American Civil War

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Battle of Antietam

After the Second Battle of Bull Run, Lee decided to invade Maryland. Although he knew that he could not successfully attack Washington, he wanted to move the fighting out of war-torn Virginia, and he wanted to interrupt the North’s supply lines. In addition, he thought that a success in the North might lead France or Britain to recognize the Confederacy. Lee moved across the Potomac River with his entire army and then sent the majority of his army under Jackson to Harpers Ferry. They were to seize the area and open up supply routes to the Shenandoah Valley. He then stationed the rest of his army at Sharpsburg, near Antietam Creek. McClellan with 75,000 men faced Lee across the creek. Jackson rejoined Lee after successfully capturing Harpers Ferry and the additional troups brought the total Confederate forces to about 35,000 soldiers.

The fighting began on September 17, and despite the superior number of Union forces, the Confederate Army was able to hold them off. Just as Union General Ambrose E. Burnside captured a bridge and led his men across the creek, A. P. Hill arrived with fresh reinforcements for Lee. The Union attack was repulsed, and the fighting stopped. Lee led his men in orderly retreat back to Virginia, and the North did not pursue him. Both sides had lost heavily, with total Union casualties of about 12,500 and Confederate casualties of about 10,500. The fighting was so fierce and the casualties so high that Antietam was the bloodiest one-day battle of the Civil War (and in all of U.S. history).

Although the outcome of the fighting was indecisive, Antietam was a major success for the Union. As a result of the battle, Lee lost approximately one-third of his men and gave up the idea of invading the North. Diplomatically the Confederate defeat at Antietam made it more difficult for France or Britain to openly support the Confederacy.

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Emancipation Proclamation

Antietam was also the signal for a major shift in Union policy. From the beginning of the war, President Lincoln had insisted that his primary aim was the restoration of the Union, not the abolition of slavery. As the war continued, however, Lincoln saw that the preservation of the Union depended, in part, on the destruction of slavery. The Lincoln Administration believed that if they made the abolition of slavery a war aim, they could stop Britain or France from recognizing the Confederacy. Both Britain and France had long since abolished slavery and would not support a country fighting a war to defend it. Furthermore, emancipation might allow the North to undercut the South’s war effort, which was supported by slave labor.

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Emancipation would also clarify the status of slaves who were running away to the Union lines. These black people were refugees and later soldiers in the Union Army. This activity, called self-emancipation, presented a problem to the Union Army. Were these black people free, or enslaved? Should they be returned to their Southern masters under the fugitive slave laws? Some military leaders had already tried to deal with this dilemma. Benjamin F. Butler, a Northern general stationed in Virginia, claimed that he would not return slaves to their masters because they were property, and in war time, the enemy’s property can be seized. The Lincoln Administration agreed with Butler’s policy.

In addition, public opinion in the North had begun to favor abolition, and Congress, no longer needing to be concerned about the Southern states, had started passing legislation to end slavery. In 1862 Congress abolished slavery in the District of Columbia and prohibited slavery in the territories.

On July 22, 1862, Lincoln had informed his Cabinet that he intended to free the slaves in states that were in active rebellion. However, they had persuaded him to wait until a Northern victory because it would seem less like a desperate measure. Antietam served that purpose. Five days afterward, on September 22, Lincoln issued the first, or preliminary, Emancipation Proclamation. The final proclamation, issued on January 1, 1863, freed the slaves only in the states that had rebelled: Arkansas, Texas, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and parts of Louisiana and Virginia.

The president issued the proclamation under the powers granted during war to seize the enemies’ property. Lincoln only had the authority to end slavery in the Confederate states, and then the slaves were freed only as the Union armies made their way throughout the South. In the states that remained loyal to the Union slavery was protected by the Constitution. Slavery was only completely abolished throughout the United States by the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, which was ratified in 1865.

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The Battle of Perryville

In August and September 1862, on the western front, the Confederate army invaded Kentucky. Although Kentucky was a slave state, it had not seceded from the Union. The people of Kentucky were divided over the issue of the war, and Kentucky recruits joined both the Confederate and the Union forces. When General Braxton Bragg, who was in charge of the Army of Tennessee, and Major General Edmund Kirby Smith decided to move into Kentucky, they split their forces and headed north from Chattanooga, Tennessee. The Union forces in Kentucky were under the command of Major General Don Carlos Buell. The armies met at the Battle of Perryville on October 8, 1862. The battle was marked by confusion on both sides and did not produce a clear victory, but the Confederates retreated.

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Fredericksburg

After the Battle of Antietam, McClellan refused to take the offensive against Lee’s army. His patience at an end, Lincoln relieved McClellan, this time permanently. The command of the Army of the Potomac was given to Ambrose E. Burnside. On December 13, 1862, Burnside’s troops engaged the Army of Northern Virginia, placed in strong defensive positions on the hills near Fredericksburg, Virginia, south of the Rappahannock River. The result was a slaughter. Union losses in killed, wounded, and missing amounted to 12,600, as opposed to Confederate losses of 5300. In January 1863 Lincoln relieved Burnside and put General Joseph Hooker in command of the army.

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Murfreesboro, or Stones River

Two weeks after Fredericksburg, the western front was the scene of an even bloodier battle. On December 31, 1862, General William S. Rosecrans, commanding the Union Army of the Cumberland, and General Braxton Bragg, leading the Confederate Army of Tennessee, engaged each other at Murfreesboro, Tennessee, 47 km (29 mi) southeast of Nashville. After three days of fighting, in which the two armies lost nearly 25,000 of the 76,000 men engaged, Bragg withdrew from the field, but he left the Army of the Cumberland too badly hurt to resume operations for several months.

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