On this night, 157 years ago, two great armies faced off against each other...

The Union Army of the Potomac (85,000 strong) and the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia (40,000 strong) rested on the ground around the town of Sharpsburg, Maryland. A swiftly flowing creek, the Antietam, meandered nearby. It was raining that night.

The men huddled together trying to keep warm, perhaps making nervous jokes about the weather or the circumstances which brought them to this place. All of them knew that a great battle would be fought the next day. In later years, the survivors of the horror that was to come on the morning would speak about this night in great detail. Throughout the ranks, from the regimental commanders to the lowliest private, there was a sense that something ominous was afoot in the air. This sense, while surely present on the day before most battles, was unlike anything these men had ever felt before.

On the Union side, George B. McClellan poured over maps in his headquarters, convinced that the Confederate host that faced his army numbered more than 120,000 men in strength. In truth...he outnumbered Robert E. Lee's army by more than 2-to-1 odds. Despite believing himself to be hopelessly outnumbered, McClellan planned to attack the next morning. His plan was to smash Lee's left flank, then his right, before finishing things off in the center.

The man who would receive the first blows from McClellan's attack would be Stonewall Jackson and his weary foot cavalry, just in from a forced march from Harpers Ferry. While he and Lee looked over the camp fires of the Union foe that faced him, Lee couldn't help but remark how many camp fires there were. "Won't be as many of them tomorrow," Jackson replied.

Many historians, especially in recent years, have wondered in their writings why Lee had decided to make a stand at Antietam. He was hopelessly outnumbered and he knew it. He also knew that any break in his line could spell the end of his army. They were backed up against the Potomac River, with only one usable ford to evacuate the army back to Virginia should the worst occur.

The one thing Lee had going for him was the experience of his army compared to his Union counterpart. Every single man in his 40,000-man force was a combat veteran of the Virginia Peninsula and Second Manassas campaigns. The Army of the Potomac featured entire divisions that had never so much as fired their weapons in anger.

Be that as it may, Robert E. Lee was still faced with a precarious situation as September 16, 1862 turned into September 17, 1862. The odds were against him but he believed in his army and had resolved himself to take a stand against the overcautious McClellan. With any luck, his army - with its strong defensive position - could score a brilliant tactical victory come morning.