Antietam marks a clear turning point in the strategic fortunes of the Confederacy in its struggle for independence. During the spring and summer months of 1862, the resurgent southern forces enjoyed an unbroken string of successes, reversing the Union’s tide of victories in the early part of the year. In the Western Theater, the euphoric victories at Forts Donaldson and Henry and at Shiloh, had given way to stalemate.
Meanwhile, in the East, Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson had humiliated several Federals armies in his brilliant Shenandoah Valley campaign and General George McClellan’s drive on Richmond had ended in bloody failure. In the latter campaign, a new Confederate hero had emerged – Robert E. Lee – and having taken command of the South’s principal field army, he was anxious to press his advantage. There was dissension in the Union high command and no one seemed able to face the growing power of Lee’s magnificent Army of Northern Virginia.
Robert E. Lee, Commander, Confederate Army of Northern Virginia
On the political front, during the spring and summer of 1862, the major European powers - especially England - were following events on the battlefield closely. Pressure was building for intervention in the dispute as “honest brokers,” thus effectively supporting the Confederate States’ claim to sovereignty.
Abraham Lincoln’s plan to free the slaves, and elevate the struggle to a higher moral plain, was hostage to the Union’s battlefield fortunes, and they looked increasingly bleak. Still worse, mid-term Congressional elections in November might signal a repudiation of the administration's strategy and a register a negative vote of confidence in its leadership.
At the end of August, John Pope - a hero of the West - had led the Union Army of Virginia to bloody failure for the second time along Bull Run creek near Manassas, Virginia. To restore confidence to the badly shaken and demoralized troops, Lincoln recalled the controversial McClellan who quickly re-organized his beloved Army of the Potomac.
George B. McCllelan, Commander, Union Army of the Potomac
At the beginning of September, Robert E. Lee, seeing the opportunity to score a decisive military and political victory, headed north into Maryland, hoping to defeat McClellan again, - this time on Union soil – thereby precipitating a crisis that would end the war and establish Southern independence.
The Battle of Antietam offers a rich environment for an experiential training experience where war functions as a metaphor for competitive conflict. The complex interplay of political and economic factors, personality conflicts, rapidly changing organizational alignments, and desperate choices provides a dramatic setting for examining decison-making under the most critical and dynamic circumstances imaginable.
