The bloodiest single day of the American Civil War took place on September 17, 1862, at the Battle of Antietam in Maryland. More than 22,000 soldiers were killed, wounded, or missing in one day of combat, making it the deadliest single-day battle in American history. Fighting erupted at the Cornfield, the Sunken Road ("Bloody Lane"), and Burnside Bridge. Though tactically inconclusive, the Union's stand gave President Abraham Lincoln the momentum to issue the Emancipation Proclamation, reshaping the war's purpose and the nation's future.
