Crossroads of Freedom: AntietamOxford University Press, 2002 M09 12 - 224 páginas The Battle of Antietam, fought on September 17, 1862, was the bloodiest single day in American history, with more than 6,000 soldiers killed--four times the number lost on D-Day, and twice the number killed in the September 11th terrorist attacks. In Crossroads of Freedom, America's most eminent Civil War historian, James M. McPherson, paints a masterful account of this pivotal battle, the events that led up to it, and its aftermath. As McPherson shows, by September 1862 the survival of the United States was in doubt. The Union had suffered a string of defeats, and Robert E. Lee's army was in Maryland, poised to threaten Washington. The British government was openly talking of recognizing the Confederacy and brokering a peace between North and South. Northern armies and voters were demoralized. And Lincoln had shelved his proposed edict of emancipation months before, waiting for a victory that had not come--that some thought would never come. Both Confederate and Union troops knew the war was at a crossroads, that they were marching toward a decisive battle. It came along the ridges and in the woods and cornfields between Antietam Creek and the Potomac River. Valor, misjudgment, and astonishing coincidence all played a role in the outcome. McPherson vividly describes a day of savage fighting in locales that became forever famous--The Cornfield, the Dunkard Church, the West Woods, and Bloody Lane. Lee's battered army escaped to fight another day, but Antietam was a critical victory for the Union. It restored morale in the North and kept Lincoln's party in control of Congress. It crushed Confederate hopes of British intervention. And it freed Lincoln to deliver the Emancipation Proclamation, which instantly changed the character of the war. McPherson brilliantly weaves these strands of diplomatic, political, and military history into a compact, swift-moving narrative that shows why America's bloodiest day is, indeed, a turning point in our history. |
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... War and Reconstruction The Negro's Civil War: How American Negroes Felt and Acted During the War for the Union Marching Toward Freedom: The Negro in the Civil War The Abolitionist Legacy: From Reconstruction to the NAACP Ordeal by Fire ...
... War and Reconstruction The Negro's Civil War: How American Negroes Felt and Acted During the War for the Union Marching Toward Freedom: The Negro in the Civil War The Abolitionist Legacy: From Reconstruction to the NAACP Ordeal by Fire ...
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... American History. Our purpose is to encourage interest in problems of historical contingency. Scholars in many ... Civil War that centers on “the dimension of contingency,” in the sense of “turning points,” when the war “might have gone ...
... American History. Our purpose is to encourage interest in problems of historical contingency. Scholars in many ... Civil War that centers on “the dimension of contingency,” in the sense of “turning points,” when the war “might have gone ...
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... American Civil War. In all of these ways, this book is a model of large importance for the study of the past and a way forward for scholarship in the future. I hope that you, the reader, will think so too. David Hackett Fischer preface ...
... American Civil War. In all of these ways, this book is a model of large importance for the study of the past and a way forward for scholarship in the future. I hope that you, the reader, will think so too. David Hackett Fischer preface ...
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... American Civil War. Freedom, or liberty, has been a contested issue through all of American history. “We all declare for liberty,” said Abraham Lincoln during the war, “but in using the same word we do not all mean the same thing ...
... American Civil War. Freedom, or liberty, has been a contested issue through all of American history. “We all declare for liberty,” said Abraham Lincoln during the war, “but in using the same word we do not all mean the same thing ...
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... American Civil War with close attention, Karl Marx wrote in October 1862 that Antietam “has decided the fate of the American Civil War.” And looking back some years later, Colonel Walter H. Taylor of Robert E. Lee's wartime staff ...
... American Civil War with close attention, Karl Marx wrote in October 1862 that Antietam “has decided the fate of the American Civil War.” And looking back some years later, Colonel Walter H. Taylor of Robert E. Lee's wartime staff ...
Contenido
3 | |
18611862 | 11 |
JuneJuly 1862 | 41 |
3 The Federals Got a Very Complete Smashing AugustSeptember 1862 | 73 |
4 Showdown at Sharpsburg | 97 |
5 The Beginning of the End | 133 |
NOTES | 157 |
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ESSAY | 185 |
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS | 191 |
INDEX | 193 |
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American Civil American Civil War Antietam National Battlefield April Army of Northern attack Basler battle of Antietam Britain British Bull Run Burnside Burnside’s Campaign capture casualties cavalry Charles Francis Adams Civil War Letters Civil War Papers colonel commander Confederacy Confederate Corinth Corps defeat Democrats Diary division emancipation Emancipation Proclamation enemy entry of Sept fight flank fought Halleck Harper’s Weekly Harpers Ferry invasion Jackson James Mason John Hennessy Jones Jr June Kentucky Lee’s Library of Congress lieutenant Longstreet Manassas March Maryland Maryland Campaign McClellan miles military Mississippi National Battlefield Library newspapers North Northern Virginia notes of John officers Ohio Palmerston Pope Pope’s Potomac Proclamation quoted rebels recognition regiments Republicans research notes retreat Richmond Dispatch Richmond Enquirer River Sears Secretary seemed September September 17 Seward Sharpsburg slavery slaves soldiers Southern troops Union armies victory vols Washington William wounded wrote Yankees York Herald York Tribune York World