USA HISTORY

What was the battle fought during the Confederate incursion into Maryland immediately prior to the Emancipation Proclamation?

(A) Atlanta

(B) ** Antietam/Sharpsburg

(C) Gettysburg

(D) Chancellorsville

Concept note-1: -There were two significant engagements in the Maryland campaign prior to the major battle of Antietam: Maj. Gen. Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson’s capture of Harpers Ferry and McClellan’s assault through the Blue Ridge Mountains in the Battle of South Mountain.

Concept note-2: -On Sept. 22, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln changed the course of American history by announcing that enslaved people would soon be free. Commonly referred to as the ‘preliminary’ Emancipation Proclamation, Lincoln’s action that day was emboldened by a Union victory at the Battle of Antietam only days earlier.

Concept note-3: -The Battle of Antietam, also called the Battle of Sharpsburg, occurred on September 17, 1862, at Antietam Creek near Sharpsburg, Maryland.

Concept note-4: -The Battle of Antietam pitted Union General George McClellan’s Army of the Potomac against General Robert E. Lee and his Army of Northern Virginia. The Maryland Campaign was Lee’s first attempt to take the war North and it was McClellan who was tasked by President Abraham Lincoln with stopping him.

Concept note-5: -The Battle of Antietam ended the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia’s first invasion into the North and led Abraham Lincoln to issue the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation.