*With the Union retreat from the Peninsula and John Pope’s defeat at Manassas, the North is in bad shape in the summer of 1862.  Furthermore, the blockade, although enjoying some success, has recently had a very close scrape with destruction.

*On the seas, the Confederacy revolutionised naval warfare.  Taking an old wooden steamship called the Merrimack, the Confederates bolted iron plates to its hull armouring it.  They subsequently renamed her the Virginia.  She was not an especially well-built or sea-worthy vessel, but she terrified the North.  It was feared that the Virginia would sail up the Potomac and bombard Washington.  This was called an ironclad ship, and it made all existing wooden navies obsolete.

*The North hired an engineer named John Ericsson and sank money into his project and in one hundred days built a better ironclad, one meant to be an ironclad, and not merely a converted steamboat.  This will be called the Monitor.

*In March, 1862, the Confederacy sent the Virginia out to attack the Union Navy.  On the 8th, she sank two ships, ran another aground, and terrified the North.  In the process she lost no men and took no serious damage.

*The next day, the Monitor arrived, and after a long battle chased the Virginia away.  Later, when the Union captures Norfolk, the Confederates will burn the Virginia to keep it from being captured.

*In the West, Admiral David Farragut of Knoxville and commander of the US Navy’s Gulf Blockading Squadron captured New Orleans.

*In New Orleans, and elsewhere, the Union forces began freeing slaves, saying they were contraband, or war materiel that it was necessary to seize from the Confederates to hurt their war efforts.  Although usually obliged to work for the Army, often in unpleasant jobs, most slaves preferred this to slavery.

*This created an awkward position for Lincoln.  Although he did not like slavery, he did not feel that the Constitution let him abolish it, and he did not want to offend the Border States that had remained more or less loyal, but that still held slaves.  He had said that if he could save the Union by freeing all of the slaves, he would do it; if he could do it by freeing some, he would do it; if he could save the Union without freeing any slaves, he would do it.  However, many Northerners, especially in the Republican Party, wanted to free the slaves, and they, and Lincoln, considered justifying the move on the grounds of hurting the Confederate war effort.

*Lincoln drafted the Emancipation proclamation, which freed all slaves in areas presently in rebellion (but not in Union-controlled Confederate areas or in loyal states).  His cabinet advised him not to make it public, however, until the US had won a sufficient victory that it did not just seem like a last ditch effort or an attempt to raise a slave revolt.
 
*The South also needed a grand gesture.  The plan to get European aid by stopping cotton shipments had not worked.  Southern leaders felt that the South needed to win a major victory outside the South, and Lee obliged by invading Maryland.

*Maryland was a Border State, and many of its people were thought to be loyal to the South.  It was hoped that Marylanders would help the Army of Northern Virginia, and the army marched in singing ‘Maryland, my Maryland.’  It was also hoped that the Confederates could beat the Army of the Potomac and possibly even capture, or at least threaten, Washington.

*One Confederate officer made a mistake.  Someone, probably a lieutenant in D.H. Hill’s division, dropped a piece of paper that he had wrapped around three cigars.  That piece of paper was a copy of Special Order No. 191:  Lee’s battle plan and general orders for his army.  It was found later by a sergeant in the Army of the Potomac, and brought to McClellan.  It told him everything he needed to know about Lee’s army and his plans, but because it said that Lee had fewer men than he imagined (in fact, McClellan outnumbered Lee about 87,000 to 40,000) he was reluctant to believe it or to act.

*When he finally moved, McClellan was able to catch Lee at a town called Sharpsburg, along the Antietam River.  On 17 September 1862, they fought across the river, with the Union trying desperately all day to cross it and hold the field.

*In the Cornfield, Hood (under Jackson) fought Hooker.  This was more or less a draw, although perhaps slightly to the advantage of the Confederacy.

*In Bloody Lane, Gordon, under D. H. Hill (under Jackson), fought troops under Sumner.  He held most of the day, but eventually his line broke.  However, McClellan did not move more men into the gap to take advantage of this.

*At Burnside’s Bridge, Tombs, eventually reinforced by A. P. Hill (both under Longstreet), kept Burnside from crossing the bridge and staying across.  A Confederate general said that if Burnside could have gotten 10,000 more men, he could have won the day.  McClellan had at least 20,000 in reserve, and had promised to send many of them to support Burnside, but he did not.  A minor hero of this engagement was a 19-year old commissary sergeant in an Ohio regiment who brought food and water to troops under heavy fire.  His name was William McKinley.  The colonel of the regiment, Rutherford B. Hayes, was not at Sharpsburg due to a wound he had received not long before.

*It was a terribly bloody battle, and remains the bloodiest single day in American military history, with over 26,000 men killed or wounded.  The battle is technically a draw, but Lee’s forces are so badly injured that he withdraws back to Virginia.  However, had McClellan moved as quickly as he should have, he could have completely defeated Lee.

*Lincoln removes McClellan from command permanently, replacing him with Ambrose Burnside, but he still calls this a Union victory, and issues the Emancipation Proclamation, which will take effect on 1 January, 1863.

*Although the Emancipation Proclamation officially freed slaves in rebellious areas, largely in the hope that they would revolt, few did.  Southerners accused Lincoln of imitating Lord Dunmore four score and seven years ago.  Many slaves did run away to freedom, often to join the Union Army, which began accepting black volunteers in 1863.  About 180,000 black troops would serve during the way, often bravely despite poor treatment by much of the Army (including unequal pay) and by the Confederacy if they were captured (especially at Fort Pillow).  The Proclamation is more effective as a symbol than a law, but it is a powerful symbol indeed.  After this, Europe cannot easily side with the Confederacy.

*Burnside knows that McClellan was too cautious.  He, too, is cautious by nature, but feels he must invade Virginia.  He builds a bridge of pontoon boats across the Rappahannock River just outside Fredericksburg, Virginia.  This took a long time, and gave Lee time to position his forces (78,000  men) just beyond the town, on a low ridge called Marye’s Heights, and in places they even were able to shelter behind a stone wall.  Colonel E. Porter Alexander, a Confederate artilleryman, said after looking at the Confederates’ line of fire, that ‘a chicken could not live on that field when we open fire on it.’

*While trying to cross the river, Burnside shells Fredericksburg.  Once the Union (115,000 men) gets into the city, they will loot it, and be shelled in turn by the Confederates.  Not much remains of the town by the end of the month.

*When Burnside finally got across the river (12 December), he ordered a charge against the Confederate position (13 December), which was beaten back by the rifles and cannon of the Confederacy.  Not to be outdone, he ordered wave after wave, sending a total of fourteen charges against the wall, all of which were defeated before they ever reached it.  Watching this splendour of the Union valour (and their concomitant stupidity under his withering fire) Lee commented ‘It is well war is so terrible; we should grow too fond of it.’

* Some units lost half their men or more, and many living men were trapped on the field overnight, afraid to move lest they be seen and shot.  Some used the coats of their dead comrades as blankets, and others piled up dead men as walls against Confederate bullets.  That night the northern lights were visible in the night sky, a rare occurrence so far south, and the aurora borealis was taken as a sign of God’s favour for the South.

*On the 14th, Burnside considered leading his old IX Corps in one last attack on the wall, but was dissuaded by his officers.

*Fredericksburg was a great Confederate victory.  The Union suffered over 13,000 casualties, compared to about 4,200 for the Confederacy.  On the 15th, Burnside retreated across the river on 15 December, 1862, and would be replaced soon by Joseph Hooker.

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