Anietam - Anietam provided the opening the administration required.

o It frustrated Confederate hopes for British recognition and precipitated the Emancipation Proclamation. The slaughter at Sharpsburg therefore proved to have been one of the wars great turning points. - September 1862, Union officers encountered intelligence which confirmed previous information on Lees divisions and locations - Mcclellans forces were indicated to outnumber Lees o 4:1 - Took time marching westward o Allowed Stonewall Jacksons troop to join Lees o Resulting in 75,000: 40,000 (Mcclellan:Lee) - Lee took a defensive position along Anietam Creek - Had Mcclellans three attacksleft, right, and centeroccurred together, Mcclellan would have prevailed - The day was the bloodiest day of the entire civil war - 13,000 confederates and 12,000 union casualties - Battle was a tactical draw - Technical victory for the Union as the confederates vacated the field - Mcclellan had forgotten Lincolns orders to destroy the rebel army - Media recorded and displayed in NYC o Response was electric - Anietam held off European recognition of the Confederacy and any attempt of British mediation - Enabled President Lincoln to push forward with an initiative he had undertaken several months earlier. Lincoln had introduced the first draft of his emancipation proclamation in July 1862 - The deft manipulation of the media would build public sentiment for emancipation so the president would appear to endorse that sentiment rather than being ahead of it.