soldiers were either killed or wounded from the fighting. It was a day of unprecedented carnage and tragedy in American history. Although the Confederacy exacted a larger number of killed and battlefield casualties upon the Union (2,108 killed, more than 10,000 wounded), the South, which had also suffered grievous losses (1,546 killed, more than 8,500 wounded), lost far more men proportionate to its population.
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Who won? Some historians claim the Confederacy won the battle by a sheer look a the numbers. Had not the South killed and wounded more Union men with a smaller fighting force? While true, most agree that it was a Pyrrhic victory. From Antietam onward, Lincoln, Grant and other Union strategists viewed victory as achievable by forcing the less industrial and less populated South to deplete its resources and manpower, and a hard war - a total war - of attrition followed.
By taking the decisive step of issuing the 'Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation', liberating slaves in territories still in rebellion on 1 January 1863 five days later, Lincoln was signaling his intention to not only defeat the CSA but to overturn the Southern way of life.
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In twelve hours, 3,654 Americans died in a struggle between two regions and two cultures with distinctly different views of liberty. Although the war would drag on for another three long and bitter years, Antietam was and still is one of the most consequential moments in the nation Lincoln dubbed as 'the last, best hope on earth', and it should not be relegated to being a mere page in a dusty history book.
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(Photo: Alexander Gardner. Confederate dead at Antietam)
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J Roquen