2. Antietam
• In desperation, Lincoln
restored McClellan to
command
• As Lee marched into
Maryland he expected the
Federals to abandon their
12,000-man garrison at
Harper’s Ferry
• When they didn’t, Lee
was forced to divide his
army in order to deal with
this threat to his rear
Harper’s Ferry sits at the
confluence of the
Potomac and
Shenandoah Rivers
3. Antietam
• Lee divided his
army into four
parts
– Three of them
under Jackson
headed toward
Harper’s Ferry
– A fourth under
Longstreet
headed for
Boonsboro
4. Antietam
• Lee’s army was now
scattered and McClellan
had time to organize his
forces
– He was aided by finding a
copy of Lee’s plan
• Still McClellan lacked the
killer instinct necessary to
take full advantage of the
situation The “Lost Order”
5. Antietam
• In the actual battle,
McClellan moved slowly and
committed his forces
piecemeal which allowed Lee
to shift his outnumbered
forces from one threatened
point to another
– Neither the Federal V or
VI Corps, some 22,000
men, would play a
significant role in the
battle
6. Antietam
• At “Burnside’s Bridge,”
Ambrose Burnside’s IX
Corps of some 12,000
was held in check from
9:30 to 1:00 by only 450
Confederates after
Burnside launched
several attacks
• When he finally crossed
the creek, Burnside
spent two hours resting
and reorganizing on the
other side before
continuing toward
Sharpsburg
Burnside’s Bridge
7. Antietam
• Once Burnside got moving and
started to push the
Confederates back, A. P. Hill
arrived with his division from
Harper’s Ferry and
counterattacked into Burnside’s
unprotected left flank
• Burnside was driven back to
the heights near Burnside’s
Bridge
• Longstreet later wrote, “We
were so badly crushed that at
the close of the day ten
thousand fresh troops could
have come in and taken Lee's
army and everything in it.”
– Still McClellan held the V
Corps and VI Corps in
reserve
8. Antietam
• Antietam was the bloodiest
single day of the war
– The Confederates
suffered 13,700
casualties out of 40,000
engaged
– The Federals lost 12,350
out of 87,000
• The battle ended as a
tactical draw, but a strategic
victory for the Federals
because Lee was forced to
withdraw back to Virginia
• It was enough of a victory
for Lincoln to issue his
Emancipation Proclamation
Confederate dead in
the Bloody Lane
9. The End of Conciliation
• Many Federal generals had sought to wage war
consistent with Winfield Scott’s limited approach
in Mexico
• The idea was to practice a conciliatory policy
that held that mild treatment of Southerners,
their property, and their institutions would
ultimately result in their returning their allegiance
to the US
• McClellan argued for this practice in a letter he
gave Lincoln on July 8 stating “A declaration of
radical views, especially upon slavery, will
rapidly disintegrate our present armies.”
10. Moves toward Emancipation
• A few generals such as Ben Butler, John
Fremont, and David Hunter however were
pushing for emancipation
• Lincoln too was beginning to move in that
direction and on July 22, 1862 he showed his
cabinet a preliminary draft of the Emancipation
Proclamation
– But Lincoln needed a battlefield victory to give him an
opportunity to make the Proclamation public
– Antietam accomplished that
11. Emancipation Proclamation
• Issued September 22, 1862
• “That on the first day of January,
in the year of our Lord one
thousand eight hundred and
sixty-three, all persons held as
slaves within any State or
designated part of a State, the
people whereof shall then be in
rebellion against the United
States, shall be then,
thenceforward, and forever
free…”
12. Emancipation Proclamation
• The Emancipation Proclamation changed the
very nature of the war, giving it a completely new
objective
• Conciliation was no longer an option
• Represented a move toward total war
– The North was now not merely fighting to restore a
union it thought was never legitimately separated. It
was fighting for freedom of a race.
– The South was no longer fighting merely for
independence. It was fighting for survival of its way of
life.
13. Impact of Emancipation Proclamation
• Jefferson Davis
– labeled REBELLION on
chain.
• Defeated
– seated figure with small
hammer labeled
COMPROMISE.
• Henry W. Halleck
– wields mallet labeled SKILL.
• George McClellan
– wields mallet labeled
STRATEGY.
• Edwin M. Stanton
– holds mallet labeled DRAFT.
• Lincoln
– shoulders an axe labeled
EMANCIPATION
PROCLAMATION.
Stanton: Halleck may use his skill and Mac
his strategy, but this draft will do the
business.
Lincoln: You can try him with that, but I'm
afraid this axe of mine is the only thing that
will fetch him.
14. Diplomatic Impact
• The South had longed
hoped for European
recognition and intervention
• The Emancipation
Proclamation made that
virtually impossible because
England had abolished
slavery in 1833 and France
in 1848
John Slidell represented the
Confederacy in France
15. Impact of Emancipation Proclamation on
Confederate Diplomatic Efforts
• “… the feeling against slavery in England
is so strong that no public man there
dares extend a hand to help us… There is
no government in Europe that dares help
us in a struggle which can be suspected of
having for its result, directly or indirectly,
the fortification or perpetuation of slavery.
Of that I am certain”
– William Yancey, Confederate politician
