Robert E. Lee, graduate of West Point and native Virginian succeeded General Johnston as the commander of the Confederate army of Northern Virginia. Lee then led his troops into an invasion of Maryland, in hopes of isolating Washington from the rest of the North. However, McClellan and his Union force caught up with them near Sharpsburg and the most BLOODY battle on one SINGLE DAY of the war occurred (at Antietam, on September 17) during which nearly five thousand men were killed on the two sides and more than eighteen thousand were wounded.
Result: a tie, but Lee was fall back to Potomac to protect his way-too-extended supply lines ans Lincoln blamed McClellan for being too much of a slowpoke and letting Lee escape.
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