Bloodiest Day in American History

On what day did more Americans die than any other? 9/11 when terrorists attacked the Twin Towers? Pearl Harbor? D-Day?

No. It was September 17, 1862, at the Battle of Antietam or Sharpsburg (the Union army usually named battles after things such as streams, as in Antietam Creek, while Confederates usually named them after towns, such as Sharpsburg). The death toll in that one-day battle, which many consider to have been a draw, was far larger than 9/11, Pearl Harbor, D-Day, or any other before or since. About 23,000 were killed, wounded, or missing, with almost 4,000 killed.

What happened that day that changed America? Robert E. Lee for the first time felt his army was strong enough to bring the war into the north, thinking if he could defeat the largest Union army in the north then Abraham Lincoln might be forced to give in to those who demanded peace and allowing the Confederacy to be independent. He was probably right. And we know that Britain and France were ready to recognize the Confederacy if Lee had won at Antietam.

The United States army was led by George McClellan, who was said by Lincoln to have “the slows.” Amazingly, McClellan’s men found and gave him a copy of Lee’s orders to his army so McClellan knew exactly what Lee was doing, and McClellan still managed to almost lose because he delayed. 

McClellan’s army attacked Lee’s army on several different parts of the battlefield but lost in all areas. Still the slaughter continued from dawn to dusk, finally ending when a part of Lee’s army that had been at Harpers Ferry arrived at the Antietam Battlefield.

The Confederacy didn’t get recognized by Britain and France. Lincoln wasn’t forced to negotiate peace with the south. And most importantly Abraham Lincoln was able to take from his desk a document he had been waiting for a victory to announce, the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation that led to the complete end of slavery in the United States, the largest freeing of slaves in the history of the world.