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
... Virginia invaded Maryland seeking a war-winning victory over the Army of the Potomac commanded by General George B. McClellan. The tremendous shock of that collision in the battle of Antietam near the village of Sharpsburg changed the ...
... Virginia invaded Maryland seeking a war-winning victory over the Army of the Potomac commanded by General George B. McClellan. The tremendous shock of that collision in the battle of Antietam near the village of Sharpsburg changed the ...
Página 3
... 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 were engaged ...
... 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 were engaged ...
Página 5
... Virginia described “the most horrible sights that my eyes ever beheld,” hundreds of bodies that had been buried in shallow graves the previous September “just lying on top of the ground with a little dirt throwed over them and the hogs ...
... Virginia described “the most horrible sights that my eyes ever beheld,” hundreds of bodies that had been buried in shallow graves the previous September “just lying on top of the ground with a little dirt throwed over them and the hogs ...
Página 9
... Virginia crossed the Potomac 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 ...
... Virginia crossed the Potomac 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 ...
Página 11
... Virginia, paving the way for later admission of West Virginia as a new Union state. But the first drive “On to Richmond” had been stopped by a humiliating defeat along the banks of Bull Run in July 1 The Pendulum of War: 1861–1862.
... Virginia, paving the way for later admission of West Virginia as a new Union state. But the first drive “On to Richmond” had been stopped by a humiliating defeat along the banks of Bull Run in July 1 The Pendulum of War: 1861–1862.
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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