In September 1862, two great armies faced each other across Antietam Creek. The outnumbered Confederate forces were led by General Robert E. Lee. The Union army was led by General George B. McClellan. Jim Murphy uses archival photographs, maps, and firsthand accounts to recreate one of America's most important battles.

When two brothers visit a museum in Harper's Ferry, West Virginia, with their grandmother, they find themselves in a very realistic Civil War setting where they see the Antietam battlefield and meet historical figures from the aftermath of that momentous battle. Includes author's note on the Battle of Antietam.

Describes the events surrounding the bloody confrontation between Union and Confederate troops in the Maryland countryside on September 17, 1862.

In the summer of 1862, after a year of protracted fighting, Abraham Lincoln decided on a radical change of strategy, one that abandoned hope for a compromise peace and committed the nation to all-out war. The centerpiece of that new strategy was the Emancipation Proclamation: an unprecedented use of federal power that would revolutionize Southern society.