The Battle of Antietam (1862)
Another argument for importance goes to the Battle of Antietam, and there are many reasons why. The most convincing is that it set the stage for President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. The President did not want to announce the Proclamation until after a Union victory in a major battle. The battle of Antietam was just enough of a victory to suffice, which led to his initial Proclamation in September of 1862. The official Executive Order the freed all Southern slaves didn’t actually take effect until the beginning of the next year.
There are other important arguments for Antietam being important in the Civil War as well. It was the bloodiest of all the battles with nearly 24,000 men killed or wounded. Also, importantly, it marked the end of General Robert E. Lee’s first attempt to invade the North. At the time he wanted to entice Maryland, which was a still a slave holding state, to join the Confederacy. He failed, and, with the number of casualties, he decided not to continue any further invasions into Northern territory until the following year.
Interestingly, the battle (and the subsequent signing of the Emancipation Proclamation) prevented the British from interfering in the Civil War even further. They had plans to support the South by recognizing them as a legitimate government. By freeing the slaves, Lincoln prevented that action as the British people were vehemently anti-slavery.
For the South, Antietam marked the beginning of the end, even if they didn’t know it. They would have major victories in the war to come (after all, the war didn’t end for another two and half years), but the dominoes truly started to fall out of their favor in this battle. This is all surprising considering that from a strategic standpoint, this battle was a draw.