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 xi
... the West, Summer–Fall 1862 76 The Battle of Second Manassas (Bull Run) 82 Lee's Invasion of Maryland, 1862 103 Antietam, September 17, 1862 121 This page intentionally left blank editor's note This volume is LIST OF MAPS.
... the West, Summer–Fall 1862 76 The Battle of Second Manassas (Bull Run) 82 Lee's Invasion of Maryland, 1862 103 Antietam, September 17, 1862 121 This page intentionally left blank editor's note This volume is LIST OF MAPS.
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... fall of 1861. He also privately expressed contempt for Lincoln. In turn, some Republicans questioned whether McClellan, whose friends had been Democrats allied with the South before the war, really wanted to “strike the rebellion a blow ...
... fall of 1861. He also privately expressed contempt for Lincoln. In turn, some Republicans questioned whether McClellan, whose friends had been Democrats allied with the South before the war, really wanted to “strike the rebellion a blow ...
Página 16
... fall of 1861 an obscure Illinois brigadier general named Ulysses S. Grant took command of Union troops in Cairo, Illinois, at the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. He also sent troops to occupy Paducah and Smithland ...
... fall of 1861 an obscure Illinois brigadier general named Ulysses S. Grant took command of Union troops in Cairo, Illinois, at the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. He also sent troops to occupy Paducah and Smithland ...
Página 20
... 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 succession.” A month later 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 succession.” A month later the ...
Página 21
... fall of Roanoke Island with “horror and dismay,” while the news of Fort Donelson's capture was “sorrowful in the extreme. . . . I made an effort to throw off the gloom & talk of other things yet it all seemed hollow and artificial.”15 A ...
... fall of Roanoke Island with “horror and dismay,” while the news of Fort Donelson's capture was “sorrowful in the extreme. . . . I made an effort to throw off the gloom & talk of other things yet it all seemed hollow and artificial.”15 A ...
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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