This is the first installment of a TL that is basicly a confederate win-TL gone haywire. The TL will be written from the POV of books and other media from ATL so the exact POD is hard to pin down. So part 1 of 2 about the Battle of Sharpsburg.
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A Southern History of the Civil War
Chapter #8: Maryland Campaign
by James Parker. Used with permission.
To understand American History no one point in time is more important than the Battle of Sharpsburg, or as Northerners refer to it, the Battle of Antietam. It was undoubtably a moment that would change the very course of the geopolitical situation in the North American Continent and cause the so called "Secession Effect" that led to the unique structure of Americian Nations.
The Maryland Campaign began when General Lee led the Army of Northern Virginia into Maryland in an attempt to win over confederate sympathizers in the state into joining the Confederacy. Unfortunatly for Lee the sound of Maryland, My Maryland from Confederate bands did not win over the hearts of Marylanders quite as easily as he had thought.
Despite failure in his original purpose Lee improvised and decided that an offensive into Maryland could be strategicly useful, After all Confederate President Jefferson Davis had himself thought such an offensive would win over foreign support from Britan and France. Moving quickly Lee divided his forces into three groups. The first and largest of which would be led by Lee himself to Seize Sharpsburg and establish a defensive position there. The Second led by Stonewall Jackson would Attack the Union Garrison at Harper's Ferry. Finally a third group would take Hagerstown and set up defense in the Blue Ridge Mountains.
While all this was occuring events in Washington DC were unfolding to Union Commander General McClellen's disavantage. He knew that the Army of Northern Virginia was somewhere nearby but feared exposing his army to assault, so against better judgement he foolishly remained turtled in the nest of defensive fortifications around Washington.
Undoubtably if McClellen had attacked Lee while the Confederate army was split up he would have defeated the Southern Army and stopped Lee's March from ever occuring. Yet foolishly McClellen did not even act once confirmed reports ofa Union surrender at Harper's Ferry were coming in from Union scouts. Only after several, long hours did McClellen consider marching the Army of the Potomac towards Sharpsburg.
Once McClellen finnaly mobilized Union and Confederate forces met at the Battle of South Mountain. Nearly fifty thousand troops met at the strategic passes through the Blue Ridge Mountains and battled viciously. Though there were some in Lee's Command who thought that retreating Southern forces from South Mountain to Sharpsburg would be the best course of action General Lee made a brillant and bold move by deciding to maintain defenses in the Mountains to wear down the enemy force.
At the end of the first night of the Battle of South Mountain confederate troops still held two of the three of the vital mountain passes that led to Sharpsburg. Despite this victory Lee had lost the third pass, Crampton's Gap and it had become a Union foothold that would pester Lee's force for the rest of the campaign. Even with this setback Lee persisted and held the other passes one more day before his battle weary soldiers marched back to the main group of soldiers at Sharpsburg.