relieved from command on November 5. The President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln, issued the Emancipation Proclamation after the repulse of the Confederate invasion of Maryland. The Emancipation Proclamation underscored the key role that slavery played in the war, and between it and the fighting at Antietam, Confederate hopes of foreign intervention ended. Antietam had represented a major turning point in the war. Notes References Further reading McGrath, Thomas A. Shepherdstown: Last Clash of the Antietam Campaign, September 19–20, 1862. Lynchburg, VA: Schroeder Publications, 2007. . Pawlak, Kevin R. Shepherdstown in the Civil War: One Vast Confederate Hospital. Charleston, SC: The History Press, 2015. . External links Battle of Shepherdstown in Encyclopedia of West Virginia Battle of Shepherdstown in Encyclopedia Virginia 1862 in Virginia Maryland campaign Battles of the Eastern Theater of the American Civil War Confederate victories of the American Civil War Jefferson County, West Virginia in the American Civil War 1862 in the American Civil War Battles of the American Civil War in West Virginia September 1862 events