The Battle of Antietam became the bloodiest day in U.S. history
On this day · 17 September 1862
On September 17, 1862, a single day's fighting near Sharpsburg left some 23,000 men dead, wounded, or missing—the deadliest day in American history.
On September 17, 1862, Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia met Union General George B. McClellan’s Army of the Potomac near Sharpsburg, Maryland, along Antietam Creek. When the guns fell silent, roughly 23,000 men lay dead, wounded, or missing—still the bloodiest single day in American history.
The casualties were staggering for both sides: Union losses near 12,400 (about 2,100 killed) and Confederate losses near 10,320 (about 1,550 killed). Six generals were killed and a dozen more wounded. Neither army was destroyed, and both held their ground.
Tactically a draw, Antietam was strategically a Union turning point.
Lee’s retreat into Virginia let President Abraham Lincoln claim enough of a victory to issue the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation five days later, on September 22. From that moment, the Civil War carried an explicit aim: the end of slavery.
Sources & references
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