What was the point of claiming a victory when one side had lost 12,000 men and the other 11,000? At the White House, Abraham Lincoln had no trouble finding meaning in the graveyard of Antietam. On September 22, five days after the battle, he assembled his cabinet and let them in on a secret. He told them he’d made a promise when the Southerners entered Northern territory: if Lee could be driven back across the Potomac, the president would make good on the idea he’d first floated to these advisers in July. “I said nothing to anyone. But I made the promise to myself . . . to my Maker. The rebel
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