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== Lee's Retreat ==
[[File:Battle_of_Antietam.png|thumbnail|250px|left|The Battle of Antietam.]]
At ten o’clock on the night of September 14, the first Confederate troops made their way down the slope of South Mountain. Lee’s plans for a triumphant northern invasion withered as the sun rose. Just at that hour, a courier General Jackson had dispatched the previous evening reached Lee in Sharpsburg with the news that Harpers Ferry was on the brink of surrender and that Jackson’s troops would be free to support Lee and Longstreet. Upon hearing this news, Lee altered his plans to retreat and informed his generals, “We will make our stand on these hills.”<ref>Joseph L. Harsh, ''Taken at the Flood: Robert E. Lee and Confederate Strategy in the Maryland Campaign of 1862'' (Kent, OH: Kent State University Press, 1999), 305.</ref>
The hills of which he spoke overlooked Antietam Creek in Sharpsburg, Maryland, which was the location of the single bloodiest day in U.S. military history. If several events had been altered at South Mountain, it is likely that the Battle of Antietam may never have taken place. If, for example, McClellan had acted with greater haste after intercepting Lee’s Special Orders No. 191, the Federals might have reached the South Mountain gaps prior to the Confederates gaining knowledge that McClellan was organizing his men for an assault.
The importance of the Battle of South Mountain cannot be overstated. This event was the first battle of the American Civil War fought on northern soil. Although at the end of the day Confederate troops still help the actual pass at Turner’s Gap, the battle was a resounding victory for the Union. If McClellan’s troops had actively chased Lee’s men into Sharpsburg rather than having passively followed them, the Battle of Antietam may have been avoided. By affording Lee’s troops the opportunity to convene in Sharpsburg and receive the message from Jackson that the siege at Harpers Ferry had gone in the favor of the Confederacy, McClellan provided Lee with a second chance; something no commander should ever have done.
== Conclusion ==
