The Battle of Antietam

By the 1850s, there were many economic and political differences between the Northern and Southern states in America. The biggest difference was over the issue of slavery. The South's economy depended upon slaves to work the plantations that grew crops such as tobacco and cotton. In the North, slavery was illegal. When Abraham Lincoln, an antislavery candidate, was elected president in 1860, the South believed that their way of life would be destroyed. Soon after, South Carolina seceded, or left, the Union. More Southern states followed. They formed the Confederate States of America, a separate government. Anger built between the two sides. Finally, on April 12, 1861, Southern forces bombed Fort Sumter in South Carolina. Over the next four years, many bloody battles were fought, but none more terrible than the Battle of Antietam on September 17, 1862. On that day, more than 23,000 American soldiers were killed or wounded-more than on any other day in U.S. history. Book jacket.