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Friend or Foe?
This photograph, taken by Alexander Gardner a few weeks after the battle, shows President Abraham Lincoln conferring with General George McClellan, commander of Union forces at Antietam. Commander-in-Chief Lincoln spent four days visiting Union troops and the wounded of both sides. Lincoln wanted McClellan to chase and destroy Robert E. Lee's tired and battered army.
McClellan's failure to pursue Lee into Virginia eventually cost him his job. Lincoln relieved him of command one day after the fall Congressional elections. His military career over, McClellan turned to politics and ran against Lincoln for the presidency in 1864. Lincoln, the war president, won reelection in a landslide. |