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 xvi
... Northern naval and military victories seemed to foretell imminent defeat of the Confederacy and restoration of “the Union as it was”—a Union with slavery. But Southern counteroffensives in the summer of 1862 reversed the momentum of war ...
... Northern naval and military victories seemed to foretell imminent defeat of the Confederacy and restoration of “the Union as it was”—a Union with slavery. But Southern counteroffensives in the summer of 1862 reversed the momentum of war ...
Página 3
... Northern Virginia retreated across the Potomac River on the night of September 18–19, leaving most of their dead and many wounded to be buried or treated by the Union Army of the Potomac. “I was on the battlefield yesterday where we ...
... Northern Virginia retreated across the Potomac River on the night of September 18–19, leaving most of their dead and many wounded to be buried or treated by the Union Army of the Potomac. “I was on the battlefield yesterday where we ...
Página 4
... Northern officer counted “hundreds of dead bodies lying in rows and in piles . . . looking the picture of all that is sickening, harrowing, horrible. O what a terrible sight!”2 A Union lieutenant in charge of a burial party where his ...
... Northern officer counted “hundreds of dead bodies lying in rows and in piles . . . looking the picture of all that is sickening, harrowing, horrible. O what a terrible sight!”2 A Union lieutenant in charge of a burial party where his ...
Página 6
... Northern civilians who wanted to see something of the “ghastly spectacle” without actually going there, an opportunity soon presented itself. Within two days of the battle, Northern photographers Alexander 6 Crossroads of Freedom.
... Northern civilians who wanted to see something of the “ghastly spectacle” without actually going there, an opportunity soon presented itself. Within two days of the battle, Northern photographers Alexander 6 Crossroads of Freedom.
Página 7
... Northern photographers Alexander Gardner and James Gibson arrived at Antietam and began taking pictures. For the first time in history, the graphic and grisly sight of bloated corpses killed in action could be seen by those who never ...
... Northern photographers Alexander Gardner and James Gibson arrived at Antietam and began taking pictures. For the first time in history, the graphic and grisly sight of bloated corpses killed in action could be seen by those who never ...
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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