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 11
... Richmond in May 1861 with its armies in control of virtually all of the 750,000 square miles that constituted its national territory. To “win” the war that began with Confederate seizure of Fort Sumter, the South needed only to defend ...
... Richmond in May 1861 with its armies in control of virtually all of the 750,000 square miles that constituted its national territory. To “win” the war that began with Confederate seizure of Fort Sumter, the South needed only to defend ...
Página 17
... Richmond and New York newspapers, brought the Albemarle and Pamlico Sounds of North Carolina under Yankee control. An expeditionary force under General Ambrose E. Burnside supported by gunboats burst through Hatteras inlet and attacked ...
... Richmond and New York newspapers, brought the Albemarle and Pamlico Sounds of North Carolina under Yankee control. An expeditionary force under General Ambrose E. Burnside supported by gunboats burst through Hatteras inlet and attacked ...
Página 20
... Richmond Enquirer. With the fall of Fort Donelson “we have sustained another staggering blow,” conceded the Richmond Dispatch, the newspaper with the largest circulation in the Confederacy. “Reverse after reverse comes in quick ...
... Richmond Enquirer. With the fall of Fort Donelson “we have sustained another staggering blow,” conceded the Richmond Dispatch, the newspaper with the largest circulation in the Confederacy. “Reverse after reverse comes in quick ...
Página 21
... Richmond at funerals and sichlike.”14 Far from the ferment of news and rumors in Richmond that magnified both victories and defeats, Southern whites elsewhere seemed equally depressed by the events of February and March. A plantation ...
... Richmond at funerals and sichlike.”14 Far from the ferment of news and rumors in Richmond that magnified both victories and defeats, Southern whites elsewhere seemed equally depressed by the events of February and March. A plantation ...
Página 22
... Richmond Enquirer on February 28. “Such as mope about, torturing themselves and vexing others with their unmanly repinings and cowardly fears” must be rebuked and shunned. “Despondency is but little better than treason.” The Richmond ...
... Richmond Enquirer on February 28. “Such as mope about, torturing themselves and vexing others with their unmanly repinings and cowardly fears” must be rebuked and shunned. “Despondency is but little better than treason.” The Richmond ...
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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