Antietam

Antietam is a creek in north-central Maryland near the Town of Sharpsburg.  In the 1860s the town had a population of around 1,000. 

In the summer of 1862, General Robert E. Lee led his Army of Northern Virginia across the Potomac River in an attempt to move the Civil War to the North.  He hoped to win an important victory which might bring European recognition of the Confederate States of America. 

On September 17, 1862 (156 years ago tomorrow), Lee's army met General George B. McClellan's Army of the Potomac at the Battle of Antietam (creek).  "It turned out to be the bloodiest day in United States history, with a combined tally of 22,717 dead, wounded or missing."  That is four times the total of American casualties on D Day, June 6, 1944.   

Union forces claimed victory at Antietam as Lee was the first to withdraw from the field of battle all the way back across the Potomac into Virginia.  The super cautious McClellan failed to pursue him.  This and other failures eventually led President Abraham Lincoln to dismiss McClellan later that year.  In 1864, McClellan unsuccessfully challenged Lincoln in the presidential election.   

According to Doris Kearns Goodwin, the presidential biographer, "The victory (at Antietam) was the long-awaited event that provided Lincoln the occasion to announce his plans to issue an Emancipation Proclamation the following January (1, 1863)."  Six days after the battle, September 23, 1862, a preliminary proclamation was published. 

The Emancipation Proclamation was issued under Lincoln's Constitutional war powers as Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces suppressing the ongoing rebellion.  It states that "all persons held as slaves within the rebellious states are and henceforward shall be free."  Such slaves had been used for military purposes by the Confederate armed forces.  Freeing them would hinder those forces.

Previously, the goal of the Civil War from the northern point of view was to preserve the Union.  Now, a second goal was added: to end slavery.  Thankfully, both goals were achieved.  "God bless the United States of America."