Gee, I thought the Battle of Antietam was fought near Sharpsburg, MD. I thought Antietam was the name of the creek that what later became known as "Burnside's Bridge" crossed. Checking my maps now.
Bye the Bye, Antietam was also important for keeping Europe, namely Great Britain and France, from recognizing the Confederate States of America and openly providing aid the the CSA.
Maryland Campaign: September 1862 :
Antietam, Maryland (MD003) , Washington County, September 17, 1862
Stephen W. SearsCS General Robert E. Lee was driven by two ambitions in leading his Army of Northern Virginia across the Potomac River into Maryland early in September 1862. The first was to shift the contest from war-torn Virginia to what he called the Confederacy's northern frontier. The second was to force US Major General George B. McClellan's Army of the Potomac into a showdown battle that would be decisive for the South's independence.
That battle was fought along Antietam Creek at Sharpsburg, Maryland, but not in the setting Lee originally planned. Chance had intervened. Several days earlier a Confederate courier had lost a copy of his operational orders, which were found by a Union soldier and turned over to McClellan. Although McClellan moved too slowly on September 14 to break through the gaps in South Mountain and cut off the scattered parts of the Confederate army, he did force Lee to decide to give battle sooner than he wanted and with fewer troops than he intended. Despite the odds against him, Lee deliberately chose to stand and fight at Sharpsburg, confident that he and his soldiers would win.