Sharpsburg in September

When last we left the Army of Northern Virginia, General Robert E. Lee was leading it away from the victory at Manassas and taking the war into Union territory for the first time. (He did this for both strategic military and logistical reasons: he was literally looking for food supplies for his men.) It was a bold move and one of the few times the north actually felt the direct burden of fighting.

Try to imagine the feelings in Washington: enemy forces showing all signs of encircling the city, cutting off its lines of communications with the rest of the Union. The fear was palpable, and the Radical Republicans…well, the phrase “wound up tighter than a cheap watch” comes to mind.

Following Manassas, President Lincoln felt the only general able to counter Lee was McClellan (which speaks more about the lousy quality of the available commander pool than it does about McClellan’s capabilities), so the expert at procrastination was hauled up from the Peninsula and installed at the head of the Army of the Potomac again.

McClellan was handed an extraordinary gift in the form of the discovery on 13 September of Lee’s strategic plan (found wrapped around three cigars). By speedily deploying his troops (which outnumbered the Confederates 75,000 to 55,000) while Lee’s army was widely dispersed, he might have turned the tables. But, being McClellan, he waited 18 hours to take action.

The two forces finally met 150 years today on farmers’ fields near the Maryland town of Sharpsburg. Through rows of man-high ripened corn, across Antietam Creek and along a sunken road that became known as Bloody Lane, they slogged it out through most of the day.

It was the bloodiest battle in US history; 23,000 casualties from both sides. More than 2100 Federals and 1500 rebels died.

Lee went all-in, McClellan never committed more than 75% of his force, and they fought to a standstill. The next day, Lee at first waited for McClellan to attack, but “the young Napoleon”…just sat there. The Army of Northern Virginia withdrew without being pursued.

After a month of McClellan’s inactivity, Lincoln finally removed him from command permanently. He also took advantage of the tactical win to issue the Emancipation Proclamation the following week.

Sharpsburg was a geopolitical turning point; European powers (in particular, Britain & France) decided there was no advantage in backing the Confederacy by diplomatic recognition, so it was essentially on its own. And; it never had either the agricultural or industrial resources to stand alone against the United States.

But the war would slog on for another two and a half years.