Beginning of Essay
( or Sharpsburg) on September 17, 1862, climaxed the first of Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s two attempts to carry the war into the north. About 40,000 southerners were against the 87,000- man Federal Army of the Potomac under General George McClellan. Whe ....

Middle of Essay
.... and by the afternoon of September 15, both armies had established new battlelines west and east of Antietam Creek, near the town Sharpsburg. When Jackson’s troops reached Sharpsburg on the 16th, Harpers Ferry having surrendered the day before, Lee consolidated his position along the low ridge that runs north and south of the town. The battle opened at dawn on the 17th when Union General Joseph Hooker’s artillery began a murderous fire on Jackson’s men in the Miller cornfield north of the town. Hooker’s troops advanced, driving the Confederates before them, and Jackson reported that his men were “exposed for nearly an hour to a terrific ....