Two days after the bloodiest single day of the Civil War at Antietam, Confederate rearguard forces under General Lee turned to face pursuing Union troops at Boteler's Ford on the Potomac. The clash allowed Lee's battered army to complete its withdrawal into Virginia, effectively closing the Maryland Campaign and giving President Lincoln the battlefield momentum he needed to issue the Emancipation Proclamation days later.
After the staggering casualties of Antietam on September 17, Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia began withdrawing across the Potomac River under cover of darkness. General George McClellan, cautious as ever despite having a badly wounded enemy in retreat, sent a limited pursuit force under General Porter across the river at Boteler's Ford near Shepherdstown.
On September 19 and 20, Confederate artillery and infantry under A.P. Hill turned to counterattack, driving several Union regiments—including inexperienced Pennsylvania recruits—back into the river in a chaotic scramble that drowned some soldiers under fire. It was a sharp, costly coda to a campaign whose real significance lay elsewhere: Lee's failed invasion of the North gave Lincoln the tactical justification to announce, five days later, his preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, transforming the war's purpose and its diplomatic stakes in Europe.
Key people: Robert E. Lee, George B. McClellan