It came in September of 1862 at Antietam and after the battle Lincoln released the Proclamation.

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The preliminary Proclamation was signed on September 22, 1862, after the Union victory at Antietam.

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President Lincoln signed that preliminary order five days after Antietam -- on September 22.

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They were the sort who could tell you how Wellington had outfoxed Napoleon at Waterloo, or what exactly happened at Antietam.

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But this is no partisan screed, any more than a Brady photo of bodies on the Antietam battlefield was pro-Union or pro-Confederacy.

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Lee at Antietam Creek in western Maryland, outside the town of Sharpsburg.

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They found themselves transfixed by the paradoxically lifelike renderings of the slain of Antietam that Mathew Brady exhibited in his studio on Broadway.

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It's too late for a park on the scale of Gettysburg or Antietam, but off the side roads important battlefield fragments still exist, behind split-rail fences, amidst cattle, corn and glistening yellow tobacco leaves.

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Those of you captivated by the war between the states during this 150th anniversary year can also take advantage of this week to visit historic battlegrounds such as Manassas, Chickamauga, Shiloh, Fort Sumter, and Antietam.

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