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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Página xv
... Confederacy, said its President Jefferson Davis, was “forced to take up arms to vindicate the political rights, the freedom, equality, and State sovereignty which were the heritage purchased by the blood of our revolutionary sires.” But ...
... Confederacy, said its President Jefferson Davis, was “forced to take up arms to vindicate the political rights, the freedom, equality, and State sovereignty which were the heritage purchased by the blood of our revolutionary sires.” But ...
Página xvi
... Confederate success convinced Lincoln to “take off the kid gloves” in dealing with slavery and to adopt emancipation as a means of weakening the Confederacy and strengthening the Union cause. These competing visions of freedom rushed ...
... Confederate success convinced Lincoln to “take off the kid gloves” in dealing with slavery and to adopt emancipation as a means of weakening the Confederacy and strengthening the Union cause. These competing visions of freedom rushed ...
Página 3
... Confederate soldiers killed and mortally wounded near the Maryland village of Sharpsburg on September 17, 1862, were more than twice the number of fatalities suffered in the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon ...
... Confederate soldiers killed and mortally wounded near the Maryland village of Sharpsburg on September 17, 1862, were more than twice the number of fatalities suffered in the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon ...
Página 4
... Confederate line “by the dead lying along it as they fell. . . . The line I suppose was a mile long or more. . . . Down in the corn field I saw a man with a hole in his belly about as big as a hat and about a quart of dark-looking ...
... Confederate line “by the dead lying along it as they fell. . . . The line I suppose was a mile long or more. . . . Down in the corn field I saw a man with a hole in his belly about as big as a hat and about a quart of dark-looking ...
Página 8
... Confederate States—rested on the outcome of this battle. They fought as if there would be no tomorrow. That was why ... Confederacy almost to its knees. But Southern counteroffensives in the summer turned the war around. When the Army 8 ...
... Confederate States—rested on the outcome of this battle. They fought as if there would be no tomorrow. That was why ... Confederacy almost to its knees. But Southern counteroffensives in the summer turned the war around. When the Army 8 ...
Contenido
3 | |
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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