Description

Easton Press leather edition of Stephen W. Sears's "Landscape Turned Red: The Battle of Antietam," a COLLECTOR'S edition, one of the LIBRARY OF MILITARY HISTORY series, published in 1983. Bound in deep burgundy leather, the book has camel tan moire silk end leaves, satin bookmarker, hubbed spine, acid-free paper, gold gilt on three edges---in FINE condition. On September 17, 1862, the battle waged close to Antietam Creek in Sharpsburg, Maryland took a human toll never exceeded on any other single day in the nation's history. Over 125,000 Americans clashed in a titanic struggle. General ROBERT E. LEE led his rugged soldiers across the Potomac River into Union-held Maryland. Lee's brilliant plan, wrapped around a bundle of cigars, fell into Union hands. When the Army of the Potomac commander GENERAL GEORGE B. MCCLELLAN read the orders and instantly recognized the chance to destroy Lee's army. Union General HOOKER's men opened the battle by attacking Confederates in a cornfield. The Rebels drove the Unionist back. But at Dunkard Church, two of Major General Mansfield's Union division attached Brigadier General JUBAL EARLY's troops and captured the Confederate outpost. At Bloody Lane, Union troops under Major General GUMNER attacked a sunken road, but Confederate General STONEWALL JACKSON's "foot cavalry" arrived and 2,000 Union soldiers died within a matter of minutes. Corpses piled on top of corpses, the battle lines traded volleys. As the sun set on America's most bloody day, Lee's badly battered army was still intact. McClellan, convinced he had won a brilliant victory, allowed Lee's army to escape back across the Potomac and continue America's fratricidal war for another three years. This lapse in military judgment Ultimately cost McClellan his command. On the strength of this victory, President ABRAHAM LINCOLN issued his Emancipation Proclamation, declaring all slaves in the seceding states "forever free." What had started as a war to preserve the Union had become a crusade to free the Black man in America. Stephen Ward Sears was born in 1932 and graduated from Oberlin College. As an author, he has concentrated on the military history of American Civil War, primarily the battles and leaders of the Army of the Potomac. 431 pages, including Appendix with the Armies at Antietam, Sources, a bibliography and an index. I offer combined shipping.