Except for the part about being outnumbered two or three to one, or about being beaten. Lee was forced to retreat and return to Viginia. His goal of attracting Maryland recruits to his army was a failure. And most importantly it showed to the European powers that the Union was not on the verge of defeat, thus ending forever what slim hope of foreign recognition there had been. By all accounts Antietam wound up being a disaster for the confederacy.
‘Except for the part about being outnumbered two or three to one, or about being beaten. Lee was forced to retreat and return to Viginia. His goal of attracting Maryland recruits to his army was a failure. And most importantly it showed to the European powers that the Union was not on the verge of defeat, thus ending forever what slim hope of foreign recognition there had been. By all accounts Antietam wound up being a disaster for the confederacy.’
Military historians throughout time since the battle disagree with your assertions.
While the ‘invasion’ did not acheive all that Lee had hoped, it did in fact end any Union effort that year to ‘march on Richmond’. The Union army was so staggered by the battle it lay quite for months afterwards.
Second, it shook the Union Army’s leadership to its core, caused the beginning of what can be described as a low intensity ‘mutiny’ of sorts.
Third, it gave Democrats plenty to crow about on the floors of both the House and Senate reminicent of what we are seeing from General Pelosi and Dingy Harry Reid today.
You assert it caused Europe to forget considering intervening on the CSA side. This is also incorrect, as most the major works about the era demonstrate conclusively. That didn’t come about til the following summer (1863) in the wake of Gettysburg.
Finally, about the ‘retreat’. Lee held his position along Antietam creek for another 24 hours, watching and waiting. The Union army didn’t attack, didn’t move. Given the ground itself was meaningless from a strategic viewpoint, holding it was by definition meaningless as well.
Objective people view the battle what it was, a draw. And a prime example of the failure of Union leadership that kept what should have been a year long conflict alive for four bloody years.
‘Except for the part about being outnumbered two or three to one, ‘
btw, that was accurate, and it was closer to ‘3 - 1’.