The Long Road to Antietam: How the Civil War Became a Revolution

by Richard Slotkin

Overview

A masterful account of the Civil War's turning point in the tradition of James McPherson's Crossroads of Freedom.

In the summer of 1862, after a year of protracted fighting, Abraham Lincoln decided on a radical change of strategy—one that abandoned hope for a compromise peace and committed the nation to all-out war. The centerpiece of that new strategy was the Emancipation Proclamation: an unprecedented use of federal power that would revolutionize Southern society. In The Long Road to Antietam, Richard Slotkin, a renowned cultural historian, reexamines the challenges that Lincoln encountered during that anguished summer 150 years ago. In an original and incisive study of character, Slotkin re-creates the showdown between Lincoln and General George McClellan, the “Young Napoleon” whose opposition to Lincoln included obsessive fantasies of dictatorship and a military coup. He brings to three-dimensional life their ruinous conflict, demonstrating how their political struggle provided Confederate General Robert E. Lee with his best opportunity to win the war, in the grand offensive that ended in September of 1862 at the bloody Battle of Antietam.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393084429
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	07/09/2012
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	512
Sales rank:	229,074
File size:	5 MB

About the Author

The author of the award-winning American history trilogy Regeneration Through Violence, The Fatal Environment, and Gunfighter Nation, Richard Slotkin, an emeritus professor at Wesleyan University, won the Shaara Award for Civil War fiction for Abe. He lives in Middletown, Connecticut.

Table of Contents

List of Maps xi

Introduction xiii

A Note on Military Terminology xxix

Part 1 Turning Point: Military Stalemate and Strategic Initiatives July 1862

Chapter 1 Lincoln's Strategy: Emancipation and the McClellan Problem 3

Chapter 2 McClellan's Strategy: Irresistible Force 40

Chapter 3 President Davis's Strategic Offensive 62

Part 2 The Confederate Offensive August 1862

Chapter 4 Self-inflicted Wounds: The Union High Command 85

Chapter 5 Both Ends Against the Middle: The Campaign of Second Bull Run 108

Chapter 6 McClellan's Victory 128

Part 3 The Invasion of Maryland September 2-15 1862

Chapter 7 Lee Decides on Invasion 141

Chapter 8 McClellan Takes the Offensive 170

Chapter 9 The Battles of South Mountain 193

Chapter 10 The Forces Gather 209

Part 4 The Battle of Antietam September 16-18, 1862

Chapter 11 Preparation for Battle 231

Chapter 12 The Battle of Antietam: Hooker's Fight, 6:00-9:00 AM 253

Chapter 13 The Battle of Antietam: Sumner's Fight, 9:00 AM-Noon 283

Chapter 14 The Battle of Antietam: The Edge of Disaster, Noon to Evening 311

Chapter 15 The Day When Nothing Happened 339

Part 5 The Revolutionary Crisis September 22-November 7, 1862

Chapter 16 Lincoln's Revolution 357

Chapter 17 The General and the President 379

Chapter 18 Dubious Battle: Everything Changed, Nothing Settled 393

Chronology 415

Antietam Order of Battle 429

Notes 435

Selected Bibliography 455

Index 463

Editorial Reviews

"In this engrossing book Richard Slotkin looks beyond that blood-drenched battlefield to explore how President Abraham Lincoln linked victory at Antietam to his decision to free slaves and declare that they could join the Union Army."

HistoryNet.com - Thomas B. Allen

"Slotkin has produced an absorbing revisionist history of what could be called the second American Revolution."

Newsweek

"Slotkin tells a great story and for those interested in battle narratives, I have little doubt that you will enjoy his narration of Antietam.... Slotkin does a great job laying out this conflict and how Lincoln managed to rid himself of the McClellan problem, issue the Emancipation Proclamation, and turn the Civil War into a holy war that ended slavery. Notably, Slotkin notes that the alleged international reasons for the Emancipation Proclamation are vastly overrated and it had little to no effect on British or French policy toward the conflict.... The Long Road to Antietam will change how I teach the first two years of the war. In my world, that’s a pretty high compliment."

Lawyers, Guns and Money - Erik Loomis

"A riveting, perceptive analysis of the Civil War campaigns of 1862, of the reasoning behind the Emancipation Proclamation and of the complex power struggle between President Abraham Lincoln and the 35-year-old Union Commander of the Army of the Potomac, Gen. George B. McClellan… This is one of the most moving and incisive books on the Civil War that I have ever read."

Tampa Bay Times - Chris Patsilelis

"An absorbing account… Slotkin paints a detailed portrait of the talented but flawed general who helped Lincoln bring about his revolution, if ever so unwillingly… Slotkin’s description of the battle is essential to completing his meticulous, maddening portrait of McClellan."

Slate.com - John Swansburg

"A remarkable piece of work, an eye-opening double history of a battle and a war."

Christian Science Monitor - Randy Dotinga

"Slotkin does an excellent job of tracing the strategies used by both sides."

Military Heritage

"Provide[s] detailed and careful renderings of these events and of Lincoln’s intellectual journey."

New York Review of Books - James M. McPherson

"This is much more than another treatise on the battle itself. Yes, the movements and countermovements on the battlefield are there, but this sprawling book has multi-faceted tentacles which Slotkin, an award winning author and former university professor, skillfully weaves into a cohesive narrative… This is a thought-provoking book which goes well beyond the standard battle narratives and places Antietam in its full context as a significant point of change in U.S. domestic policy, a shift with far-reaching ramifications for the next century."

Cannonball - Scott Mingus

"One of the best new books to examine the fateful day of 17 September 1862…. Slotkin has expanded much on the meaning of this battle, but also casts a new interpretation as to what the battle meant for the administration of President Abraham Lincoln and the nation."

On Point: The Journal of Army History - James A. Percoco

"Richard Slotkin has added significantly to the literature… Slotkin evokes drama and, where appropriate, dark humor in recalling what became an extraordinary test of civilian authority over the military… Slotkin is an accomplished social historian (and novelist) with a focus on war and race, and he brings all his considerable skills to bear in this book. What makes even his unsurprising conclusions unfold at such a gripping pace is his great gift for narrative. It is as if Carl Sandburg were writing again—but with footnotes—for the author is a master at telling a story, capturing a mood, bringing characters to life, and making substantive and well-documented historical points in the bargain."

Military History Quarterly - Harold Holzer

One of the best new books to examine the fateful day of 17 September 1862…. Slotkin has expanded much on the meaning of this battle, but also casts a new interpretation as to what the battle meant for the administration of President Abraham Lincoln and the nation.

James A. Percoco - On Point: The Journal of Army History

Slotkin thus reminds us that the social violence of civil wars always create the potential for the overthrow of civil authority by a military dictatorship… An arresting account of a particular moment in the war: of a Washington atmosphere ‘thick with treason.'

Stephanie McCurry - Times Literary Supplement