It also disabused Ulysses S. Grant of the notion that it was going to be a short or easy war, and remade William T. Sherman.
It almost destroyed Grant's career, but Sherman talked him out of resigning in the aftermath.
Pressured to relieve Grant after Shiloh, Lincoln is reported to remark, "I can't spare this man, he fights!" a contrast with the "victor," ironically, of Antietam, McClellan, who was, all told, a coward. Indeed he only really fought Antietam because he had found a copy, wrapped in a cigar, of Lee's orders. Even then, he dallied for two days, basically removing the advantage that the intelligence gave him.
Almost from the beginning, Lincoln understood that winning the war would involve fighting; few of his generals understood this as well as Grant did.
Before Antietam, Shiloh was the record killing field in American history. No one could believe the cost at the time. It was a shock.
I have been to Gettysburg, which is also impressive, but other than that Antietam is the only other Civil War field I've seen.
We have two major battlefields from the American Revolution within easy bicycling distance of my home; the battle of Trenton and the Battle of Princeton, and I have often biked to "Washington's Crossing," where every Christmas there is a re-enactment, although if the water is too treacherous, "Washington," the person honored to play the role, who is usually 20 years older and significantly shorter than the real Washington was at the time, walks across the bridge there now, flags flying and bands playing, although the real event was quiet, dark, and very treacherous and, of course, without a bridge.
Only the Battle of Princeton site is partially preserved, with much of the actual site now part of the Institute of Advanced Study, which often gets into legal battles with preservationists when planning construction.
Nassau Hall, at Princeton University, briefly served as the Capitol of the United States, a little known fact.
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