* After the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861, the main target for the Union in the East was the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia. From the spring of 1862, the Union Army of the Potomac, under Major General George Brinton McClellan, conducted a plodding offensive up the James River Peninsula towards Richmond -- which went undone in the summer, when Confederate forces under General Robert E. Lee derailed McClellan's effort in seven days of intense and confused fighting.
Following the Seven Days' Battles, Lee decided to take his Army of Northern Virginia north to threaten the Union, leading to a clash with Union Major General John Pope's forces at Bull Run River near Manassas, Virginia, at the end of August, with the Federals getting the worst of it. That was a prelude to a confrontation on Wednesday, 17 September 1862, between McClellan and Lee near the town of Sharpsburg in Maryland, flanked by Antietam creek. It would be the bloodiest day of battle in American history.
The battle proved inconclusive, both sides being badly hurt, but it did end Lee's incursion into Maryland. At least as significantly, it provided an opportunity to allow US President Abraham Lincoln to release his Emancipation Proclamation, which proclaimed the liberation of all the slaves in the Southern Confederacy. This document provides a history of the Battle of Antietam, and the consequent release of the Emancipation Proclamation. A list of illustration credits is provided at the end.
