Background

After Bull Run, the Union focused on creating a more professional army. Lincoln found an excellent organizer and drillmaster to take command, George B. McClellan. In a few months, McClellan took a ragtag group and created a disciplined fighting force double the size of the Confederate army.

Unfortunately, McClellan did not know how to use his Army of the Potomac properly. Though his army vastly outnumbered the Confederate force, a combination of his over-cautiousness, errors in communication, and the daring actions ofInteractive popup. Assistance may be required. General Robert E. Lee, Commander of the Confederate Army, allowed the South to repel his spring and summer offensive.

At the end of the summer, Lee turned his Army of Northern Virginia northward to Maryland. In the town of Sharpsburg, at Antietam Creek, McClellan (who had briefly been relieved of command by Lincoln) met Lee again. The intense fighting made September 17, 1862, the bloodiest day in American history.

Bloodiest Day in American History

This activity might not be viewable on your mobile device. Video segment. Assistance may be required. Watch this video on Antietam. Then come back and do the following reflection.

Look at the following table listing casualties from other infamous days in U.S. history as well as entire wars. Using your notes, compare the totals of Antietam to these other conflicts. Considering the way the United States remembers 9-11, if it were to suffer a day like Antietam today, how would the country react?

Event	Killed	Wounded	Total Casualities*
The American Revolution (1775-1783) estimated	25,000	25,000	50,000
The War of 1812 estimated	19,260	4,505	23,765
U.S. - Mexican War (1846-1848)	13,283	4,152	17,435
Antietam (Sept. 17, 1862)	3,650	17,300	22,720
Pearl Harbor (Dec. 7, 1941)	2,403	1,178	3,581
D-Day, Normandy (June 6, 1944)	1,465	3,184	6,577
9-11 (Sept. 11, 2001) estimated	2,996	6,291	9,287
The Iraq War (2003-April 2012)	4,409	31,923	36,332

*also includes missing

Why a Turning Point? Emancipation.

The reason that Antietam is a turning point of the war is because it allowed Lincoln to issue the Emancipation Proclamation. Lincoln wrote the document over the summer. He knew that he could not issue it as long as the North appeared to be losing because it would look like a political stunt as opposed to an inspired act to declare the slaves of the Confederacy "Forever Free." Lee retreating to the South was enough for Lincoln to declare Antietam a great Northern victory (even though he quietly fired McClellan again a couple of months later).

Emancipation immediately had three effects:

First, it raised morale in the North by giving the war a greater moral purpose.
Second, as rumor of emancipation spread among Southern slaves, it gave the South an additional concern that some slaves would rebel.
Finally and most importantly, it ended Southern hopes of recognition by Great Britain, which had abolished slavery in 1833. England had a large, industrial working class.

To support a country that allowed people to work for no pay would have been deeply unpopular among the British people. It also helped that by the end of 1862, Great Britain had found other supplies of cotton for its factories so it was not as desperate for Southern goods.