The Long Road to Antietam: How the Civil War Became a Revolution

THE LONG ROAD TO ANTIETAM: How Civil War Became Revolution Richard Slotkin, Liveright Publishing Corporation New York, 2012, 478 pages, $32.95 BEYOND THE STRATEGIC premises surrounding Battle of Antietam on 17 September 1862, eminent historian Richard Slotkin has given us an outstanding operational and tactical chronicle of warfare in Virginia and Maryland campaigns of American Civil War. The campaigns immediately led up to Antietam, whose significance lies not in battle itself, in campaign that produced it. Slotkin's narratives of maneuver and combat are enthralling and make up most of book. This is no dry academic narrative. Slotkin bolsters his book with concise explanations of battlefield tactics and pre-Antietam strategy that had been at an impasse for Union, due in part to vehemence of Confederacy in their commitment to secession. Why another book on battle covered comprehensively by other historians an untold number of times in past? As Slotkin explains, his new study shows clearly how Civil War was a genuinely revolutionary crisis in American history. This was because of two monumental actions in history of United States: President Lincoln settled question of civil over military authority, and post-Antietam Emancipation Proclamation. The U.S. government went from war of compromise and appeasement of Confederacy to one of total victory through strategic offensive against South. Undeniably, the Union could not be saved unless [Lincoln]. ... put slavery on path to ultimate extinction. The changes wrought by Proclamation would indeed be revolutionary, for Lincoln had negated fundamental law of slavery, augmenting Proclamation through nationwide suspension of habeas corpus that put even civilian dissenters at risk of arrest for fomenting anti-Proclamation sentiment. The effects of Proclamation did not simply hold civil implications but national military ones as well, for it undermined Southern economy and social order by drawing large numbers of slaves away from their plantations. Black men were recruited into Union military forces. Integral to Slotkin's thesis is contention between Lincoln and his top field commander, George McClellan--a political general par excellence who'd take no risks in battle if it might have adversely affected his own anti-Lincoln political goals. …