What . An introduction for an introduction. And first off, ill say that i serve as the executive director for civil trials. And it is an honor because i have the chance work for all of you. Its its absolutely. The program grows at the grassroots. So its individuals like all of you who may have an idea know of a spot in your backyard. You want to have it marked and marketed the world. And you come to us. So its your stories that we get to tell. And its truly honor. I would also be remiss if i didnt say that i came to history at a young age and there are few scholars who i can point to who helped get there. And the gentleman i have the honor to introduce is one of those. Oftentimes, you often you listen to a biography, you think to yourself, i know who that is. You dont necessarily have to have a biography list behind him, but this one is definitely worth noting. Scott, as a 34 year veteran of the National Park service, served as gettysburg supervisor historian for 20 years. He won the National Service regional Freeman Tilden award and excellence of interpretation in 1993 and was fundamental in the growth of gettysburg on site interpretation and living history program. Even if it was the 11th site on barts list, ten that growth also included the distance and satellite educational efforts. The key player for the design of all aspects of the new Gettysburg Museum and visitor center, and he retired from the park service in january 2014. But as we often that when you retire, you stay busy. Scott has authored numerous articles, essays and books on civil war subjects, has appeared on the history channel, discovery channel, cable network, cspan think theyre in the house tonight. His most recent publication is to antietam, the Maryland Campaign from. September three to december 16th, an 800 page indepth study of the campaign up to the eve of the battle, antietam, published in september 2012 by john hopkins. Hes currently working on the sequel, which will cover the battle of antietam and, its aftermath and the end of the campaign. Please join me in welcoming scott hardwick. I can tell you, drew, if you have to drive, around Northern Virginia in your job, my hat goes off to you because. Yeah, you know what im talking about. And bert and bert. Bert worked me. I clearly failed. Know, i, i got to tell you, when i came in here and i heard bert, you know, he had lost the top ten with this crowd, i was like, oh, my god, this is going to be, you know, you cant win in the top ten, you just you cannot because everybody has their own argument and thing. And i think bert did a great job. So i have no problem with gettysburg being 11 or nine or eight, i dont care where you put it we all our own opinions on these sorts of things. Now tonight, in my part of this, were going to talk about the Antietam Campaign and the prussian military theorist carl von claus vets once said that war politics by other means, we might say extreme means. And the maryland of 1862 or the Antietam Campaign, you could really almost pick any campaign of the war. But this campaign in particular is infused with not just on one side, on both sides. So tonight, what i intend to do is look at this campaign and talk about five topics associated with the campaign because for me to try to go through the whole campaign, thats a seminar. Thats not a talk. Were going to talk about. And the Maryland Campaign, why did lee invade maryland . The armies of, the campaign, understanding strengths and weaknesses of the army can help you better understand how this campaign evolves the way it does and turns out the way it does . Mcclellan and special orders. 191 this is the famous lost orders. Robert lees orders to his armies that are discovered and mcclellan is given those orders. Well talk that and why lee offer battle at sharpsburg. It was a very controversial by robert e lee. All right. The war and slavery. Now, one of theyths from the civil war, and we know the civil war is famous for all of its myths. But one of the myths of the civil war is that emancipation played no role until september 1862, when lincoln issued the preliminary emancipation proclamation that is not true from the beginning of the war the Republican Party and lincoln were out for slavery. They were they didnt want the border states, missouri, kentucky, maryland were slaves as well. They could not afford to let those states go into the confederacy. They had be very careful how they proceeded. However, the attack on slavery very, very early in the war, remember the confiscation acts . I know these things seem to can be kind of boring, but theyre connected to the war. August of 1861 the first confiscation act says slaves that come within union lines or free emancipated. One of the biggest emancipator of the union army in the spring of 1862 was george v mcclellan. He didnt like this he didnt like this policy, but he abated as the soldier because civil government made the and he obeyed the policy. So slaves who came within the lines when they were on the virginia peninsula were free. Now they congress is going to up the ante a little more because as the wars to go on and the border states are being very difficult to work with for lincoln, hes trying to give them a plan of compensated emancipation. Theyre not interested and compensated emancipation. They want to hold on to slavery and south. The confederacy is fighting very hard. I mean, big battles there. Theyre determined to win their independence. So theyre there. Theyre going to up the ante on the attack. And theres also some complications for in the field who are running into slaves. Is this a loyal master or is this a disloyal master . I dont know what im supposed to with these slaves that have just come within my lines. All right. Were going to make it a little bit more simple for if it is state that is seceded and the slaves come within lines, theyre free, theyre emancipated, you do not them to the owners. Not only do you not return them, you will be court martialed. If you do. It is illegal to return slaves to their owners. Thats the second confiscation act. Theres thing in the second confiscation act. It it calls for the president , the United States, to issue a proclamation declaring all slaves the states in rebellion to be free. Now we all think lincoln kind of came up with this idea, im going up the ante. Im going to issue this emancipation proclamation and im going to change the war. Actually, the Republican Congress calls for him to do this. This is very common for congress to do this. Theres a great by james oakes called Freedom National that lays out this discussion the destruction of slavery in more detail that i encourage you to read because it gives it gives you a much better idea about the attack upon slavery and lincolns role in this. So. Is on board with this he wants this second confiscation act wants to issue an emancipation hes to go down to Harrisons Landing. Yes i know everybodys out there. Hartwig that picture is not from Harrisons Landing. That is from antietam. I know, but its lincoln and mcclellan. And there wasnt any pictures taken in landing. So he goes to Harrisons Landing early. Mcclellan has been defeated in the seven days battles, and he is going to sit down, meet with mcclellan. And when hes there, mcclellan is going to hand him letter called the harrisons bar. And mcclellan gets bashed for this letter like. Hes way out of line. I dont think mcclellans out of line at all. Hes the commander of one of the largest field armies, the union. He has a right to express to the president the United States what i think about poli and what he tells the president is that a declaration of radical views, especially upon slavery, will rapidly disintegrate our armies. But that is a pretty shot across the bow. I hear whats going on in congress debating the second confiscation act. Dont do something radical here. Thats not a good idea. Now, part of mcclellan is a conservative, but the other thing that mcclellan is probably at is anything that he sees as radical might make the other side even harder. So hes opposed to anything like that, he still has the concept that theres a lot of southerners who are unionists at heart. We can win them over if we dont go to radical. Well the president has decided that hes going to fight the war with one hand behind his back any longer. So he listens to mcclellan, he reads his letter. And then on july 22nd, five days after the second confiscation act is passed, lincoln sits down with his cabinet, reads them in emancipation proclamation, and they tell boss, not a good time. We lost independence, soldier, the wars not going well. This could look like, you know, an act of desperation, and it might backfire. We need a victory. We need a military victory for political event to occur. So they hope that that victory is going to occur in Northern Virginia, under the command, general john poe, hes commanding the army of virginia. And lincoln essentially gives him, the army of the potomac. They never relieve mcclellan of command. They detach the entire and send it to poe. And pope, we know gets defeated soundly defeated at the second battle of manassas. And a union army retreats into the fortifications of washington in tremendous disorder. The troops are disorganized. Theyre theyre really discouraged, and they are furious at pope popes time. You cant have a pope anymore. So lincoln comes to a very decision. He calls Cabinet Meeting on september the second and he tells his cabinet that he is placing George Mcclellan in command of all the forces within, the fortifications. Hes very specific about. He is not the commander of the troops that will put in the field commander of in the fortification, because we havent decided what were going to with mcclellan yet. Now gideon wells, who you see in the lower, says there was a more disturbed and despond ing feeling than i have ever witnessed in counsel. One of them who was despondent, Edwin Stanton to the left the secretary of war. He was with rage. He despised mcclellan much someone allegedly said that he would favored the capture of washington to the return of mcclellan to command whether he really said that or not. I dont know. But he hated him. So theres theres a theyre not happy with lincolns decision. We thought we were going to get rid of mcclellan, but things are going to get even worse because it appears that the Confederate Army may possibly move into and order sent to mcclellan on september the third, saying there is every possibility that the enemy, baffled in his intended capture of, washington, will cross the potomac and make a raid into maryland or pennsylvania. A movable army must be immediately to meet him again in the field. Whos going to command that movable . They dont say they havent picked them. On september the fifth, lincoln will visit Ambrose Burnside and burnside command of the army and burnside will tell the he believes George Mcclellan is the best to command this army. Now mcclellan will stab him in the back on in this campaign, but i dont think mcclellan even knew that burnside done that. So lincolns kind of over a barrel. He doesnt really have any choice. And on september the seventh, hes going to visit mcclellan at his house, which was also his headquarters in washington. And he tells him general, you take command of the army in the field, verbal command. Now, if you read mcclellan after the war, he tells you that he command without any authority, that no had the courage to put him back in command. So he just kind of took command. Now, im telling you, im not a mcclellan but theres not a chance on this earth that he did that he had never been relieved of command, ever. The army just took his army away from him. All he needed was a verbal you are back in command of the field army. Thats all he needed. So theres no question in my mind that lincoln did that lincoln places him in command of the army despite fact that these two men may have a little bit of a history. And most of its one sided lincoln work with almost anybody mcclellan cant work with hardly anybody. He has problems throughout his entire life with superiors always we can see some of the things he had to say about the president. An idiot. August 16th, 1861. Hes nothing more than a wellmeaning baboon. October. 1861 i went to tea to the house shortly after tea where i found original gorilla. November 1861. And then theres the spear. The other guys gideon wells is, weaker than the most garrulous old woman, were ever annoyed by. He has funny. Secretary of state. Seward was a meddling officious little puppy. Now hes writing these things to his wife in private. But believe me, you know, when someone feels certain way about you, you can pick that up. And people have that up about mcclelland. But lincoln looks past this and he places mcclellan as the best man and hes got the Commanding Army thats going to take the field against robert lee who has invaded. Now, whats his mission . Protect washington, d. C. Do let them get the capitol. He also has to protect baltimore, determine there is a Confederate Army, south of the potomac. Yes, we know that some confederates have invaded maryland, but there are all types of rumors that there is a big confederate force still in Northern Virginia. You have to determine that as well. Third, drive the confederates out of maryland and lincoln has fourth thing that he needs mcclellan to do give him a victory so he can issue is emancipation. Now, this is one of the great ironies of the Maryland Campaign. We need a general who doesnt believe in an emancipation proclamation to win the victory, to deliver it. Thats what lincoln needs from mcclellan. So lets move to lee. Why does lee invade maryland . Now we see the two armies, the big red dot and, the blue dot red dots. Its centreville and near manassas, where the battle of second manassas was fought. Washington is where all ese union are all gathered within the fortified nations. So lee has some options available to them. He has the initiative. Well, hes got three essential options that i see first option. He can invest washington, d. C. , but besiege the city. Hes not going to be able to besiege. So he cant cut the entire city off. But he can try to invest part of it. Whats the good thing on . It it maintains the pressure upon lincoln, the federal army. Well, when youve got an army outside, your gates. Thats pressure. Whats the whats the downside . Negative. His men cant eat no supplies in Northern Virginia. No, no means of getting supplies. That isnt going to work. Second option, withdraw to warrenton and reassess your supply line. Your army is very poorly. Reequip your army. Resupply your army. Bring up some of the convalescing wounded, sick men that are in richmond and your army will be bigger safe move. Its a safe move. Negative surrender the initiative, the enemy. If you know anything about robert e lee. He never, ever likes to do. That. Invade maryland. A third option leaves. Northern virginia. Open. All right the battlefield. Second. Manassas. Just trying to collect all this equipment off the field. You also give a break to the area of Northern Virginia. You also give the conscription officers an opportunity to get into areas to conscript soldiers in area that have been overrun by the yankees, maintain the pressure on the federals. Theyve got to react. You go in, you go into maryland. They have to react to that. You force the enemy to take the field before are ready. Thats why you dont want to go to warrenton. They come at when they want to. You force the issue. They come at you when you want them. Before theyre ready. Before theyre reorganized. Before these 300,000 volunteers have been absorbed. The army and trained. Get them out into the open, into the field. And fight them. You. The initiative youre calling shots. Theres a potential to invade pennsylvania and, influence the fall. Congressional. Thats a biggie. Really big for lee. Lee has once expressed it to davis, the confederate president. What he seeks are heavy victories. What he means by that is victory, is to do a lot of damage to the to the federals. But the confederates dont suffer as much. And that will undermine mine the morale of the northern people and the way theyll express their morale being undermined is they will vote out the republicans and vote in the democrats, who are far more likely to negotiate a peace settlement with confederacy. Theres also potential for European Intervention if youre successful. Lee does not think theres going to be any European Intervention, but some people do. But it is always the possibility, the negative. How are you going to supply the army, the physical condition of the army . Thats a negative in any of them. You can look at the list. Its a no brainer for lee. Were going to go into maryland. Thats thats where we want to go. Now, lee is going to write to Jefferson Davis on september the fourth as his army is beginning to cross the Potomac River into. I am more fully of the benefits that will result from expedition in the maryland and i shall proceed make the movement at once. Unless should signify youre just appropriation should the results of the expedition justify it. I propose to enter pennsylvania unless you should deem it an advisable upon political or other grounds. This is just pro forma stuff. Davis absolutely. This movement. Hes already moving. Hes just showing. Dufresne to davis. This was smart on lees part because davis didnt like people who didnt show him deference. Hes showing davis deference. You are the president. I am following the strategic ideas that we had. Weve already discussed this as if this opportunity arose. Thats why he knows davis is not going to say no, i dont want you to go into maryland. Thats not a good idea. He knows davis will approve it. He just wants davis to feel like its his idea. And he, the approving official. So lee has two choices on how hes going go into maryland. He can go east of the ridge or he can go the way he did at gettysburg. West of the blue rgedown the shenandoah valley, he chooses go east of the bl. Even though Stonewall Jackson wanted him to go west of the ue ridge and leeasoning to go east of the blue ridge and one and march up to fck, maryland, i think was very sound closer to washington, d. C. And baltimore. Oses aniate threat to both of those places. And he will bring the union army out of the defenses of shington fthan if he goes. The Gettysburg Campaign route. Thats goal. Iant get that army out. I want to get it out in the open. I want to fight that army. And i want to beat it because where im going to get the political consequences of that victory. So lee makes this decision, why does he invade maryland . Its the best move politically for the confederates. It is a risk militarily. But as lee will tell james redden, the confederate secretary of war during the period before the Gettysburg Campaign, when saddam was very concerned what was going on at vicksburg, and he wanted to move part of lees army out there. And lee reminded him all movements, all decisions in war entail risk. You just have to calculate the risk. So lees calculated risk. He feels that the best option for the confederacy is to march into maryland. Now, two armies that will confront each other in maryland are very different in certain ways. The army of Northern Virginia begins the campaign much stronger than almost confederate writer will ever acknowledge to you. The army is probably about to 75,000 men. It is extremely poorly supplied, particularly the troops that have been in the second manassas campaign. These guys have no regular food. Their uniforms and clothing is beginning to fall apart because theyve had no resupply of clothing because theyre beyond their supply line. The only troops that are wellsupplied are troops that come up from richmond and reinforce lee after second manassas. So the army is in rough shape. Lee knows that of dawsey. Pender writes the following hes a brigade commander. He writes the following men in his brigade during Harpers Ferry operation. My dear, such a filthy and unprincipled set of villains i have never seen. They have lost all or decency, all sense of right or respect for property. Ive had to strike many a one with my saber. The officers are nearly as bad as the men in one of my regiments. The other day they thought they were going to go into a fight. Six out of ten officers scoped and did not come up until they thought all danger over more than half my brigade went off that. Now this is a hes describing an army that is rough shape but right below that dr. Lewis steiner was a unit u. S. Sanitary Commission Doctor in frederick, maryland. And talked to a lot of confederates when. They occupied frederick and he said they all believe in themselves well as in their generals and are terribly earnest. He thought were pretty tough. One of the things that the Confederate Army has that is a big strength is. Most of the soldiers in the are combat veterans. Theyre experienced combat veterans, trained combat veterans. And lee has a very small and very good command team. He has two essential wings because the Confederate Congress doesnt yet allow army corps to be formed. So the right wing and left wing, and theyre commanded James Longstreet and Stonewall Jackson, superb Corps Commanders. So hes got this really good command team. But as the campaign progresses, the the problem for quartermaster is like William Elder manifests themself selves and grow to immense proportions. If we can only enough for our men to eat up here. I dont. General lees army can be whipped. Hes very competent. But he cant get enough for the men to eat. And that is going to play havoc with this army. When the army gets to leesburg, virginia, they have a shakedown. Kind of like what sherman did before he started the the march to the sea. Not as elaborate, but theyre going to shed about 5000 soldiers. Theyre either physically unfit or they dont have shoes. Those soldiers are excused. Theyre going to march them to winchester. That leaves a balance of, lets say, 65 to 69000 men in the army. They march into maryland. They will lose thousand 107 men in the battles take place before antietam, sharpsburg thats South Mountain, Harpers Ferry, crampons, gap skirmishes plus sic. They left in frederick. So we have a balance of about 63,000 men. Theyre going to fight battle of antietam with 37 and 40,000 men. You can do the math. They. Lose 25 to 27000 stragglers in. The Maryland Campaign. These are sick guys, are guys who just they got to get something to eat. Theyre just end of their tether. And everywhere the army goes. You can read their accounts. They leave a stream of stragglers everywhere they go. So thats percent of the Army Strength is lost due to straggling. That is a problem. If you if think its all made up, read lees correspondence after the Maryland Campaign is over. He didnt think it was made up. It was a crisis. The army. The potomac is hodgepodge. Thrown together of essentially three different armies. And we all know that every army even though they bonto the same army, do things a ltl bit differently. Its like you can worfoi work for the natiol rk service and interpretation things differently than resource and law enforcen and so on was the samwawith erwe did things differently maybe than antietam did that fredericksburg did. So the armies of the sam way you have the first corps and the 12th corps. They are both from popes army of virginia. You ve the second corps, one division of the foth corps, one vion of the fifth corps and the sixth rp they are from niula army, the army, the potomac that have been on the peninsula, the ninth corps is burnsides corps. They basically been an expeditionary on the North Carolina coast, etc. Theyre like a mini army. They are all thrown together now. Theyre the army, the potomac. But 84,000 men on september the seventh, theyll increase to about 87,000 men. By september the 17th, the day they fight the of antietam. And one very significant thing about this army is about 18,000 of its infantry. Thats about. 15 to 18 of the infantry of the army are raw recruits. And when i say raw recruits, ill give you an example. Carmon, who commanded one of these raw regiments 13th in new jersey. He was a an experienced soldier. He had been in another new jersey regiment on the peninsula. Hes having a conversation with colonel Samuel Rosedale of the 128th pennsylvania. Ten days before the battle of antietam. And rosedale asks him how to form line of battle, not knowing and giving as an excuse. He had no time since being commissioned by a copy of tactics. Hes going to be killed. Rosedale in the battle of antietam. And when hes killed in battle of, antietam, his unit is trying to form into a line of battle. And it is chaotic. And nobody knows how to do it. None of the officers know how to do it. None of the men know how to do it cause they never drilled it, never trained. Theyve never even fired their weapon. Most these men. And thats what a lot of these regiments are like. So that in its the ability of this army to do certain things and mcclellan that particularly in the early movements of the army he had to give these some seasoning. People often wonder, why didnt he marched 20 miles a day . Cant march 20 miles a day with guys whove never done any marching . Hes got a season them gradually and theyre going to throw a lot of these units into the battle of. Antietam and the experience is really for these troops, but for the veteran corps of, the army, these men whove been demoralized by the defeat on the peninsula. Now that second manassas, the mood of these men, i think, is reflected by alpheus williams, a general in the 12th army corps. He writes to his daughter, says, i cant tell you the future if we fail now, the north has no hope no safety that i can see. We have to win this. And the confederates feel the same. So it sets up this this epic campaign. Mcclellans command team is a little bigger than lees and a little bit more complicated. He has. Hes divided. The army into two wings, the right wing, which is Ambrose Burnside. And i call center wing. He never really named it just sumners wing. Edwin sumner will command the center wing, which includes own second corps. They dont appoint commander that he can continues to command it. And the 12th army corps. That old gentleman you see there will take command of the 12th corps two days before the battle of ante. And that is joseph mansfield. And then burnside has the two best Corps Commanders, probably with the army. Thats jesse reno in the ninth corps. And joseph of the first corps. The last two guys you see down there are actually both under arrest when campaign begins. Its Fitzjohn Porter and William B Franklin. Charges have been levied against them by john pope and they have been relieved. Command. But mcclellan asked the War Department. This is a crisis. These men are experienced. Theres some of my best guys. I need them with me. And they released both of them. So these everybody is under a bit of a cloud. Mcclellan doesnt trust the government or the War Department. He doesnt like anybody. They dont trust him. Got two of his experience Corps Commanders, the fifth corps and sixth Corps Commander who these guys were possibly facing court. So theres a lot of pressure upon. So this is his command team. Its not a great command. Hes got some good commanders in it. Its as streamlined and as simple as liza is. And he doesnt have commanders of the experience of jackson and longstreet. Special orders number one, 91, probably the most famous lost orders of civil war. Whathey . Well, when lee invaded maryland and marched upederick, where the circle is on th right, he got up there. He expected there was a Union Garrison where says miles, theres three red dots and it says mil harpers and the you follow line and you see there were two Union Garrisons, big one at Harpers Ferry, little over 10,000 men, and one at martinsburg. They are sitting astride the communns lee is going to need to use when. He goes into pennsylvania. Wheno down valley, you cant get past these Union Garrisons with communications. So hes got to clear them out. He thohey would just retreat when he got up to frederick. He expected you know, theyre going to do the smart thing. Theyre going pull them out. Well, henry halleck, the Union General in chief, orders those garrisons to stay in place. Now, lee, characteristically does not see this as a problem. He sees it as an opportunity. Lets get them. Lets get them. We can get them before the yankee army comes of washington, d. C. So he draws up a very elaborate plan, an extremely complex plan when when consider that these men are all dealing written communications. Theres no radios, telephone or telegraph that these guys would use. So were going to take one wing or one force under Stonewall Jackson will march t boonesborough to willrt, cross the Potomac River, march into northern virgind either destroy the garrison at martinsburg or it on to Harpers Ferry, a column, General Lafayette mclaws, consisting of divisions will march down and ma heights. The key terrain dominating Harpers Ferry on the mar shore. Division under general john will march down cross near point of rocks on the pot go th Northern Virginia and come up and capture Loudon Heights on the on the south side, Harpers Ferry on the virginia side commanding Harpers Ferry, capturing those key positions with jackson sealing off the west. They be able to destroy or capture the union at Harpers Ferry once the garrison is captured. All the troops will march to hagerstown where we see the other red big red dot. That is where lee will re concentrate his army. But in the original plan, nobody going to go to hagerstown initially. When they began to execute the order on september the 10th, lee, however, had learned through some of his or someone that there was a union militia, hagerstown, from pennsylvania and that the people in hagerstown were taking their Food Supplies out. He needs that food bad. March, and he takes command up to hagerstown and he leaves hillvision at boonesborough. So you can look at the map and you can wow. Lee is really taking a gamble here. His army is by mountains by by vers. And theyre really widely there at hagerstown boonesborough, down near Harpers Ferry on the maryland on the north, the Potomac South of the potomac, across from the shenandoah. And then weve got jackson over west of Harpers Ferry. Big risk that hes taking. Thats the plan. Thats the plan. He draws up. When the confederates begin to execute this movement, the union army is marching maryland. And on september the 12th, the ements of the army arrive and occupy frederick. On september the 13th, the army, the begins to close up on frederick and occupy the town and. Some of the troops who are arriving arrive south of the town include the 27th indiana. They march a field across them in argosy river. They marched into the field. The regiment stacks, arms as they stack arms. Some of the ncos in the regiment look down their say an envelope laying on the ground, pick up the envelope. Theres three cigars in it and there is a piece paper wrapped around it. Going to tell you its pretty weird. I mean, i dont think the army in Northern Virginia issued orders from Army Headquarters in envelopes wrapped around cigars or orders wrapped around the cigars. Very strange. But be that it may, they find the piece of paper is special orders. Number 191. It was the orders from Army Headquarters to dhl. Everybody points fingers as to who lost this thing. I dont think this entire affair reflects very well on the way they did business at army of Northern Virginia headquarters. They should have known that that order there should have been a receipt that came back, that dhl had received that order and signed for that order. No record that ever happened just kind of write on, you know. So now that they got found the orders, theyre going to hurry them on up the chain of command and eventually theyre going to be in the hands of George Mcclellan when does mcclellan get them . Theres lot of debate about this right now. Mcclellan going to write a a very excited telegram that he sends to the president that is dated or timed 12 a. M. Now at mcclellans headquarters, almost always, when they put 12 m, that means 12 meridian, 12 noon. And thats what weve always accepted. And and then didnt do anything for the rest of the day. It was very strange. You know hes hes hes been roundly criticized for this. Right. Well, a few years back, a fellow named, maurice daoust, was going to the lincoln papers. And as he was going through the lincoln papers, he found the telegram that lincoln had received, not what was sent from the army, the potomac but what was received. And behind the 12 a. M. Someone had written it night, midnight, 12, midnight. Now, i think i saw James Rosenbach over there. All right. Thanks to james, because he a while back sent me the the books of the u. S. Signal corps and the messages that they sent back and during the campaign. There is message sent to mcclellan on september the 13th. Unfortunately, they dont put the time, but it says the president is at the War Department office and he is anxious for news from. You and, by the way, the line open to point of rocks all telegraph lines have been cut by the confederates. So youre not telegraphing from frederick to washington. You had to go a roundabout way. So mcclellans message excuse me is going to go from iraqs to sugarloaf to washington, d. C. And the message is senate midnight and heres why . I think it is. Unless we find smoking gun, we can never say. Certainly mcclellan is going to send it. 3 p. M. In the afternoon. A message to his cavalry commander, alfred pleasanton. Hes going to tell pleasanton, weve just come in to possession of the of howard. He doesnt tell him hes coming to possession of these orders of the confederates. He out the order of march of the confederates that is called for in special orders. 191. He says, i want you to determine, did the confederates follow this order of march . Now, if he had found the orders and given the orders before noon, writes the president at noon, hes not going to sit around for 3 hours before he writes to pleasanton. Hes just not going to do that. He didnt get the orders at noon. He probably got them in the early afternoon, noon. And very shortly after he gets the orders, hes going to have someone on his staff write this message to pleasanton. And hes probably going to also have his chief detective, pinkerton, try to find some people in frederick and question people who might be in the know. Can you figure out, did they follow this order of march . Because that would determine that this is genuine. You have to determine that before you order any movement. By 6 p. M. , hes convinced before he hears back from that, they followed this order of march and starts to issue orders to his army. After all, orders are issued to the army for the operation on september the 14th, at 11 p. M. , he writes henry halleck, the chief of staff and around that time is when hes going receive this message from point rocks, telling him that the president is at the War Department and he is anxious for news. And at 12 midnight hes going to write that message thats going to go to the president. The timing of it is completely logical. The timing of a 12 noon message is simply not logical. Thats why i fall the side that i think the message went out at midnight. Now, mcclellan plans an offensive. He just sit on his duff. He does plan an. He orders the entire ninth corps to march over to to the mountain, into what we call pleasantr ddletown valley in front of South Mountain. The general plan that he is on september the 14th, the main part of his army igog to towards turners, gap and fox gap and take on what he thkss. The biggest confederate force at boonesborough. Thats etreet hill. Thats going to be the big battle. Were going to fight him at boonesborough. The smalle force, the sixth corps to reinforced couches division will break through crampons gap and g io the rear omcws and relieve ferry. I ink that was a long long it was a tall order for William B Franklin in the sixth corps to execute that. But be that as may make a long story short, on september the 14th, the army, the potomac move and they do fight a battle a series of battles called the battles South Mountain foxes gap, gap and crampons gap at crampons gap. The six corps wins a smash victory. They crush the confederates they break through into pleasant valley. They are now on the clauses rear at foxes and turners gap. The confederates hold their position. Lee brings longstreet two men down from hagerstown. They lose half their men in the march. The they reinforce d. H. Hill on South Mountain. And they hold their position. But they lose the key terrain. So during the night, lee makes a decision that he is going to retreat. And well get to that in just a moment. But the last i want to wrap up on special orders, 191. It has been suggested that it didnt really help mcclellan. He already he already had a plan. He didnt have a plan. It helped mcclellan immeasurably. I dont i i dont ascribe to the idea. Special orders 191 didnt help mcclellan. It confused him. It didnt confuse him. It answered a lot of questions. He was very confused at all these movements that were confederates crossing the potomac in williamsport were confederates up in hagerstown were confederates around Harpers Ferry. He didnt know where the main strength of confederates were. He didnt know what they were trying to do. He knew that Harpers Ferry was threatened, but he wasnt sure where to send the weight of his army. 191 cleared it away. He knew what needed to do, and he did it. So 191 was a big coup, maybe not the biggest coup of the war, but was a big coup. And he did act it. So lee is to order a retreat from South Mountain. And it leads us to question of why does he offer at sharpsburg . Well, heres the situation. You see all those black things up at the top for you guys in the back. Thats the army, the potomac at fox his gaand turners gap. And the three little white things are Lee Longstreet and d. H. Ll. Theyve been whipped at south mounin andee during the night of september e th. Orders to fall back across Potomac River at at shepherdstown. E march through sharpsburg to shepherdstown. Campaignover. He orders general applause. Get your troops the Potomac River any way you can. You might have to abandon equipment and stuff. Weve goto get out herwere in a tough spot, he tells stonewall. Breaks off the operation. March to shepherdstown and cover our crossing campaign is over as the troops filing off the mountain. Lee reconsiders. He decides, no, no, thats not a good move. Weve got to do to help. Mccloys so were going to halt at cadyville temporarily will draw union army away from fox and turners gap away mclaws towards us thats going to give him a clause a chance get away now maybe theres a possibility mclaws can get around Maryland Heights and march up the road to sharpsburg and join us there and then we can retreat to shepherdstown. So going to send orders to mclaws to investigate that, see if he can do that as troops are marching along, lee changes his mind again. I think hes probably studying maps. Hes also questioning people who are familiar with the area, and he decides that better temporary defensive position is behind antietam creek at sharpsburg. So he longstreet dhl you will form your men behind the yantian creeth camign is still over folks he is still to retreat to virginia. Iss a temporary stand t extract from a clause he still has those orders tt is sent to jackson to break off the siege. This movement on the morning of september 15th as lee is close to crossing over antietam, he gets a dispatch from Stonewall Jackson tells lee, you know, ferry to be surrendered, theyre to surrender that day. They surrender that morning, 12,500 union p. W. S. Its one of the biggest victories for the confeder in the war. The confederates lke 300 men in this operation and they capture almost 13,000 men, all sorts artillery, ammunition, equipment. It was a really well executed operation, just took longer than lee thought it was going to. Okay. Harpers ferry is going to surrender. Lee starts to reconsider. Maybe theres a chance i can reunite my army and we can fight. In maryland here at sharpsburg, you can look at the map. Wo that isisky. Look at what the clause us to do. Yes, to march down across the Potomac River, get into Harpers Ferry, then march l e way up to shepherdstown and up to sharpsburg, jackson and, all they walk aralthese guys off the march uphe. Look how close almost all the union army is to lee and lee. Only has about 15,000 men at sharpsburg, so he mas decision im going to try and fight a battle here. Im going toeef i can reunite ay and people have opinions about that epi. Alexander, who was his chief ordnance officer in the campaign and one of the one of the best critic critical critical people of the confederacy analyzed confederate campaigns, the war in the east. He writes of this decision of defeat, certainly involve the utter destruction of his army because hes got the Potomac River behind. Them. Historian john proops writes it beyond controversy. One of the boldest and most hazardous decisions in his whole military career. It a truth so bold and hazardous that one is bewildered that he should have even thought seriously of making it. And lastly, well hear from alexander again, i think it will be pronounced by military critics to be the greatest military the generally ever. Okay. So why did he do it . Well, kit douglas, i think, is a really good analysis by douglas. All battles are not fought in selected upon sound military, wellington, napoleon lee were all perfectly familiar with these principles. And when they disregard did them, they had strong reasons for doing so. Lee is clearly disregarding them and he doesnt tell us why. We just have to try to surmise it. This is my supposition on why i think he stays in maryland and offers battle. Number one, he an opportunist opportunity lies in maryland the best chances for the confederacy lie in maryland taking, the safe course and falling back into virginia. Yes, i will preserve my army. I will also sacrifice the initiative and. I never like to do that. So you lose the Strategic Initiative and the enemy gets it. The fighting at sharpsburg, its going to carry great risks, remember . But theres always risk in every operation. But it also has great possibilities. What if mcclellan attacks and he defeats the attack . Mcclellan falls back . Where is he going to fall back to . Well, the likely place hes going to fall back to, he can really defend easily is South Mountain. If he does, that leaves, got an open quarter to head to hagerstown and on into pennsylvania and the campaign north of the potomac continues. And the political consequences of that continue to be felt. I think thats why hes going to fight battle at sharpsburg. He sees the best opportune city for the confederate by taking this risk and he knows that his army is bad shape. I dont know that he knows how bad it is. Everybody always can stuff for the boss. His subordinates may have been doing that. He does take a tremendous risk and on the next september the 17th, mcclellan will attack. They will fight the battle of antietam. It is a horrendously bloody battle. Both sides lose heavily. But i am here to tell you from my research been doing on volume to the army of Northern Virginia is absolutely more failed in this battle. Terribly mauled this battle percentage wise, worse than e army, the potom. Lee loses a lot more than i think he possibly anticipated in this. He remains on the battlefield on september the 18th. Incredibly explores the possibility of making a flanking attack against. Mcclellan it tells us something about the the resiliency of lee. He realizes that that is not possible. Once a reconnaissance determines that. And on the night of the 18th, his army is going to retreat and cross the Potomac River. The army, the potomac will pursue they will cross over the Potomac River on september the 20th with the force, the fifth army corps. Lee will counterattack vigorously. And the battle of shepherdstown will occur. Its a clear cut confederate victory. The union troops are driven back across the Potomac River and the Maryland Campaign comes to an end. September 20th. Two days later. Remember politics. Rears its head. Two days later, lincoln issues the emancipation proclamation as bert antietam. The battle may be a drawn battle, but strategically this a union victory. Clearly a union victory. Lee did not achieve his goals in his plans, and mcclellan did got them out of the state of maryland. He drove them out and inflicted heavy losses upon him. Lincoln sees it this my opportunity. I must seize it and were going to shoot emancipation proclamation and the reaction we oftentimes when when ive read about emancipation and people write about the army, the potomac and its reaction to it, its as if writers seek out every who thought it was a really terrible and it was going be the end of the world and they they present all of those but anybody who thought it was a good im not going to were not going to bother mentioning those people. Well, one of the people who thought it was a bad idea was the commander of the army, George Mcclellan. He writes in a private letter to, a business friend of his in new york, im very anxious to know how you and men like you regard the recent proclamations of the president inaugurating serve a war emancipating slaves. And in one stroke of the pen, changing free institutions into a despot autism. Now mcclellan frequently went off on things like privately and then publicly acknowledged that the civil government here was subservient to the civil government. And he does this in this case, he tells the kind of language is not probably what lincoln wanted, but essentially tells the army we have to obey the this is the proclamation. We will do it. We will follow it. So he doesnt lead a revolution. Rufus dawes fought in the cornfield six wisconsin. And in january of 1863, he was invited to go to his hometown of marietta, ohio, was there on leave, and while he was there on leave, he was asked to give an address. The people in the in the city about how the war was going, what they thought about the war, what these men fighting it, thought about it. And heres he had to say about the emancipation proclamation. Slavery is the chief source wealth in the south and the basis their aristocracy and in my observation is that a blow at slavery hurts more than battalion volleys. It strikes at the vitals. We like the proclamation because it hurts the rebels. We like the prop proclamation because it lets the world know what the real issue is. But you dont hear that side it. But there were a lot of soldiers remember lincoln did win the election he was republican from the majority and then in this army of republicans as well because he did win the election and he won it again in 1864. Majority of men are, democrats. But even among the democrats. They did not desert in mass. The army didnt disintegrate. In fact, francis donaldson, a captain 118th pennsylvania, i think reflects the mood of a lot of these men very well. I am a democrat first, last and all the time. But as long as the rebels are in arms, i will sustain. The governments efforts to put down rebellion with my life if necessary, what reminds us is that these soldiers accepted, may or may not have liked the emancipation proclamation. Men like him. They accepted because it was a measure that they felt might bring the war closer to an and they would just accept it and continue to fight so the campaign of 1862 emancipation plays major role in the course of the campaign and the army reflects the differing views the north that will continue to play out through the rest of the war as the country grapples with this this issue of emancipation. I want to thank you all very much, folks, for me down here. All right. Its kind of a challenge because were in the back, sort of think like we hold up the sign, but like were all like, oh, my god, that is just so good. Scott harwood, ladies and gentlemen, again, come on. We do have time for just a couple questions. So, jeff, hold. Im hesitant, but lets lets see where you go here. Scott, with all your work on the Maryland Campaign, what do you think when all is said and done is lees assessment of mcclellan as an opponent lees assessment equality. Oh. I think he understood mcclellan actually well, although i do think mcclellan him at mountain and mcclellan was more than lee accustomed to it. Mcclellan had always been very cautious in his operations. He was kind of a set piece sort of commander, although i do still think he believed that mcclellan would behave that way when he makes his decision to stand at sharpsburg. I think he realizes that, for one thing, mcclellan gets severely criticized. The why doesnt he . On september the 15th march from South Mountain and attack Robert E Lees and you can look at a map like i had up there and you can say it looks pretty easy to do but when you actually get down into the weeds weeds as a soldier would have to do. That was impossible mcclellan could not have attacked on september the 15th. If he had, it would have been a hasty attack with a very small part of his army. His army had two roads to move the entire army. So there was a big, gigantic traffic jam of the army as it tried to move there. He also to reconnoiter antietam creek. What crossings . The army draw so on where was the best place to cross was the confederate position so no attack was really going to take place until the 16th. But theres i think that lee does take the measure. Mcclellan and he is confident that he will not be attacked on the 16th. And if he is attacked will be so late in the day that he will be able to his position. So he he clearly feels that with mcclellan, even though hes been surprised that South Mountain that this is a commander that i know i basically know what hes going to do and how hes going to operate and hes going to be pretty cautious and careful and do everything by the rules. Hes not going to do something outside the rules. But thats thats kind of why i think lee about mcclellan and bob stone, lake of the woods, virginia, my understanding of special order 191 lee expected jacks men to have envelop and capture Harpers Ferry by the 30 of september, which is the same day that mcclellan got the of the order. What made him think that that hadnt happened yet . Was there telegraphic communication to harpers. No, there werent telegraph. And we dont know of any communications that occurred with lee. We know that lee wrote lafayette in clause and told mclaws kind of admonish mclaws that he hadnt heard anything from mclaws and he wanted to how things were going. Its very possible he heard from jackson verbally that jackson was surprising him of where he was in the course of the operation. Lees release timetable. I have to believe that jackson and mclaws and the others, when they looked at his timetable, were like seriously . All right, the boss, because they had actually for all the troops to be in their place september the 12th. So actually had about two days to move over 50 miles for jacksons and take care of the Union Garrison at martinsburg. I it was a really tall order for lee to expect them to be able to carry that out but what they couldnt know though when they were planning this operation would the garrisons try to run for it . And if they tried to run for it, it would be easier to destroy them in the open so they couldnt know. So im sure that lee felt, you know, any plan like this we have to have some wiggle room in this and its just that, you know, mcclellans surprise move on september the 14th took away any wiggle that lee had the time for. One last question, scott. Glenn robertson, virginia beach, virginia. Its kind of two, but theyre really quick. One is i think theyre following up on the lees measure of mcclellan question. How much do you think his view of mcclellan is extremely cautious, almost timid, impacted decision to save the campaign as opposed to call off the retreat and step five . And secondly, didnt hear anything. And the shrinking the army of Northern Virginia relating to soldiers not being willing to invade the north. And ive read that its suburbs. Do you agree that or. Oh, okay, ill answer the second part first and the first part. Second i found almost no evidence the confederate soldiers were opposed to in and there was one North Carolina regiment in division that someone a in a history of the unit. The war said there were some men who said we didnt sign up for doing this. We up to defend, you know the confederacy. So we dont want to go in there. I did find some evidence that or some rumors that soldiers threw their shoes away once they heard longstreets issued a issued an order that any men without shoes were excused going into maryland. And the rumor some guys threw their shoes away. You know, i sometimes people get so attached, these armies that could never happen. Like really, you know, you dont food and youre marching all. The time and bullets are blowing peoples heads, stuff like that. Yeah, i could somebody throwing their shoes away. I mean, ive kind had it so. No, i found in fact most confederate soldiers were enthusiastic about the invasion were delighted to carry the war into the north. And many of them thought that maryland, where they were going, they know about that part of maryland. They thought maryland because it was a slave state was going to be really welcoming. And i paraphrase one soldier when they left frederick, he called frederick a yankee whole. So anyway, the the second part of your question, which was with lee and and mcclellan how much did is his men from mcclellan impact his decision . Oh, the campaign fight was to i think that was a part of i think there was a part of it. But i think that, you know, with other commanders that that lee had faced. I mean, look, Hooker Hooker was a very officer and he executed this Brilliant Campaign plan, the beginning of chancellorsville, and least ill takes this tremendous risk against him. Lee, is this hes a risk taker and hes an opportunist. So i think he may have tried this with other commanders as well, although i do definitely believe he any good commander takes their measure of the other side. Wellington did of napoleon. Napoleon did of wellington and of blucher. They all knew one another. They all knew their their strengths and their weaknesses. And they all tried to seek to exploit them. And i think that leaves no different. He knows mcclellan pretty from this campaign on the peninsula. What an extraordinary privilege it has been for us tonight to listen to you, scott, thank you so much for being and for having me. Rst ladies dot cspan. Org. I think most americans know that issues like the family and medical leave act that senator dodd has champiod