Antietam
Back in the days when I was teaching, one of the favorite questions we asked in class when finishing up the period dealing with the Civil War was "what battle was the decisive one?" What we hoped to accomplish with this was a couple of things. The first was to stir the brain cells around some and get students to remember the major events of the war and then compare them. We also hoped to get them to talk about the term "decisive" from the standpoint of what does the term actually mean and can you have a "decisive" battle in a pre-modern/modern war.
My favorite battle for this type of discussion was Antietam for a number of reasons that primarily lay outside of the immediate effects of the battle. At the strategic level, Antietam caused a sea change in the war. Britain and France no longer seriously considered recognizing the Confederate States and their support became much more conditional. For a resource-strapped South, this was crucial in determining what they could do in the future. Since they could not rely on British and French pressure (diplomatic or military) to break the Union blockade, shortages became endemic and affected the war effort sooner than they might have otherwise.
Lincoln also now had dramatic proof of the tactical incompetence of McClellan and his relief assured that "Little Mac" would no longer be seen on the field. On the other hand, the Union army had achieved a tactical draw and a strategic victory, demonstrating that they had developed those traits necessary for the successful continuation of the war. The main ramification of the battle, however, was the shift to a total war.
With the release of the Emancipation Proclamation, Lincoln changed the very nature of the war. No longer was the war just about bringing rebellious states back into the fold. Now the war was a crusade for the rights of man. Although freeing blacks still met with resistance in the North, the attack against one of the underpinning values of Southern society hastened the downfall of the Confederate States. The Proclamation also opened the doors for a dramatic increase in the strength of the Union armies by giving credibility to the enlistment of blacks in the service of the Union (rising, if I remember correctly, to almost 20% of the Union armies).
Antietam, even though it was a tactical draw, receives my vote as the decisive battle of the American Civil War.
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© Copyright 2003 by Marc Shefelton.
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