General McClellan reported his entire loss at 12,469, of whom 2,010 were killed. General Lee reported his total loss in the Maryland battles as 1,567 killed and 8,724 wounded, saying nothing of the missing; but the figures given by his division commanders foot up 1,842 killed, 9,399 wounded, and 2,292 missing--total, 13,533. If McClellan's report is correct, even this statement falls short of the truth. He says: "About 2,700 of the enemy's dead were counted and buried upon the battlefield of Antietam. A portion of their dead had been previously buried by the enemy." If the wounded were in the usual proportion, this would indicate Confederate casualties to the extent of at least 15,000 on that field alone. But whatever the exact number may have been, the battle was bloody enough to produce mourning and lamentation from Maine to Louisiana. It was the bloodiest day's work of the whole war. The battles of Shiloh, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Chickamauga, the Wilderness, and Spottsylvania were each more costly, but none of them was fought in a single day. Nothing was done on the 18th, and when McClellan determined to renew the attack on the 19th he found that his enemy had withdrawn from the field and crossed to Virginia by the ford at Shepherdstown. The National commander reported the capture of more than six thousand prisoners, thirteen guns, and thirty-nine battle-flags, and that he had not lost a gun or a color. As he was also in possession of the field, where the enemy left all their dead and two thousand of their wounded, and had rendered Lee's invasion fruitless of anything but the prisoners carried off from Harper's Ferry, the victory was his. [Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL JOHN GIBBON.] [Illustration: BREVET MAJOR-GENERAL MARSENA R. PATRICK.] [Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL G. W. MORELL.] [Illustration] {181} [Illustration: THE PRIMARY CAUSES OF THE WAR--THE NEGRO AND COTTON.] CHAPTER XVI. EMANCIPATION. _This Chapter is illustrated with portraits of early abolitionists, and Virginia officials at the time of the celebrated John Brown Raid._ LINCOLN'S ATTITUDE TOWARD SLAVERY--McCLELLAN'S ATTITUDE--THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY'S ATTITUDE--PREDICTIONS BY THE POETS--SLAVES DECLARED CONTRABAND--ACTION OF FRÉMONT--HUNTER'S PROCLAMATION--BLACKS FIRST ENLISTED--DIVISION OF SENTIMENT IN THE ARMY--MARYLAND ABOLISHES SLAVERY--THE PRESIDENT AND HORACE GREELEY CORRESPOND ON THE SUBJECT--EMANCIPATION PROCLAIMED--AUTUMN ELECTIONS--ABOLITION OF SLAVERY IN DELAWARE, KENTUCKY, AND MISSOURI--THE FINAL PROCLAMATION--THE RIGHT OF THE PRESIDENT TO DECLARE THE SLAVES FREE.