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Picture of the day -
March 21, 2006
President Abraham Lincoln At Antietam
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September 17, 1862 will forever be remembered as the single bloodiest day of the
American Civil War. On that fateful day the Union and Confederate armies
combined lost over 23,000 men during the Battle of Antietam (Sharpsburg,
MD). It is widely
believed that although neither side really won the battle, the 10,000 odd
casualties suffered by the Confederates was the beginning of the end of the war.
Confederate General Robert E. Lee had decided that if his troops had any hopes
of winning the war they had to take the fight to the north and force the Union
army to defend its home turf. In hindsight, he was probably right - but his troops were badly
outnumbered at Antietam. Lee had little choice but to attack with virtually his entire army
while McClellan had the luxury of being able to keep over 25% of his men in reserve.
While in raw numbers the Union lost more soldiers, the Confederates lost a much
larger percentage of their total fighting force, badly weakening Lee's capacity
to continue effectively waging war against the north. The rest, as they say, is
history. Although the war would drag on for another 2 1/2 years (with the
confederates even winning some battles along the way), the outcome was never
really uncertain after Antietam.
Today's picture is a Civil War classic taken by Alexander Gardner. It shows
a confident, but anxious President Abraham Lincoln standing between Allan Pinkerton (Lincoln's bodyguard)
of the Pinkerton Detective Agency and General John A. McClernand at Antietam
just a
few weeks after the bloody battle had taken place. Lincoln had gone to Antietam to urge
General George McClellan to take his now much-superior army on the attack
against Lee.
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