The Battle of Antietam was the bloodiest day in American history, and the turning point of the whole Civil War. At the point where Confederate troops invaded Maryland, poised to take Washington, the morale of the Union was at an all time low. It had suffered a series of defeats, it seemed that foreign governments were on the verge of recognizing the Confederacy and legitimizing its cause, and the Emancipation Proclamation had been shelved indefinitely. McPherson argues that the Union victory at Antietam sharply reversed all this, and gave the Union a new raison d'être in the form of Emancipation. McPherson combines a compelling narrative of the battle itself with a clear analysis of the political situation surrounding it. The final chapters discuss the aftermath of the battle, and its reputation as a pivotal moment in American history.

This concise, elegantly written book by the commanding general of the army of American Civil War historians brilliantly captures the larger meaning of the war through the prism of one bloody and pivotal battle * The Times Literary Supplement *
[McPherson] does a superb job of re-creating a moment when the war, and all of American history that followed, might have gone altogether differently
McPherson is the preeminent historian of the Civil War * Washington Post *

James M. McPherson is America's leading Civil War scholar, best known for his bestselling, Pulitzer-prize winning book Battle Cry Freedom.