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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... 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 September 19 ...
... 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 September 19 ...
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... night of our doubts and troubles is past.” The war would be over and the Union restored “before the end of the month.” Four days later the prediction was a less optimistic sixty days, and after additional Northern victories the Herald ...
... night of our doubts and troubles is past.” The war would be over and the Union restored “before the end of the month.” Four days later the prediction was a less optimistic sixty days, and after additional Northern victories the Herald ...
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... night was very dark,” acknowledged Harper's on March 22, “but the dawn is bright indeed, and surprisingly glorious. . . . There is not a point in the line of three thousand miles at which the rebels can make a stand.”8 Like the Tribune ...
... night was very dark,” acknowledged Harper's on March 22, “but the dawn is bright indeed, and surprisingly glorious. . . . There is not a point in the line of three thousand miles at which the rebels can make a stand.”8 Like the Tribune ...
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... night” because of “the gloomy state of the country.” A North Carolina woman learned of the 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 ...
... night” because of “the gloomy state of the country.” A North Carolina woman learned of the 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 ...
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... night: “After a severe battle of ten hours, thanks be to the Almighty, [we] gained a complete victory, driving the enemy from every position.”20 The War Department in Richmond immediately released this telegram to the press, which ...
... night: “After a severe battle of ten hours, thanks be to the Almighty, [we] gained a complete victory, driving the enemy from every position.”20 The War Department in Richmond immediately released this telegram to the press, which ...
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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