[iowamark]

Late the next day, Gen. Robert E. Lee slipped his army across the Potomac. The Union commander, Gen. George McClellan, failed to pursue Lee. He was soon fired by President Lincoln.

The partial victory at Antietam, however, gave Lincoln what he needed to issue the Emancipation Proclamation that would free the slaves in the Confederate states the following January.

After Antietam, the war would no longer be just about preserving the Union.

General McClellan might have won the war then if he had pursued Lee and his Army of Northern Virginia. McClellan, however, wanted a compromise peace preserving slavery. He was horrified a few days later at Lincoln's preliminary Emancipation Proclamation.

[iowamark]

NY Times: Lee's Lost Order

[SMARTY]

Someone ought to forward this to Mr. Dylan.

The US playing craps with its very existence as a sovereign national entity, risking its future and the lives of everyone here... to end slavery....after the Revolution to throw off the Monarchy, that is THE defining fact of the United States of America!!

If you don't comprehend THIS about America, you don't know America.... whether or not you live here, you MUST know this!

Example: I am sure I could not claim to in the least bit understand Russia or Russians if I was not aware of their Revolution!

Yet somehow Mr. Dylan and his friends think that the us IS slavery....NOT

No one thinks of serfdom when they think of Russia... they think of the bloody and monstrous revolution the Russians made (and all the subsequent suffering and destruction they've endured since) in order to remove the Czarist system. We credit them with THAT.

Why not have the decency to credit the US with the tremendous effort, sacrifice and near suicidal risk which Americans took to accomplish just such a noble task?

[PUGACHEV]

In the mid-70’s the park service asked for volunteers to march the route A.P. Hill's troops took from Harper's Ferry to Sharpsburg on the anniversary of the battle. I joined with about fifty others, and we followed the original route and schedule as closely as possible. We made it on time, but of course we weren't carrying muskets or gear. Still, it was quite a feat, and I remember feeling that my legs were almost detached from my hips at the end of the march. Afterward, we were supposed to get a certificate or something from the park service, but, I assume because we were acting the part of Confederate troops, they changed their mind about that.

[MissMagnolia]

Antietam .... souls still wander there. Every time I’ve visited, the place really “gets” to me in a way I can’t describe.

[Timber Rattler]

The NPS has a wide range of activities going on today and is posting live dramatic photos of the battlefield, taken at exactly the same time as the key parts of the battle depicted.

NPS Antietam National Battlefield on Facebook

Here's Farmer's Miller's cornfield this morning...

[dfwgator]

I’m surprised there hasn’t been a major movie made about Antietam.

[LibFreeUSA]

The battlefied on the day of the Battle of Antietam, September 17, 1862

CREDIT: Gardner, Alexander, photographer. “Antietam, Maryland. Battlefield on the day of battle,” 1862. Prints
and Photographs Division, Library of Congress. Reproduction Number LC-DIG-cwpb-01162.

[EternalVigilance]

Never forget.