To prepare for the CWT Muster at Antietam, I bought James M. McPherson's "Crossroads of Freedom- ANTIETAM; The Battle that Changed the Course of the Civil War" for a mere $5.
Will I read it? Probably NOT.
The book has only 1 chapter on the Battle of Antietam. It covers all the battles of 1862 that leads up to Antietam and then seems to address the impact of the Emancipation Proclamation.
I re-read "Landscape Turned Red" which had almost two chapters dedicated to discussing General McClellan. However, I did enjoy it because of the details of the Battles of Harpers Ferry and South Mountain and of course Sharpsburg.
I like the Stephen Sears (Landscape Turned Red) book on Antietam because I’m a fan of maps in a book. He has six maps of troop movements at Antietam: Daybreak, 6:00-7:30 am, 7:30-9:00, 9-1:00 pm, 10:00-4:30, and Nightfall. These follow the movements of the Federal First, Twelfth, Second and Ninth Corps. The map at Nightfall pretty much sums it up....
The other Antietam book I have and love is the Frassanito one. I think he uses his spectacular selection of photographs to describe the battle, much as Sears did with his use of maps.
In addition to the battlefield and other photographs, he also selects several specific soldiers who died in the battle, along with their portraits and their family bios. Among them are General McClellan’s first cousin, Harrison White ( 28th Pennsylvania), Lt. John Clark ( 7th Michigan ), Charles E. King ( 49th Pennsylvania, who enlisted at twelve yrs.old, and died at thirteen), Lt. John Thomas Gay ( 4th Georgia ). Note on Lt. Gay from the book: he was shot in the chest, shipped to four hospitals, exchanged and furloughed home to recover by Christmas. He rejoined his unit in January, 1863. On 12 July, 1864, he was shot at Fort Stevens. Treated in Richmond and sent home to recover. Rejoined unit and shot in thigh at Fort Stedman on 25 March, 1865. Treated in Richmond hospital, where he died on 28 April, 1865 after the surrender.