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Who were the commanding generals for the Union and Confederacy during the Battle of Antietam?
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Battle of Antietam
Confederate dead by a fence on the Hagerstown road, Antietam, Maryland, photo by Alexander Gardner, September 1862. The Battle of Antietam was one of the costliest of the Civil War.
During the Battle of Antietam, the commanding generals were Union General George B. McClellan and Confederate General Robert E. Lee. The battle, fought on September 17, 1862, was the culmination of Lee's first invasion of the North and is known as the bloodiest single day in American military history. McClellan's cautious approach and overestimation of Lee's forces have been criticized, while Lee's army, though outnumbered, fought tenaciously. The Union victory at Antietam halted the Confederate advance into Maryland and provided President Lincoln the opportunity to issue the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation.12