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T
he date of September 17, 1862 is remembered as the single bloodiest day of the American Civil War, as Federal forces under the command of General George B. McClellan countered the advance of Confederate troops led by General Robert E. Lee. By the day’s end, both sides had suffered losses of more than 2,000 dead, Lee’s amounting to almost 3,000. Nearly 20,000 were wounded, and another 1,000 or more from each side would subsequently die of their injuries. All of this misery occurred near the little hamlet of Sharpsburg, in south central Maryland, adjacent to a slow-moving creek called Antietam.
Robert E. Lee was born in 1807 at Stratford, Virginia. He was the son of Harry “Light-Horse” Lee, a prominent commander during the War for Independence. Graduating from West Point in 1829, he became a career Army officer, at one point serving as superintendent of the military academy. Although opposed to the objectives of the Confederacy, Lee believed that his principal loyalty was owed to his native Virginia. With some misgivings, he resigned his commission in the United States Army in 1861, but only after being offered command of that army by President Abraham Lincoln! As commander of the Army of Northern Virginia, Robert E. Lee led the Confederate States of America through a series of victories and near-victories that its limited resources and manpower scarcely deserved. Idolized by his men and by most people of the South, Lee was never blamed for the CSA’s ultimate defeat in 1865. Upon surrendering, he was saluted even by his adversaries. Following the war, he became president of Washington College, which was later renamed Washington and Lee University. He died peacefully in 1870. His estate on the Potomac River, named Arlington, had been seized by the Union during the war and was dedicated as a cemetery for Federal troops. It was later expanded to become the resting place of many distinguished Americans.
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