Confederate and Federal forces clashed at the Battle of Antietam on September 17, 1862, transforming the local community and the nation. Sharpsburg families hid from the carnage, suffering damage to their homes and farms. Bodies and bullets littered the landscape after the war's bloodiest day. Five days after the battle, President Abraham Lincoln issued the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, and the Civil War changed from a struggle for reunification into a war that also aimed to end slavery. Antietam remains a place of reflection and remembrance for the battle and its legacy.