The Battle of Antietam reconstructs the Maryland Campaign of 1862 and the fighting near Sharpsburg on 17 September, the bloodiest single day in United States military history. It follows Robert E. Lee’s first invasion of the North, George B. McClellan’s response and the combat around the Cornfield, Sunken Road and Burnside Bridge.
The book explains why a tactically inconclusive battle became a strategic Union success. Lee’s withdrawal gave Abraham Lincoln the opportunity to issue the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, linking the battlefield outcome to a decisive change in the purpose and international meaning of the war.
