Read complete books and articles on: Battle of Antietam

Antietam Campaign - ăntēˈtəm, Sept., 1862, of the Civil War. After the second battle of Bull Run, Gen. Robert E. Lee crossed the Potomac to invade Maryland and Pennsylvania. At Frederick, Md., he divided (Sept. 10) his army, sending Stonewall Jackson to capture the large Union garrison at Harpers Ferry and thus clear his communications through the Shenandoah valley. With the remainder, Lee marched NW toward Hagerstown. Gen. George B. McClellan learned of this division of forces and moved to attack. In the battle on South Mt. (the Blue Ridge N of the Potomac, 12 mi/19 km W of Frederick) on Sept. 14, 1862, McClellan defeated Lee's rear guard and took the passes of that range. Lee then fell back to Sharpsburg (c.9 mi/14.5 km W of South Mt.), where his position lay behind Antietam Creek. On Sept. 15 the Harpers Ferry garrison capitulated to Jackson, who, with part of his command, joined Lee before McClellan attacked. The battle of Antietam (or Sharpsburg) opened on the morning of Sept. 17. Early assaults on Lee's left were bloody but indecisive, and McClellan failed to press the slight Union advantage with his available reserves. In the afternoon Burnside's corps crossed the Antietam over the bridge on Lee's right and drove the Confederates back, but A. P. Hill's division arrived from Harpers Ferry and repulsed the attack. The battle was not renewed. On Sept. 18–19, Lee recrossed the Potomac into Virginia unhindered. The fighting at Antietam was so fierce that Sept. 17, 1862, is said to have been the bloodiest single day of the war with some 23,000 dead and wounded, evenly divided between the sides. It was a Union victory only in the sense that Lee's invasion was stopped. McClellan has been blamed for not pursuing Lee with his superior forces. The scene of the battle of Antietam has been set aside as a national battlefield (est. 1890; see National Parks and Monuments, table). The battle influenced Lincoln's decisions to remove McClellan and to deliver a preliminary Emancipation Proclamation.

See K. P. Williams, Lincoln Finds a General (Vol. II, 1950); J. V. Murfin, The Gleam of Bayonets (1965); W. A. Frassunito, Antietam: The Photographic Legacy of America's Bloodiest Day (1978); S. W. Sears, Landscape Turned Red (1988).

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16 of the Best Books and Articles on: Battle of Antietam

as selected by Questia librarians

1.

The Antietam Campaign: August-September 1862 » Read Now
by John Cannan. 235 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

Antietam, the scene of the bloodiest day of battle in the entire course of the Civil War, was the victory that enabled Lincoln to issue the Emancipation Proclamation. Cannan conveys the military, political and social significance of the campaign.
2.

Death in September: The Antietam Campaign » Read Now
by Perry D. Jamieson. 160 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

...index. ISBN 1-886661-01-4 1. Antietam, Battle of, Md., 1862. 2. Maryland Campaign...sorely missed in the subsequent Battle of Antietam. Reno, Nevada, was named...
3.

Antietam: Essays on the 1862 Maryland Campaign » Read Now
by Gary W Gallagher. 87 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

...Campaign, 1862 Congresses. 2. Antietam, Battle of, 1862 Congresses. I. Gallagher...September 17, the day of the battle of Antietam, Lord Russell agreed with...had sought...
4.

Taken at the Flood: Robert E. Lee and Confederate Strategy in the Maryland Campaign of 1862 (Includes discussion of the battle of Antietam in multiple chapters) » Read Now
by Joseph L. Harsh. 648 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

Complementing Confederate Tide Rising, Taken at the Flood is a detailed account of the Maryland military campaign itself. This volume focuses on military policy and strategy and the circumstances under which the two commanders, Lee and McClellan, labored. Joseph Harsh advocates rethinking the...
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Complementing Confederate Tide Rising, Taken at the Flood is a detailed account of the Maryland military campaign itself. This volume focuses on military policy and strategy and the circumstances under which the two commanders, Lee and McClellan, labored. Joseph Harsh advocates rethinking the Maryland campaign and promotes the argument that Antietam was one of the most interesting, critical, and potentially enlightening episodes in U.S. history.
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5.

Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era (Discussion of the battle of Antietam begins on p. 535) » Read Now
by James M. McPherson. 910 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

Filled with fresh interpretations and information, puncturing old myths and challenging new ones, Battle Cry of Freedom will unquestionably become the standard one-volume history of the Civil War. James McPherson's fast-paced narrative fully integrates the political, social, and military events...
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Filled with fresh interpretations and information, puncturing old myths and challenging new ones, Battle Cry of Freedom will unquestionably become the standard one-volume history of the Civil War. James McPherson's fast-paced narrative fully integrates the political, social, and military events that crowded the two decades from the outbreak of one war in Mexico to the ending of another at Appomattox. Packed with drama and analytical insight, the book vividly recounts the momentous episodes that preceded the Civil War--the Dred Scott decision, the Lincoln-Douglas debates, John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry--and then moves into a masterful chronicle of the war itself--the battles, the strategic maneuvering on both sides, the politics, and the personalities. Particularly notable are McPherson's new views on such matters as the slavery expansion issue in the 1850s, the origins of the Republican Party, the causes of secession, internal dissent and anti-war opposition in the North and the South, and the reasons for the Union's victory. The book's title refers to the sentiments that informed both the Northern and Southern views of the conflict: the South seceded in the name of that freedom of self-determination and self-government for which their fathers had fought in 1776, while the North stood fast in defense of the Union founded by those fathers as the bulwark of American liberty. Eventually, the North had to grapple with the underlying cause of the war--slavery--and adopt a policy of emancipation as a second war aim. This "new birth of freedom," as Lincoln called it, constitutes the proudest legacy of America's bloodiest conflict. This authoritative volume makes sense of that vast and confusing "second American Revolution" we call the Civil War, a war that transformed a nation and expanded our heritage of liberty.
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6.

Turning Points of the Civil War ("Antietam" begins on p. 97) » Read Now
by James A. Rawley. 240 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library
7.

The Appeal to Arms, 1861-1863 (Chap. XIII "Antietam Campaign (September, 1862)") » Read Now
by James Kendall Hosmer. 352 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

...XI. SEVEN DAYS BATTLES June, 1862-July, 1862...XII. POPE AND THE ARMY OF VIRGINIA July, 1862...167 XIII. ANTIETAM CAMPAIGN September, 1862...followed hard after the battle...
8.

American Campaigns, Vol. 1 (Lecture XIII "The Antietam Campaign") » Read Now
by Matthew Forney Steele. 731 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

...Campaign 191 XI. Jacksons Valley Campaign 217 XII. The Second Battle of Bull Run 239 XIII. The Antietam Campaign 260 XIV. The Fredericksburg Campaign 284 XV. Stones...
9.

The American Iliad: The Epic Story of the Civil War as Narrated by Eyewitnesses and Contemporaries (Chap. 10 "Lee Invades Maryland: The Battle of Antietam, or Sharpsburg") » Read Now
by Otto Eisenschiml, Ralph Newman. 722 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

...INVADES MARYLAND The Battle of Antietam, or Sharpsburg 244...Maryland 253 Antietam Sharpsburg 258...Braggs Invasion of Kentucky 282...Perryville 288 Battle of Stone River...
10.

George B. McClellan: The Man Who Saved the Union (Chap. Thirteen "Sharpsburg, or If You Prefer It, Antietam Creek") » Read Now
by H. J. Eckenrode, Bryan Conrad. 296 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

...115 Battle of Cramptons Gap 185 Battle of South Mountain 187 Battle of Sharpsburg Antietam 191 GEORGE B. McCLELLAN CHAPTER ONE YOUTH, EDUCATION, ADVENTURE A GENERATION AGO...
11.

Union in Peril: The Crisis over British Intervention in the Civil War (Chap. 8 "Antietam and the Move toward Mediation") » Read Now
by Howard Jones. 304 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

Little has been written about why Great Britain and other leading European countries failed to intervene in the Civil War, although it is generally agreed that their involvement could have greatly affected the outcome. Howard Jones provides the first substantial study of the crisis in Anglo-American...
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Little has been written about why Great Britain and other leading European countries failed to intervene in the Civil War, although it is generally agreed that their involvement could have greatly affected the outcome. Howard Jones provides the first substantial study of the crisis in Anglo-American relations during the conflict and its impact on the South's attempt to win foreign support during the crucial years of 1861 and 1862.
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12.

The Irish Brigade and Its Campaigns ("Battle of Antietam" begins on p. 296) » Read Now
by D. P. Conyngham, Lawrence Frederick Kohl. 617 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

Few brigades of the Civil War can boast of a record as distinguished as that of New YorkÆs 69th, yet it has never fully received the attention warranted by its record of military excellence, distinctive reputation, and the unusual perspective its members brought to the Civil War. In fact, the 69th...
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Few brigades of the Civil War can boast of a record as distinguished as that of New YorkÆs 69th, yet it has never fully received the attention warranted by its record of military excellence, distinctive reputation, and the unusual perspective its members brought to the Civil War. In fact, the 69th was engaged in nearly every major action of the eastern theater; its military reputation was well deserved and its combat casualties, which are some of the highest of the war, are testimony to the soldiersÆ collective bravery and patriotism. In his post as war correspondent for the New York Herald, Capt. David Power Conygham was required to be an eyewitness to the many battles on which he reported û some of the experiences he would later describe when writing the history of the Irish Brigade. ConyghamÆs account of the Irish Brigade is one of the best û filled with vivid accounts of battle, wit and humor, and an appendix of scrupulously gathered biographical data on the men who served the unit.
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13.

Bohemian Brigade: Civil War Newsmen in Action (Chap. VI "Man at Antietam") » Read Now
by Louis M. Starr. 368 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

...explained later that he was unaware of the battle plan. He and most of the others...route to Washington with details of a great battle. We have carried the day...
14.

Custer (Chap. 8 "Antietam") » Read Now
by Jay Monaghan. 469 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

...SEVEN DAYS BATTLES--AND A BEST MAN 80 8. ANTIETAM 94 9. BOY MEETS GIRL--AND CHANCELLORSVILLE...149 13. MARRIAGE 164 14. BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 181 15. THE CHARGE ON...
15.

The Military Genius of Abraham Lincoln: An Essay (Chap. XI "Antietam") » Read Now
by Colin R. Ballard. 246 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

...the Antietam p. 122 12 The Antietam, 17th Sept. 1862 face p. 125...JOSEPH EGGLESTON JOHNSTON 224 LIST OF AUTHORS CONSULTED Allan William...and Clarence Clough Buel...
16.

Turning Points in the U.S. Civil War: Views from the Grayback Market, in Southern Economic Journal » Read Now
by Marc D. Weidenmier. 16 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library

...importance of the battle. Gettysburg, like Antietam, was a major...Gettysburg and Antietam as pivotal events of the war. The...particular battles offers...