Completed in the early 1900s, The Maryland Campaign of September 1862 is still the essential source for anyone seeking understanding of the bloodiest day in all of American history. As the U.S. War Department’s official expert on the Battle of Antietam, Ezra Carman corresponded with and interviewed hundreds of other veterans from both sides of the conflict to produce a comprehensive history of the campaign that dashed the Confederacy’s best hope for independence and ushered in the Emancipation Proclamation. Nearly a century after its completion, Carman's manuscript has finally made its way into print, in an attractively packaged one-volume edition painstakingly edited, annotated, and indexed by Joseph Pierro. This edition, the first to publish the entire Carman manuscript, including the fifteen appendices, is designed for ease of use, with standardized punctuation and spelling, and conveniently footnoted explanations wherever necessary. The Maryland Campaign of September 1862 is a crucial document for anyone interested in delving below the surface of the military campaign that forever altered the course of American history, and is still the only complete edition of Carman's work on the market. **Due to an unfortunate case of mistaken identity, the man currently appearing in the frontispiece of The Maryland Campaign of September, 1862 is not the actual Ezra Carman, but someone who looks remarkably similar to him. The real Mr. Carman can be found at: http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/cwp2003001783/PP/. We apologize for the mistake, and will correct this error in further printings.

The definitive soldier’s-eye view of the Battle of Antietam—the bloodiest day in American history. A veteran of the Battle of Antietam, Ezra A. Carman served as a colonel of the 13th New Jersey Infantry. After the horrific fighting of September 17, 1862, he recorded in his diary that he was preparing “a good map of the Antietam battle and a full account of the action.” Unbeknownst to the young officer, the project would become the most significant work of his life. Appointed as the “Historical Expert” to the Antietam Battlefield Board in 1894, Carman solicited accounts from hundreds of veterans, scoured through thousands of letters and maps, and assimilated the material into the hundreds of cast iron tablets that still mark the field today. Carman also wrote an 1,800-page manuscript on the campaign. Although it remained unpublished for more than a century, many historians and students of the war consider it to be the best overall treatment of the campaign ever written. Dr. Thomas G. Clemens, recognized internationally as one of the foremost historians of the Maryland Campaign, has spent more than two decades studying Antietam and editing and richly annotating Carman’s exhaustively written manuscript. The result is The Maryland Campaign of September 1862, Carman’s magisterial account published for the first time in two volumes. Jammed with firsthand accounts, personal anecdotes, maps, photos, a biographical dictionary, and a database of veterans’ accounts of the fighting, this long-awaited study will be read and appreciated as battle history at its finest.

On title page and cover a star is used for the second letter "[a]" in campaigns.

"America's bloodiest day"—the Battle of Antietam on September 17, 1862—left more dead American soldiers in its wake than any other 24-hour period in history. Antietam and the related battles of the Maryland Campaign that led up to the lethal confrontation did not result in decisive defeats for either side. But they did serve as a brutal warning to an out-gunned, out-commanded, and out-organized Union army. Eyewitness accounts by battle participants make these guides an invaluable resource for travelers and nontravelers who want a greater understanding of five of the most devastating yet influential years in our nation's history. Explicit directions to points of interest and maps—illustrating the action and showing the detail of troop position, roads, rivers, elevations, and tree lines as they were 130 years ago—help bring the battles to life. In the field, these guides can be used to recreate each battle's setting and proportions, giving the reader a sense of the tension and fear each soldier must have felt as he faced his enemy.

The Eighth Connecticut Infantry was one of the longest-serving Union volunteer regiments in the Civil War and saw action throughout the Eastern Theater, from Burnside's expedition in North Carolina to the battles at Antietam, Fredericksburg, Cold Harbor and Petersburg, and campaigns throughout Virginia. Drawing on soldiers' letters and diaries, this first-ever regimental history of the Eighth chronicles four years of combat service, with maps newly created from historical accounts.

Pulitzer Prize-winning historian McPherson offers a masterful portrait of the bloodiest single day in American history, the Battle of Antietam, fought on September 17, 1862.

The Battle of Shepherdstown and the End of the Campaign is the third and final volume of Ezra Carman’s magisterial The Maryland Campaign of September 1862. As bloody and horrific as the battle of Antietam was, historian Ezra Carman—who penned a 1,800-page manuscript on the Maryland campaign—did not believe it was the decisive battle of the campaign. Generals Robert E. Lee and George B. McClellan intended to continue fighting after Sharpsburg, but the battle of Shepherdstown Ford (September 19 and 20) forced them to abandon their goals and end the campaign. Carman was one of the few who gave this smaller engagement its due importance, detailing the disaster that befell the 118th Pennsylvania Infantry and Maj. Gen. A. P. Hill’s success in repulsing the Union advance, and the often overlooked foray of Jeb Stuart’s cavalry to seize the Potomac River ford at Williamsport. Carman also added a statistical study of the casualties in the various battles of the entire Maryland Campaign, and covered Lincoln’s decision to relieve McClellan of command on November 7. He also explored the relations between President Lincoln and General McClellan before and after the Maryland Campaign, which he appended to his original manuscript. The “before” section, a thorough examination of the controversy about McClellan’s role in the aftermath of Second Manassas campaign, will surprise some and discomfort others, and includes an interesting narrative about McClellan’s reluctance to commit General Franklin’s corps to aid Maj. Gen. John Pope’s army at Manassas. Carman concludes with an executive summary of the entire campaign. Dr. Clemens concludes Carman’s invaluable narrative with a bibliographical dictionary (and genealogical goldmine) of the soldiers, politicians, and diplomats who had an impact on shaping Carman’s manuscript. While many names will be familiar to readers, others upon whom Carman relied for creating his campaign narrative are as obscure to us today as they were during the war. The Maryland Campaign of September 1862, Vol. III: The Battle of Shepherdstown and the End of the Campaign, concludes the most comprehensive and detailed account of the campaign ever produced. Jammed with firsthand accounts, personal anecdotes, detailed footnotes, maps, and photos, this long-awaited study will be appreciated as Civil War history at its finest.

Discover a forgotten chapter of American history with Steven Cowie's riveting account of the Battle of Antietam. The Battle of Antietam, fought in and around Sharpsburg, Maryland, on September 17, 1862, was the bloodiest day in American history. Despite the large number of books and articles on the subject, the battle’s horrendous toll on area civilians is rarely discussed. When Hell Came to Sharpsburg: The Battle of Antietam and Its Impact on the Civilians Who Called It Home by Steven Cowie rectifies this oversight. By the time the battle ended about dusk that day, more than 23,000 men had been killed, wounded, or captured in just a dozen hours of combat—a grim statistic that tells only part of the story. The epicenter of that deadly day was the small community of Sharpsburg. Families lived, worked, and worshipped there. It was their home. And the horrific fighting turned their lives upside down. When Hell Came to Sharpsburg investigates how the battle and opposing armies wreaked emotional, physical, and financial havoc on the people of Sharpsburg. For proper context, the author explores the savage struggle and its gory aftermath and explains how soldiers stripped the community of resources and spread diseases. Cowie carefully and meticulously follows the fortunes of individual families like the Mummas, Roulettes, Millers, and many others—ordinary folk thrust into harrowing circumstances—and their struggle to recover from their unexpected and often devastating losses. Cowie’s comprehensive study is grounded in years of careful research. He unearthed a trove of previously unused archival accounts and examined scores of primary sources such as letters, diaries, regimental histories, and official reports. Packed with explanatory footnotes, original maps, and photographs, Cowie’s richly detailed book is a must-read for those seeking new information on the battle and the perspective of the citizens who suffered because of it. Antietam’s impact on the local community was an American tragedy, and it is told here completely for the first time.