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[[File:abeantietam.jpg|thumbnail|300px|left|President Lincoln with General McClellan at Antietam, October 1862]]
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Gettysburg, perhaps the most renowned battle of the American Civil War, was the second incursion of Confederate troops onto Union soil. The first offensive in the North taken by General Robert E. Lee and his Army of Northern Virginia resulted in the Battle of Antietam. On September 17, 1862, Lee’s troops met Union forces, under the command of General George B. McClellan, in Sharpsburg, Maryland. In this one poignant moment in time, American history was forever altered. If Gettysburg was the most significant battle in terms of scope, Antietam (Sharpsburg to Southerners) was the most pivotal with respect to the aims of the war.