Mccellan in the Deep -- The Case for Battle at Antietam
by
Jacob Malewitz
Antietam
was battle for the bridges and the river and the gun and Maryland..
It was hell for the union and confederacy. Was it reckoning?
Did the Americans actually beat the confederate shooters?
Both
sides made bad decisions, and both sides were ambitious. The battle
calls for memory, as the books call different points. The books say
Lee won, some say McCellan won (which he always said), but the battle
marked a point where the union arm of the Potomac and Lee's Army of
Northern Virginia. It was aristocrat against aristocrat, in a war
that was not a mistake, but was.
Ken
Burns called it out perfectly in his documentary of the times that
were lived in middle america. The poetry of war is not fun, as World
War 2 and Vietnam vets must say, as photographs and honor can be
thrown out of the window in the light and the darkness. There were
camps and hangings, there were struggles, there was hope for certain
men, and some simply saw no reason to leave their house.
Antietam
was the bridge. Antietam was the war for Maryland. Antietam proved
union boys could win against the royalty and glamor of the southern
army. Decisions began to be made. The navy started making more and
more moves to blockage the south, and Europe, who usually went with
the south (France and Germany and England).
Was
it all poor against rich? Did men who were rich become able to fight
he war all the middle class were working? This is the argument for
another day. As is the many forms of slavery the south put on
Africans.
McCellan
did not win the battle. Burnside did not win the battle. I say the
Union boys won Washington and won Maryland. It proved they could
charge and win, with any general, even a stupid one. The army of the
potomac would not win until Grant overwhelmed all the West Point
cadets. Lee, a #1 cadet at West Point, and Grant, a #32, proved the
impossible. Andrew Jackson. The Union should be preserved. Why win at
Antietam? Win Vickburg, win navy, win Gettysburg, end the war.
