Jim Murphy

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Published by: Margaret K. McElderry Books
Release Date: July 7, 2009
Pages: 112
ISBN13: ‎ 978-0689876332

 
Overview

In September 1862, two great Civil War armies faced each other across tiny Antietam Creek. General Robert E. Lee’s Confederate Army found itself vastly outnumbered, with retreat all but cut off by the Potomac River. His opponent was General George McClellan, who worried constantly that Lee would outfox him and annihilate his Union Army.

As the sun rose that morning, none of the soldiers knew that they were about to take part in an epic battle that would prove to be the bloodiest day in American history. Nor could they know that the future of millions of men, women, and children held in slavery hung in the balance while, in Washington, D.C., President Abraham Lincoln waited for the right moment to issue his Emancipation Proclamation. From that day onward, the phrase “All men are created equal” would take on a new and powerful meaning.

Using archival photographs, maps, and numerous first-person accounts, this book will sweep young readers into the chaos and confusion of battle – shoulder-to-shoulder with the generals and the soldiers who fought it. The result is a gritty, utterly engaging look at the battle that changed the lives of its combatants and the United States forever.

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Praise and Awards

An ALA Best Book for 2010
A Junior Literary Guild Selection
Bank Street Best Books of the Year
CBC/NCSS Notable Social Studies Trade Book
Kirkus Best Young Adult Books of the Year
YASLA Amazing Audio books for 2011

“A stirring and well-researched addition to Civil War shelves.”
—Booklist (starred)

“What makes this impassioned volume speak –literally– are the many primary-source quotations of those involved. The author deftly develops his characters, most notably the stubborn, vainglorious McClellan, whose inadequate intelligence and low regard for his commander-in-chief led him to botch the campaign and arguably prolong the war. Grand.”
—Kirkus (starred)

“It is terrible to march slowly into danger, and see and feel each second your chance at death is surer than it was the second before.” These words from a Union office begin to provide some reckoning of the horror that was the 1862 Battle of Antietam, which surely changed the course of the Civil War and provided Lincoln the opportunity to issue the Emancipation Proclamation. Murphy provides readers with a lucid and compelling narrative…From the drama that unfolded in the cornfield to the brutal confrontation on the sunken road, the unflinching prose compels readers forward in anticipation of the events yet to unfold…An outstanding account of a battle that was truly “a savage thunder.”
—School Library Journal (starred)