On September 17, 1862, the North and South clashed once more in a bloody conflict, this time on Northern soil. Antietam yielded 22,717 casualties, including 3,654 killed, and went down in history as the bloodiest day in the Civil War.
The lifelong residents of Red Bud discovered they had won the night of the drawing with a $3 quickpick ticket. They watched the numbers be read on the news and Merle Butler, 65, jotted down the numbers on a pad. He went to his wallet to get the tickets and immediately noticed he had the Mega Ball number.
Read part 2: From Leesburg to Frederick
It was time for McClellan to do something.
Frederick, the town in Maryland where McClellan’s headquarters was located, was about 40 miles northwest of Washington. The National Road came up from Washington, passed through Frederick, and then continued northwest towards Hagerstown for about 25 miles. From there, there are good roads dropping south into Virginia and the Shenandoah, other roads lead west into Ohio, and some go into Pennsylvania. About halfway between Frederick and Hagerstown lays South Mountain. It is not a mountain, per se, but rather a long, curving ridge that starts by the Potomac next to Harper’s Ferry and runs far into Pennsylvania and passes west of Gettysburg. From McClellan’s point of view, South Mountain was on the horizon – a dark, long curtain that separated the Union army and the Confederates. It was a veil on the far side of which lay the full power of the Confederacy, fully shielded from the prying eyes of the Federals.
General Robert E. Lee was in a position of great strength. He had been at the brink of surrender, but he drove back two superior armies and now he was ready to launch a full-scale invasion of the North. Following the Northern Virginia Campaign, he took his army and shifted from Chantilly to Leesburg, Virginia. True, the Army of Northern Virginia had suffered manpower losses during the summer campaigns, but nevertheless Lee decided to invade Maryland. Continue reading
IT WAS SEPTEMBER OF 1862 and the tides of war had changed. This was the biggest turn-around in military history. Continue reading
