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 3
... 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 were engaged,” wrote a Union artillery officer on ...
... 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 were engaged,” wrote a Union artillery officer on ...
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... River into Maryland in September 1862, the Confederacy appeared to be on the brink of victory. Antietam shattered that momentum. Never again did Southern armies come so close to conquering a peace for an independent Confederacy as they ...
... River into Maryland in September 1862, the Confederacy appeared to be on the brink of victory. Antietam shattered that momentum. Never again did Southern armies come so close to conquering a peace for an independent Confederacy as they ...
Página 12
... River near Leesburg, Virginia, in October. Although Union forces held precarious toeholds around the Confederate perimeter in Virginia and along the south Atlantic coast, the Confederacy balanced these incursions by occupying the ...
... River near Leesburg, Virginia, in October. Although Union forces held precarious toeholds around the Confederate perimeter in Virginia and along the south Atlantic coast, the Confederacy balanced these incursions by occupying the ...
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... River. Buell told Lincoln that the terrain and weather prevented him from moving against a Confederate force in East Tennessee. Halleck wrote the president on January 6 explaining why he could not attack the Confederate fortifications ...
... River. Buell told Lincoln that the terrain and weather prevented him from moving against a Confederate force in East Tennessee. Halleck wrote the president on January 6 explaining why he could not attack the Confederate fortifications ...
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... Rivers. He also sent troops to occupy Paducah and Smithland, Kentucky, where the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers flow into the Ohio. These navigable rivers were highways of invasion into the Confederate heartland. The Southerners built ...
... Rivers. He also sent troops to occupy Paducah and Smithland, Kentucky, where the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers flow into the Ohio. These navigable rivers were highways of invasion into the Confederate heartland. The Southerners built ...
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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