I Dread the Thought of the Place: The Battle of Antietam and the End of the Maryland Campaign

The Battle of Antietam, the deadliest day of the Civil War, is examined in detail in this book, which won the American Battlefield Trust Military History Book Prize. It describes the battle's tactical history, including General McClellan's choice not to pursue Lee's retreating forces, and sheds light on the emotional impact on those who survived.

Format: Hardback
Length: 976 pages
Publication date: 17 October 2023
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press

The Battle of Antietam, the bloodiest day of the Civil War, is a haunting memory that still lingers nine months after the event. In this definitive account, historian D. Scott Hartwig chronicles the single bloodiest day in American history, resulting in 23,000 casualties. The battle marked a vital turning point in the war, as it shifted the conflict from a limited war to a conflict over slavery. Although tactically inconclusive, Robert E. Lee withdrew first from the battlefield, giving President Lincoln the political ammunition to issue the Emancipation Proclamation. This comprehensive story spans from the opening shots to the powerful reverberations it sent through the armies and the nation.

Based on decades of research, this in-depth narrative sheds particular light on the visceral experience of battle, an often misunderstood aspect of the American Civil War. Hartwig provides an hour-by-hour tactical history of the battle, beginning before dawn on September 17 and concluding with the immediate aftermath, including General McClellan's fateful decision not to pursue Lee's retreating forces back across the Potomac to Virginia. With 21 unique maps illustrating the state of the battle at intervals ranging from 20 to 120 minutes, this long-awaited companion to Hartwig's To Antietam Creek will be essential reading for anyone interested in the Civil War.

Weight: 1920g
Dimension: 191 x 262 x 59 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781421446592