For most of the next week, Grant and Meade pursued the Confederates along the Appomattox River, finally exhausting their possibilities for escape | In the spring of 1862, McClellan finally led his Army of the Potomac up the peninsula between the York and James Rivers, capturing Yorktown on May 4 |
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Despite contradictory orders from Lincoln and Halleck, McClellan was able to reorganize his army and strike at Lee on September 14 in Maryland, driving the Confederates back to a defensive position along Antietam Creek, near Sharpsburg | Over three days of fierce fighting, the Confederates were unable to push through the Union center, and suffered casualties of close to 60 percent |
The Confederates gained a costly victory in the , suffering 13,000 casualties around 22 percent of their troops ; the Union lost 17,000 men 15 percent.
They also had a cause they believed in: preserving their long-held traditions and institutions, chief among these being slavery | On the heels of his victory at Manassas, Lee began the first Confederate invasion of the North |
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After the Emancipation Proclamation 1863-4 Lincoln had used the occasion of the Union victory at Antietam to issue a preliminary , which freed all enslaved people in the rebellious states after January 1, 1863 | Total casualties at the also known as the Battle of Sharpsburg numbered 12,410 of some 69,000 troops on the Union side, and 13,724 of around 52,000 for the Confederates |
—who replaced the aging General as supreme commander of the Union Army after the first months of the war—was beloved by his troops, but his reluctance to advance frustrated Lincoln.
Still, the Emancipation Proclamation deprived the Confederacy of the bulk of its labor forces and put international public opinion strongly on the Union side | Halleck, though he remained in command of the Army of the Potomac |
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On the heels of his victory at Manassas, Lee began the first Confederate invasion of the North | —who replaced the aging General as supreme commander of the Union Army after the first months of the war—was beloved by his troops, but his reluctance to advance frustrated Lincoln |
His arm was amputated, and he died from pneumonia eight days later.