The Battle of Antietam was not just the bloodiest single day of the war; it was the bloodiest day in the history of the United States Army. Beginning at dawn, the fighting continued for twelve hours between the invading soldiers of Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia and George B. McCellan’s Army of the Potomac. This high-water mark of the Confederacy’s 1862 offensive in the eastern theater of operations ended with both armies exhausted, Lee returning to Virginia and McCellan’s reputation ruined.

Antietam: The Soldiers’ Battle is about the individuals who fought in that battle: their combat, heroism, and death. After ten years of researching and writing, the author provides fact-filled drama, capturing the bravery, cowardice, pathos, and humor of the soldiers and civilians caught up in the war. With its 72 detailed maps created especially for this book and its illustrations rarely seen elsewhere, no student of Civil War combat, the enlisted man, or the Civil War in Maryland can afford to miss this study.