What advantages did the North have over the South during the Battle of Antietam?

Answer 1

The battle of Antietam, September 17, 1862 was declared a Union victory merely because the Confederate army retreated from the field during the evening of September 18th. In actuality it was a draw with both sides sustaining huge casualties and neither side clearly defeating the other. It was common during the 19th century for an army to declare victory after an enemy quit the field regardless of the damage inflicted to their own ranks. The victor of Antietam is still a subject for debate among historians and aficionados of the war.

Answer 2

The main advantage possessed by the North at Antietam was in numbers. Union forces outnumbered Confederate by about three to one, 105,000 to 35,000. The Union commander, McClellan, squandered this advantage by never even trying to get all his men into the battle, and by making three separate attacks at different places along the Rebel lines, at widely spaced intervals, allowing Lee to move men into place to meet each new threat. Basically the battle was fought as three separate battles. It was a desperate situation for the Rebels and they were extremely hard-pressed to hang on against each of these attacks, but McClellan never followed up to grasp the success that was within reach, each time instead shifting his effort to a new area. McClellan had seven corps of the Army of the Potomac on the field, and two of them never fired a shot all day. One, single well-organized attack all along the line, using even the fraction of the force McClellan actually employed that day, would likely have won the battle, and the war.

Another advantage was that Lee fought with the Potomac River at his back, and the River was swollen from recent torrential rains, and only fordable at the shallowest of fords, which were neck deep with swift flowing currents at the time. This meant effectively that the Confederates had no line of retreat in case the day went against them, and if their line broke the fugitives could be rounded up on the bank of the River. This would have meant the complete annihilation of Lee's army. Lee's men were mostly veteran soldiers and were aware of this fact, but they had great confidence in Lee's judgment and ability, and probably fought all the harder knowing there was no getting away if defeated. Lee's decision to fight there at Antietam Creek, in violation of the accepted rules of military operations, which counsel that an army should never fight with a river at its back, showed the lack of regard, even contempt, that Lee had for McClellan's abilities as a combat general.

Another advantage for the north in the campaign, while not actually giving an edge on the battlefield itself, was the "Lost Order". This was a copy of Lee's orders to his subordinate commanders, found by Union troops and swiftly taken to McClellan at his headquarters. This order showed the location of all parts of Lee's command, which were spread out all over western Maryland, Pennsylvania, and western Virginia. With this information if McClellan had moved rapidly he could have defeated "in detail" each scattered fragment of Lee's army, eventually gobbling up the whole. McClellan understood this incredible stroke of good fortune, exclaiming when the paper was delivered to him "Here is a paper with which if I cannot beat Bobby Lee, I am willing to go home!" Nevertheless McClellan did not get his army into motion until the next day, giving Lee time to call in his scattered forces and concentrate for battle behind Antietam Creek. Lee later said of those circumstances "Only McClellan could have failed to move." The "Lost Order" is still controversial to this day, and was an especially bitter subject just after the war, as former Confederate officers wrote their books, blaming one another for losing the war.

Though Lincoln was a military amateur when the war began, he was a rapid learner. He understood the chance McClellan had possessed to win the war that day at Sharpsburg. Lincoln said "He had them in the palm of his hand, and all he had to do was close his fingers" and it would all have been over. Instead another two and one-half years of slaughter would be required to bring the war to an end.

Answer 3

Union General McClellan had a copy of Lee's battle plan.