Tonight on the History Channel is Antietam. It's about the the bloodiest day in U.S history: 23,000 casualties on both sides, nine times the Normandy D-Day casualties. It occurred on September 17 1862 during the American Civil War. It's part of the History Channels series "10 Days that Unexpectedly changed America".
This morning as I was reading the Sunday Oregonian I turned ,as I always do, to Ted Mahar's column in the TV Click Section. If you are as big a news junkie as I am you learn to look for columnist that have the same interest as you . Ted Mahar of the Oregonian is one . Many years ago he was the Oregonian's movie critic and I loved his reviews. He has a keen interest in John Ford as I do. In any case he said this about the Antietam documentary : "By September 1862, the Confederacy had solidified it's territory and had a smoothly operating government. the North was close to disarray, seemed to be losing the war and feared that France and England were ready to throw in with King Cotton, the 1960's equivalent of Big Oil today." Robert E Lee moved his Confederate army north around Washington DC to cut it off from the rest of the North and bring the war to an end. The North countered by sending George B McClellan and the Federal Army of the Potomac, north from Washington. The two army's met in Maryland near the town of Sharpsburg along Antietam Creek. After a day of very bloody fighting the killed or wounded for the North were 12,410 and for the South 10700. Although , neither side gained a decisive victory Lee was forced to with draw to the South and England did not recognize of the Confederate government. The battle also gave President Abraham Lincoln the opportunity to issue the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863 declaring free all slaves in states still in rebellion. Lee again tried to move north the next summer and failed at a place called Gettysburg in Pennsylvania. Lincoln, in 1864 won reelection to the presidency after beating McClellan, the Democrats nominee ,who ran on a plank of "cut and run" to end the war. The war continued till 1865 and a victory for the North to preserve the Union and free the slaves. Some things are worth fighting for.
Antietam is on at 9-10 Pm( West Coast time) tonight.
