Mccellan in the Deep - the case for the battle of Antietam --

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.