The battle of Antietam also known as the battle of sharps burg was fought on September 17,1862 near sharpsburg,Maryland and Antietam creek. After the union defeat at bull run, Lincoln removed McDowell and put in general Mcclellan. H a good organizer, but very cautious. He waited to make his move , but when he had the chance to do so he did not capitalize. He waited a month until moving again. This was not good for the union because this gave the confederates a chance to reinforce and regroup. This helped the stop of McClellan's advance into Richmond. This gave Lee the upper hand and decided to invade the North. Lee thought by doing this the south would gain support from the Europeans. Lee was planning to attack Maryland, but a union soldier find his battle plans and informed the union. The union forced attacked the larger parts of Lee's army and suffered 14,000 casualties. This event is often marked as the bloodiest days in U.S. history. Lee backed of and McClellan had a chance to kill the war right there, but being so defensive he did not take this opportunity. In my opinion this was a really terrible move from the union because you give a weakened group a chance to regroup, so the war lingers on. I also think this is a wake up call to young people in the war. It shows them that war is not a walk in the park and it is a real possibility that they could die in the process.

Battle of Antietam