22. General Lee crossed the Potomac, and on the 6th of September captured Frederick. On the 10th Hagerstown was taken, and on the 15th Stonewall Jackson seized Harper's Ferry, with nearly twelve thousand prisoners. On the previous day, there was a hard-fought engagement at South Mountain, in which the Federals were victorious. McClellan's army was now in the rear of Lee, who fell back to Antietam Creek and took a strong position near Sharpsburg. Then followed two days of skirmishing, which terminated on the 17th in one of the great battles of the war. From morning until night the struggle continued with unabated violence, and ended in a drawn battle, after a loss of more than ten thousand men on each side. Lee withdrew his forces from the field and recrossed the Potomac. [Sidenote: Fredericksburg.] 23. General McClellan moved forward to Rectortown, Virginia. Here he was superseded by General Burnside, who changed the plan of the campaign, and advanced against Fredericksburg. At this place the two armies were again brought face to face. Burnside's movement was delayed, and it was not until the 12th of December that a passage could be effected. Meanwhile, the heights south of the river had been fortified, and the Union columns were hurled back in several desperate assaults which cost the assailants more than twelve thousand men. Thus in disaster to the Federal cause ended the campaigns of 1862. CHAPTER XLVIII. THE EVENTS OF 1863. The war had now grown to enormous proportions. The Confederate States were draining every resource of men and means. The superior energies of the North were greatly taxed. On the day after the battle of Malvern Hill, President Lincoln issued a call for three hundred thousand troops. During Pope's retreat from the Rappahannock he sent forth another call for three hundred thousand, and to that was added a draft of three hundred thousand more. Most of these demands were promptly met, and it became evident that in resources the Federal government was vastly superior to the Confederacy. [Sidenote: The Emancipation Proclamation.] 2. On the 1st day of January, 1863, the President issued the EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION. The war had been begun with no well-defined intention to free the slaves of the South. But during the progress of the war the sentiment of abolition had grown with great rapidity; and when at last it became a military necessity to strike a blow at the labor-system of the South, the step was taken with but little opposition. Thus, after an existence of two hundred and forty-four years, African slavery in the United States was swept away. 3. Early in January General Sherman dispatched an expedition to capture Arkansas Post, on the Arkansas River. The Union forces reached their destination on the 10th of the month, fought a battle with the Confederates and gained a victory. On the next day the post was surrendered with nearly five thousand prisoners.