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Gettysburg, perhaps the most renowned battle of the American Civil War, was the second incursion of Confederate troops onto Union soil. The first offensive in the North taken by General Robert E. Lee and his Army of Northern Virginia resulted in the Battle of Antietam. On September 17, 1862, Lee’s troops met Union forces, under the command of General George B. McClellan, in Sharpsburg, Maryland. In this one poignant moment in time, American history was forever altered. If Gettysburg was the most significant battle in terms of scope, Antietam (Sharpsburg to Southerners) was the most pivotal with respect to the aims of the war.

==== The War Before Antietam ====

May 1861 saw the establishment of a functioning Confederate government in Richmond, Virginia. CSA President Jefferson Davis and his armies were in control of nearly all of the 750,000 acres that were deemed CSA territory.<ref>James McPherson, ''Crossroads of Freedom: Antietam, The Battle That Changed the Course of the Civil War'' (New York: Oxford University Press, 2002), 11.</ref> After the first shots of the war were fired a month prior in South Carolina, the Confederates became defenders. They simply needed to retain what they already possessed in order to prove victorious over the “invading” Yanks. Conversely, President Lincoln and the Union forces were tasked with subduing the Southern rebellion, controlling CSA lands, and reuniting the nation. This arduous endeavor seemed beyond the scope of McClellan and the Army of the Potomac in the eastern theater of the war.

==== King Cotton ====

The summer of 1862 proved to be the most hopeful for the South with regard to British and French intervention on the behalf of the CSA. Although news took ten days to cross the Atlantic, European powers became increasingly aware of Lee’s victories in the eastern theater. News of Confederate success coincided with a massive shortage of cotton in Europe, particularly in England. Prior to the war, a full 80% of Britain and France’s raw cotton came from Confederate states. Until the summer of 1862, England was able to utilize the surplus of cotton they purchased from the exceptional crops of 1859 and 1861.<ref>McPherson, ''Crossroads of Freedom'', 35.</ref> By May 1862, the supply was less than a third of what the mills required and the European textile industry was facing a crisis. Unemployment in Britain grew exponentially as 75% of cotton workers were unemployed or faced reduced work hours.<ref>James McPherson, ''Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era'' (New York: Oxford University Press, 1988), 548.</ref> King Cotton still reigned supreme.

==== Slavery ====

Regardless of what rhetoric was used by the CSA government, there was a tacit understanding among the intellectuals and politicians of Europe that the war was, in large part, about the issue of slavery. English philosopher John Stuart Mill believed that a southern victory “would be a victory of the powers of evil which would give courage to the enemies of progress and damp the spirits of its friends all over the civilized world.”<ref> Belle B. Sideman and Lillian Friedman, eds., ''Europe Looks at the Civil War'' (New York, 1960), 117-18.</ref> Karl Marx, who had been exiled from Germany and was living in London at the time, claimed that the “American anti-slavery war” was a catalyst of empowerment “for the working classes.”<ref>Saul K. Padover, ed. and trans., ''Karl Marx on America and the Civil War'' (New York, 1972), 263-64.</ref>

Lee and his advisors were familiar with the resources available to the North and knew that swift action and a decisive blow afforded the CSA the best chance of victory. On September 17, 1862, Lee and McClellan faced off in Sharpsburg and essentially fought to a stalemate. Lee was forced to retreat south yet McClellan gave no chase thus enabling the Army of Northern Virginia to successfully retreat and regroup in the South.

==== The Aftermath ====

Lee did not strike the decisive blow for which he had hoped and the Union Army under McClellan made no southerly progress. Land was not lost that day but an extraordinary number of lives were. In just one day, the total number of killed or mortally wounded was between 6,300 and 6,500. An additional 15,000 men were wounded. In this one day, the casualties numbered greater than 21,000 which is more than the number of American casualties on the Normandy beaches on June 6, 1944; D-Day. Further, the combined casualties of the War of 1812, the Mexican-American War, the Spanish-American War, and the Indian wars of the 19th century yielded fewer casualties.<ref> McPherson, ''Crossroads of Freedom'', 3.</ref> A lieutenant from the 57th New York who was on burial detail at Antietam saw the dead “in every state of mutilation, sans arms, sans legs, heads, and intestines, and in greater number than on any field we have seen before.”<ref>Josiah Favill, ''Diary of a Young Officer'', quoted in McPherson, ''Crossroads of Freedom'', 4.</ref>

The battle ended in a stalemate and the loss of life was appalling yet the day offered a turning point in the war and in American history. Due to Lee’s retreat, the politicians of the North declared Antietam a victory thus providing the impetus President Lincoln needed to issue the Emancipation Proclamation. This document did not “free the slaves,” as is so often misunderstood, but it marked the decline of the CSA. The government of the South was given an ultimatum by Lincoln. He issued the preliminary Proclamation five days after Antietam with the stipulation that if the Confederacy did not surrender their arms and reunite with the nation before January 1, 1863, the Proclamation would become the permanent law of the land.

The war waged on long after 1863 began and the Emancipation Proclamation became law. The positive wartime ramifications were numerous: exacerbation of the manpower shortage in the South; black troops fighting in the North; the refusal of England and France to recognize the CSA while they fought a nation attempting to end slavery. The humane and ideological consequences need not be discussed as they are quite evident.

The victory claimed by the North in the Battle of Antietam convinced England and France to remain neutral regardless of their reliance on cotton and prompted the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation, without which the outcome of the war and history itself may have been permanently altered. The importance of this battle was not lost on Karl Marx, who wrote just one month hence that this battle “has decided the fate of the American Civil war.”<ref> Padover, ''Karl Marx'', 220.</ref>

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