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1862 Battle of Antietam [Battle of Sharpsburg], bloodiest day in the American Civil War 23,110 die in first battle on Union soil.

To say that it was union territory is a bit of a misnomer. Maryland was a 'slave state' with strong Southern leanings...however the long border with decidedly northern Pennsylvania, deemed indefensible, gave pause to outright joining the Confederacy by 'sensible' Maryland politicos. Similary afflicted, West Virginia would be forged out of Virginia's decidedly pro union counties creating a separate state.. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maryland_in_the_American_Civil_War The actual butcher's bill at Antietam breaks down thusly: 22,717 dead, wounded, or missing. The Union had 12,410 casualties with 2,108 dead. Confederate casualties were 10,316 with 1,546 dead This represented 25% of the Federal force and 31% of the Confederate. Of the other casualties, 1,910 Union and 1,550 Confederate troops died of their wounds soon after the battle, while 225 Union and 306 Confederate troops listed as missing were later confirmed as dead.<The disastrous bloody Lane Imho: The thin victory is the actual turning point of the Civil War. Lincoln used it to issue the Emancipation Proclamation; focusing the moral and political aspect of the conflict thus preventing the Confederacy from gaining useful European economic allies from European nations with rising worker-political movements in a perceived 'war against slavery'... The political masterstroke of his career: Money is the $inew$ of war which is itself 'politics by other means'-Lincoln solved both the economic and political/moral issue at a single stroke. Lee's second march north??!!, in 1863, would end at Gettysburg, Penn...a disastrous finishing stroke initiating two year's more misery of retreats and seigecraft, finally ending at Appomattox.