Any one of these contingencies would have altered the outcome of the battle, and perhaps the campaign, and might even have changed the course of history. If McClellan had done any of these things, Union arms could well have won an even more decisive victory than they did, perhaps shortening the war.īecause Antietam was a limited Union victory, Lincoln could have decided that it did not measure up to the victory he had been waiting for to issue the Emancipation Proclamation. 18, with a good chance of inflicting considerably more damage on the enemy. McClellan could have renewed the attack on Sept. On the 17th, McClellan could have sent in his reserves to exploit a temporary breakthrough at Bloody Lane in early afternoon and another potential breakthrough in late afternoon near where the National Cemetery is today. ![]() 16 (a day before Antietam started), with a good chance of destroying the part of Lee's army that was then at Sharpsburg before the rest of the army could get there. George) McClellan could have attacked on Sept. He almost did so, but then changed his mind and decided to stay and fight. Robert E.) Lee could have decided to retreat to Virginia without offering battle. What choices made at Antietam caused it to change the course of history? The battle of Antietam is one of those things. And certain crucial events that are the consequence of these choices will have an impact that changes the course of history. ![]() In other words, there's nothing inevitable or foreordained about historical development - any one thing is contingent on other things. An old friend of mine, David Hackett Fischer, who is a Princeton alumnus, class of '57, cooked up this idea of a series of short books, aimed at a general audience, on key events or processes in American history that actually changed the course of history.īoth of us operate on a philosophy of history we call contingency - it says that people make crucial choices, and their choices have consequences that lead to actions that would have been different if they had made different choices. The book is part of a series, of which you're co-editor, called "Pivotal Moments in American History?" I thought it would be a good idea to enlighten readers on the importance of this battle. No other single battle in the war had such multiple consequences.Īnd yet Antietam is less well-known than, say, Gettysburg, or the combination of Gettysburg and the surrender of Vicksburg, which happened at virtually the same time, as a crucial battle of the war. I've long been convinced, ever since I started trying to put together the multiple layers of Civil War history - the military, the political, the social, the diplomatic - that Antietam was a turning point on all those levels. You've written about so many aspects of the Civil War. The Civil War scholar talked to the Princeton Weekly Bulletin about what would have happened if the South had prevailed at Antietam, what lessons from that battle are instructive today and how he has tried to humanize the image of Abraham Lincoln. This semester he is teaching his popular "The American Civil War and Reconstruction" course. In addition, McPherson recently was named the 2003 president of the American Historical Association. And he is putting the finishing touches on "Hallowed Ground: A Walk at Gettysburg," a short book in a series about places that are meaningful to the author. In between appearances to promote the new book, McPherson is working on a new edition of "Battle Cry of Freedom" with 700 new illustrations, set to be published in December 2003. McPherson, the George Henry Davis '86 Professor of American History, "does a superb job of re-creating a moment when the war, and all of American history that followed, might have gone altogether differently," said a review in USA Today. ![]() When the Union emerged victorious, the course of the rest of the war was determined. The war was at a crossroads as the soldiers met in the fields between Antietam Creek and the Potomac River on Sept. "Crossroads of Freedom: Antietam" tells the story of the battle of Antietam, the bloodiest day of the Civil War, in which more than 6,000 soldiers were killed. Princeton NJ - His 1988 Pulitzer Prize-winning book, "Battle Cry of Freedom," has become the classic text on the Civil War, and now James McPherson has a new book out that focuses on a single battle of that war. McPherson: civil War battle provides lessons for today
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