The Battle of Antietam; fought on September 17; 1862; was the bloodiest single day in American history; with more than 6;000 soldiers killed--four times the number lost on D-Day; and twice the number killed in the September 11th terrorist attacks. In Crossroads of Freedom; America's most eminent Civil War historian; James M. McPherson; paints a masterful account of this pivotal battle; the events that led up to it; and its aftermath.As McPherson shows; by September 1862 the survival of the United States was in doubt. The Union had suffered a string of defeats; and Robert E. Lee's army was in Maryland; poised to threaten Washington. The British government was openly talking of recognizing the Confederacy and brokering a peace between North and South. Northern armies and voters were demoralized. And Lincoln had shelved his proposed edict of emancipation months before; waiting for a victory that had not come--that some thought would never come. Both Confederate and Union troops knew the war was at a crossroads; that they were marching toward a decisive battle. It came along the ridges and in the woods and cornfields between Antietam Creek and the Potomac River. Valor; misjudgment; and astonishing coincidence all played a role in the outcome. McPherson vividly describes a day of savage fighting in locales that became forever famous--The Cornfield; the Dunkard Church; the West Woods; and Bloody Lane. Lee's battered army escaped to fight another day; but Antietam was a critical victory for the Union. It restored morale in the North and kept Lincoln's party in control of Congress. It crushed Confederate hopes of British intervention. And it freed Lincoln to deliver the Emancipation Proclamation; which instantly changed the character of the war. McPherson brilliantly weaves these strands of diplomatic; political; and military history into a compact; swift-moving narrative that shows why America's bloodiest day is; indeed; a turning point in our history.
#1339496 in Books 2004-07-15Ingredients: Example IngredientsOriginal language:EnglishPDF # 1 6.40 x 1.40 x 9.60l; #File Name: 0195159268448 pages
Review
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. A somewhat interesting book about an interesting time period.By Glenn D. RobinsonA somewhat dry book on the life of Landon Carter. Landon was part of the wealthy Carter clan and he owned a number of plantations on the Northern Neck and Middle Neck. Sabine Hall was his home and this era covers from right before the French Indian War to soon after the American Revolution. This book takes most of the information from his diary and little more than that. What is interesting is his view of the government from 1760 onward and his hopes that King George III would be removed by the British and a better king placed on the throne-one that would honor and uphold the British Constitution as he did not want independence; just a better more honorable leader.The book discussed the slaves at length and his management of the slaves. A great deal of stress that he created for himself by having slaves. His son went on to free these slaves (see the book "The First Emancipator"). Mr. Carter disliked his son (the great ASS); hated the wife of his son and was not on speaking terms with his daughter (she married someone who did not meet his approval). He instead developed a somewhat trusting relationship with a number of his slaves who he taught medicine and surgery. He frequently felt slighted; especially when the slaves ran away. Compared to the monsters of other plantations; he seemed to be a softy (as owners can be called; which is never the right term); as he wrote in the diary "she keeps running away. I will have to do something the next time she runs away." A number of his slaves had drinking problems and smaller plantation owners or farmers took advantage of this by trading booze for farm tools and livestock. The book emphasized that he worked hard to make sure the elderly slaves were cared for; but it is hard to pinpoint how "I would stop by their cabins to see how their own gardens were growing. I learned a few things from them that I introduced out in the fields."Not a book that sensationalized the issue of the days. More a recap of the diary. I recommend this really for those interested in Colonial Virginia or plantations. I am not sure this will do it for anyone else.0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. The Great CurmudgeonBy Cabin DwellerThis sequel to a shorter analysis of Landon Carter should lead to at least one of Richard Henry Lee; he of the burning effigies; and Frances Lightfoot Lee; whom currently I would confuse with Richard. But there is only one Landon Carter; although technically his grandson Landon is part of some memorable scenes at the dinner table with a “sawcy†mouth. Between Robert Wormely Carter and Landon; this book is everything that could have happened between George Washington and John Parke Custis taken to the extreme. It is also a study of plantation medicine; in surprising detail; plantation slavery; not so surprising but very detailed and enlightening; and also the author Rhys Isaac delves obligatorily into political wrangling from the Stamp Act; to include the Patrick Henry rivalry; to the patriarchal deconstruction found everywhere throughout the book. After finishing the book; I am not able to envision Landon Carter as a rebel. Did Isaac do a good job of leaving Carter ambivalent about revolution; or was Isaac ambivalent in his conviction that Carter could swallow so much widespread liberty? The book starts with “the Eightâ€. By extension it starts with personal animosity toward Governor Dunmore; who had promised freedom to slaves who would run to the Redcoats. Carter is near death during the Revolutionary War; troubled with colic; so the book starts with him at age 65 and older. The young Landon Carter is not in the book; since his diary began when he was over 40. Other than extra education afforded him in England; there is no record of behavior for this man who made a life out of “uneasy†intolerance. The first page I found worth marking was 47; where Samuel Richardson’s literature was starting to become palpable and starting to challenge the male at the center of society. Clarissa and Pamela are two works that feminized sensibilities; and the first of these Carter rewrote from a different point of view. Tristam Shandy and Henry Fielding are also mentioned. “The past; they say; is another country.†I marked this somewhat familiar quote on page 105. It should be in widespread use now and then. Later in that chapter on Medical Science; I made note of so many details; such as the plant that is rattlesnake root; because I would think this topic the most telling of the times: the struggle to stay healthy among so many hatreds. It is my wild idea to have John Parke Custis sent to Sabine Hall out of frustration to apprentice with Carter and his slave doctor Nassaw; the alcoholic who is important enough to finish the book. Carter may have been more meticulous in his diary about inducing vomits and the study of bile because matters of health may have empowered him the most. 6 straight pages were of great interest because of their lorish detail. The “Politics; War; and Rebellion†part to follow is dry by comparison; basically just rich men with French stock leanings versus rich men with English stock holdings. Here is contained the only mentor for Carter in the book: “William Pitt was from Landon Carter perhaps the greatest man of the ageâ€. The book becomes incredibly interesting again with the 1766 appearance of Colonel Richard Henry Lee at the courthouse of Westmoreland County. “Wilkes and Liberty†and John Wilkes are brought into the spotlight in conjunction with the Stamp Act. This becomes Patrick Henry’s chapter as well. Somehow fit into these topics is the whipping of little Landon at the dinner table; and the confrontation with Winifred Beale and Robert Wormeley: “when she said that she might whip him; that he did not care if she did … His father heard this unmovedâ€. Unlinear as Isaac has chosen to be; this could still be depicted as the unraveling of the man into a tyrant over slave and family alike; a man largely unchecked by power but a man who nevertheless doesn’t go many pages without some new slight or another. The WPA does not truthfully belong in this work. A reader of someone as obscure as Landon Carter is familiar with slavery’s overview; and these oral testimonies found from the 1930s are gratuitous; especially since the book began with Carter’s sledgehammer approaches to the master-slave relationship with the Eight. By page 200; the book becomes sprawling in that it’s not linear and topics are repeated. Carter’s use of chains and whips and search parties and his close scrutiny of the workers and their overseers speak for itself; without a comparison to verify it. He was; however; never recorded by his diary to go to the ultimate extreme of executing a slave; nor did he practice the habit of breaking up families. The story of Tony; very vivid and drawn out by frustration; is on page 210. I also marked the name of Philip Fithian; “a tutor who kept a diary in the household of Councillor Robert Carter; Landon’s nephew; living only ten miles to the north of Sabine Hall.†Although Landon Carter never is said to sexually repress his slaves; Robert; or his eldest son; was “having a sexual liaison with a slave girlâ€. Pages 266 to 281 are the most densely marked pages in the book. This is more of Winifred and Robert Wormeley; and the father’s great frustration at the downfall; by cards; of the younger generation. For a man who stood so much against equality; he lived and died from a syndrome of stubbornness with most everyone he could meet.11 of 12 people found the following review helpful. More than the title suggestsBy Jon L AlbeeThis book isn't as popular as it should be because the title makes it seem something of a dry academic tome and; let's face it; Landon Carter doesn't have the popular name recognition of Alexander Hamilton (i.e. Chernow); George Washington (i.e. Ellis) or Benjamin Franklin (i.e. Wood).The star of the show in this case is Carter himself rather than the author. Dr. Isaac does a wonderful job of framing and interpreting Carter's diary to make a coherent analysis of the profound social changes which occurred during the Revolutionary period. Carter was a first hand witness to the transformation of the American society from a rigid colonial society based on patronage to a participatory; republican society in which people made lives for themselves. The transformation is nothing less than a journey of existential self-discovery for Carter; which is something ANY person can appreciate. So this book is not just a biography of a member of the Virginia planter aristocracy; but a reflection of the undermining of the feudal; patriarchal social structure Americans largely rejected during the Revolution. And it illustrates that the highly dualistic interpretation of Americans of the period as either "patriot" or "loyalist" is largely a modern historical construct with little basis in truth. Marvelous work by one of the foremost historians of American colonial history.
