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
... Southern counteroffensives in the summer of 1862 reversed the momentum of war and by September of that year brought the Confederacy to the brink of military victory and of diplomatic recognition of its independent nationhood by foreign ...
... Southern counteroffensives in the summer of 1862 reversed the momentum of war and by September of that year brought the Confederacy to the brink of military victory and of diplomatic recognition of its independent nationhood by foreign ...
Página 7
... Southern families whose grief invited empathy rather than enmity. “Mr. Brady has done something to bring home to us the terrible reality and earnestness of war,” he informed readers of the Times on October 20, 1862. “If he has not ...
... Southern families whose grief invited empathy rather than enmity. “Mr. Brady has done something to bring home to us the terrible reality and earnestness of war,” he informed readers of the Times on October 20, 1862. “If he has not ...
Página 8
... Southern triumphs and brought the Confederacy almost to its knees. But Southern counteroffensives in the summer turned the war around. When the Army 8 Crossroads of Freedom.
... Southern triumphs and brought the Confederacy almost to its knees. But Southern counteroffensives in the summer turned the war around. When the Army 8 Crossroads of Freedom.
Página 9
... Southern armies come so close to conquering a peace for an independent Confederacy as they did in September 1862. Even though the war continued and the Confederacy again approached success on later occasions, Antietam was arguably, as ...
... Southern armies come so close to conquering a peace for an independent Confederacy as they did in September 1862. Even though the war continued and the Confederacy again approached success on later occasions, Antietam was arguably, as ...
Página 12
... southern portions of Kentucky and Missouri. The Union naval blockade was not yet effective, and nine out of ten ships that ran the porous cordon of blockaders got through safely in 1861. At the end of that year the Confederacy stood ...
... southern portions of Kentucky and Missouri. The Union naval blockade was not yet effective, and nine out of ten ships that ran the porous cordon of blockaders got through safely in 1861. At the end of that year the Confederacy stood ...
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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