Antietam

Antietam: Americas Bloodiest Day         When you think of the greatest and well-nigh tragic events in American history, what do you think of? in all likelihood the Titanic or Pearl Harbor. This, although being a amour of opinion, is non true. The difference of Antietam is the bloodiest day in American history.

        family 16, 1862, we can only imagine the thoughts that were running through the questions of soldiers. This is a journal entry written by Thomas Liver much the wickedness before the battle.

                 Whether we were to attack or to repel, whether the maintain was to be in the woods on our right in the ravine, or in the hills in our front, or on the crest amid the hostile batteries, I knew not, and then, when was the fight to begin? How long would it last? Who would win? Was I to be killed, to be torn by a shell, or pierced with a bullet? What was death? How quickly should I be in the other world if I were killed? I am not aware that I once wished we should not fight. I know that to stay out or wince from the battle in any way never entered my head; yet I can venture to say that maculation we waited in the twilight, measure flew by on slow wings, and the speedy I was in it and through it, alive or dead, the discover I thought I would be. This contemplating for a long succession the black-muzzled cannon, and conjuring up the host who are to blaze at you with death-dealing musketry, is not pleasant.          September 17, 1862, league and Confederate soldiers woke and met each other about tetrad miles from Sharpsburg Maryland. General Robert E. Lee positioned his army in a semicircle along the Potomac River. The Union army to a lower place command of General McClellan lined on the hills above them. The initiatory advance was made shortly after dawn, 5:00 am, by the Union who attacked the Confederates left flank and center. The odds were 35,000 against 87,000 in the northerns favor. The Union army pushed the Confederate army approve into a sunken road that is now known as blinking(a) Lane. Here the most violent fighting of the battle took place. With the Southern army play offing, anyone moving toward or away from Bloody Lane was a good tar queer. Yet around 9:30 am the Second Irish Brigade took suck up care of the road, and even though the Confederates were weak and retreating, General McClellan did not take advantage and push forward towards Sharpsburg. After almost quintuple hours of fighting, 12,000 men lie dead or wounded with no ground lost or gained by either side.

The close stage of the battle was fought at Burnside Bridge four miles south of Sharpsburg. Here General Burnside brought massive reinforcements who would fight the exhausted and weak Confederate army. Yet little did he know that general A.P.Hills division was alike moving toward Sharpsburg to defend the southerners ground. The two divisions arrived at cuddlely the exact same time to Sharpsburg. Here the rest of the battle was fought until approximately 8:00 pm.

From 5:00 am to 8:00 pm, after almost 16 hours of fighting, incomplete side actually won the battle. It was a draw, and 23,000 men died for it. This is more than the three previous wars; the Revolution, Mexican War, and the War of 1812; combined. It is said that you could base on balls through the cornfields and riverbanks without touching the ground. You would only be walking on the dead that lined them.

Impact of Antietam The main problem was that the Union soldiers had nothing to fight for. Yet the Confederates had everything to fight for. They were being attacked near their homes and were fighting for the South. Many of the Union soldiers believed the south had the right to secede and didnt feel it necessary to restore the Union alone with force. At this point the war was waged as a major disagreement over States rights with bondage goading on the issue, but slavery was not the main issue.

capital of Nebraska was faced with a difficult decision and one that would necessarily restore the Union, he announced the Emancipation Proclamation to foreswear the slaves. This gave the Union something to fight for. It also kept Europe from livelihood the South, which isolated the Confederacy. The greater impact of the Emancipation Proclamation was that it was also a major step in eliminating the practice of slavery in the United States, and would eventually restore the Union.

If you want to get a full essay, order it on our website: Orderessay



If you want to get a full information about our service, visit our page: How it works.