The Greatest Battles in History E-Book

• Herausgeber: Charles River Editors
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 88

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2025

Beschreibung

"Those in whose judgment I rely tell me that I fought the battle splendidly and that it was a masterpiece of art. ... I feel I have done all that can be asked in twice saving the country. ... I feel some little pride in having, with a beaten & demoralized army, defeated Lee so utterly." - George McClellan

The names of history’s most famous battles still ring in our ears today, their influence immediately understood by all. Marathon lent its name to the world’s most famous race, but it also preserved Western civilization during the First Persian War. Saratoga, won by one of the colonists’ most renowned war heroes before he became his nation’s most vile traitor. Hastings ensured the Normans’ success in England and changed the course of British history. Waterloo, which marked the reshaping of the European continent and Napoleon’s doom, has now become part of the English lexicon. In Charles River Editors’ Greatest Battles in History series, readers can get caught up to speed on history’s greatest battles in the time it takes to finish a commute, while learning interesting facts long forgotten or never known.

The bloodiest day in American history took place on the 75th anniversary of the signing of the Constitution. On September 17, 1862, Robert E. Lee’s Confederate Army of Northern Virginia fought George McClellan’s Union Army of the Potomac outside Sharpsburg along Antietam Creek. That day, nearly 25,000 would become casualties, and Lee’s army would barely survive fighting the much bigger Northern army. Although the battle was tactically a draw, it resulted in forcing Lee’s army out of Maryland and back into Virginia, making it a strategic victory for the North and an opportune time for President Abraham Lincoln to issue the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing all slaves in the rebellious states.

For those reasons, Antietam is remembered as one of the major turning points of the Civil War, but it is often overlooked that the bloody battle only represented the climactic culmination of a 3 week campaign that saw George McClellan cautiously pull a fragmented Union army together and begin tracking Lee’s army into Maryland. Sizing up McClellan, Lee had split his army up during its invasion, including sending Stonewall Jackson’s men to Harpers Ferry, but the whole course of the campaign and possibly the war changed when the Union Army somehow found a copy of Lee’s marching orders, telling them where the Confederate army would be and when. To Lee’s surprise, McClellan’s army began advancing far more rapidly, including attacking them at South Mountain before cornering them along Antietam Creek outside of Sharpsburg.

The Greatest Battles in History: Antietam and the Maryland Campaign comprehensively covers the entire Maryland campaign, including Lee’s strategy, the fighting at Harpers Ferry and South Mountain, the discovery of the infamous Lost Orders, and the climactic fighting at Antietam. Along with bibliographies, maps of the battle, and pictures of important people and places, you will learn about the Maryland Campaign like you never have before.

Leseprobe

The Greatest Battles in History: Antietam and the Maryland Campaign of 1862

By Charles River Editors

Illustration depicting the fighting at Fox’s Gap, South Mountain

About Charles River Editors

Charles River Editors was founded by Harvard and MIT alumni to provide superior editing and original writing services, with the expertise to create digital content for publishers across a vast range of subject matter. In addition to providing original digital content for third party publishers, Charles River Editors republishes civilization’s greatest literary works, bringing them to a new generation via ebooks.

Introduction

Illustration of the fighting around Burnside’s Bridge during Antietam

The Maryland Campaign

"Those in whose judgment I rely tell me that I fought the battle splendidly and that it was a masterpiece of art. ... I feel I have done all that can be asked in twice saving the country. ... I feel some little pride in having, with a beaten & demoralized army, defeated Lee so utterly." - George McClellan

The names of history’s most famous battles still ring in our ears today, their influence immediately understood by all. Marathon lent its name to the world’s most famous race, but it also preserved Western civilization during the First Persian War. Saratoga, won by one of the colonists’ most renowned war heroes before he became his nation’s most vile traitor. Hastings ensured the Normans’ success in England and changed the course of British history. Waterloo, which marked the reshaping of the European continent and Napoleon’s doom, has now become part of the English lexicon. In Charles River Editors’ Greatest Battles in History series, readers can get caught up to speed on history’s greatest battles in the time it takes to finish a commute, while learning interesting facts long forgotten or never known.

The bloodiest day in American history took place on the 75th anniversary of the signing of the Constitution. On September 17, 1862, Robert E. Lee’s Confederate Army of Northern Virginia fought George McClellan’s Union Army of the Potomac outside Sharpsburg along Antietam Creek. That day, nearly 25,000 would become casualties, and Lee’s army would barely survive fighting the much bigger Northern army. Although the battle was tactically a draw, it resulted in forcing Lee’s army out of Maryland and back into Virginia, making it a strategic victory for the North and an opportune time for President Abraham Lincoln to issue the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing all slaves in the rebellious states.

For those reasons, Antietam is remembered as one of the major turning points of the Civil War, but it is often overlooked that the bloody battle only represented the climactic culmination of a 3 week campaign that saw George McClellan cautiously pull a fragmented Union army together and begin tracking Lee’s army into Maryland. Sizing up McClellan, Lee had split his army up during its invasion, including sending Stonewall Jackson’s men to Harpers Ferry, but the whole course of the campaign and possibly the war changed when the Union Army somehow found a copy of Lee’s marching orders, telling them where the Confederate army would be and when. To Lee’s surprise, McClellan’s army began advancing far more rapidly, including attacking them at South Mountain before cornering them along Antietam Creek outside of Sharpsburg.

The Greatest Battles in History: Antietam and the Maryland Campaign comprehensively covers the entire Maryland campaign, including Lee’s strategy, the fighting at Harpers Ferry and South Mountain, the discovery of the infamous Lost Orders, and the climactic fighting at Antietam. Along with bibliographies, maps of the battle, and pictures of important people and places, you will learn about the Maryland Campaign like you never have before.

The Greatest Battles in History: Antietam and the Maryland Campaign of 1862

About Charles River Editors

Introduction

Chapter 1: Second Bull Run

Chapter 2: Lee Decides to Invade Maryland

Chapter 3: Initial Movements

Chapter 4: The Lost Order

Chapter 5: Harpers Ferry

Chapter 6: South Mountain

Chapter 7: Dispositions Before the Battle of Antietam

Chapter 8: The Beginning of the Battle

Chapter 9: The Center

Chapter 10: Burnside’s Attack

Chapter 11: Lee’s Retreat and the Aftermath

Bibliography

Chapter 1: Second Bull Run

After Robert E. Lee was installed as the commander of the Army of Northern Virginia during the Peninsula Campaign in June 1862, he quickly rallied the Confederate forces around Richmond and beat back George McClellan’s Army of the Potomac later that month in a series of battles known as the Seven Days’ Battles. As McClellan retreated up the peninsula, Lee reorganized the Army of Northern Virginia into the structure it is best remembered by. Stonewall Jackson now took command of a force consisting of his own division (now commanded by Brig. General Charles S. Winder) and those of Maj. General Richard S. Ewell, Brig. General William H. C. Whiting, and Maj. General D. H. Hill. The other wing of Lee’s army was commanded by James Longstreet. On July 25, 1862, after the conclusion of the Seven Days Battles had brought the Peninsula Campaign to an end, JEB Stuart was promoted to Major General, his command upgraded to Cavalry Division.

Lee during the war

Stonewall Jackson

James Longstreet

JEB Stuart

Even before McClellan had completely withdrawn his troops, Lee sent Jackson’s forces northward to intercept the new army Abraham Lincoln had placed under Maj. General John Pope, formed out of the scattered troops in the Virginia area. Pope had found success in the Western theater, and he was uncommonly brash, instructing the previously defeated men now under his command that his soldiers in the West were accustomed to seeing the backs of the enemy. Pope’s arrogance turned off his own men, and it also caught the notice of Lee.

On June 26, General Pope deployed his forces in an arc across Northern Virginia; its right flank under Maj. General Franz Sigel positioned at Sperryville on the Blue Ridge Mountains, its center columns under Maj. General Nathaniel P. Banks at Little Washington, and its left flank under Maj. General Irvin McDowell at Falmouth on the Rappahannock River. On July 13, Lee responded by sending Jackson with 14,000 men to Gordonsville, with Maj. General A. P. Hill's division of 10,000 men set to join him by July 27.

At the Battle of Cedar Mountain in Culpeper County, Virginia, Major General Hill is credited with coming to the aid of Jackson’s men by launching a Light Division counterattack that stabilized the Confederate left flank, thus preventing it from being routed by Union Maj. General Nathaniel P. Banks. Jackson, who had not reconnoitered properly, was in danger of being beaten back by the vanguard of Banks' force when Hill came rushing in and changed the course of the battle, leading to a collapse of the Union right.

Though outsiders thought Hill and Jackson worked like a “well oiled war machine,” in reality, the two were maintaining an increasingly contentious relationship, one that would have a major impact upon the subsequent Maryland Campaign. During the entirety of the Northern Virginia/Second Bull Run Campaign, Hill was involved in numerous disputes with Stonewall Jackson concerning Jackson's marching orders to Hill. Jackson had made several subordinates bristle because of his secrecy and his refusal to communicate objectives to them when on the march. By some accounts, Jackson sought to have Hill moved to another command, with most historians concurring that at a minimum, Jackson had Hill placed under arrest as his division entered Maryland in the fall of 1862, and subsequently had to be released by Lee's direct order so that he could participate in the capture of Harpers Ferry in September.

A.P.Hill

The fact the two generals were at each other’s throats was somewhat ironic, given that both of them were stern men. One of the men in his regiment recalled Hill’s actions during the battle:

“I saw A.P. Hill that day as he was putting his ‘Light Division’ into battle, and was very much struck with his appearance. In his shirtsleeves and with drawn sword he sought to arrest the stragglers who were coming to the rear, and seeing a Lieutenant in the number, he rode at him and fiercely inquired: "Who are you, sir, and where are you going?" The trembling Lieutenant replied: "I am going back with my wounded friend." Hill reached down and tore the insignia of rank from his collar as he roughly said: "You are a pretty fellow to hold a commission -- deserting your colors in the presence of the enemy, and going to the rear with a man who is scarcely badly enough wounded to go himself. I reduce you to the ranks, sir, and if you do not go to the front and do your duty, I'll have you shot as soon as I can spare a file of men for the purpose." And then clearing the road, he hurried forward his men to the splendid service which was before them.”

Following the Battle of Cedar Mountain, General Jackson amassed his corps and divisions, including Hill’s Light Division, and marched (without opposition) to the Rappahannock River in eastern Virginia.

Once certain McClellan was in full retreat, Lee joined Jackson, planning to strike Pope before McClellan’s troops could arrive as reinforcements. In late August 1862, in a “daring and unorthodox” move, Lee divided his forces and sent Jackson northward to flank them, ultimately bringing Jackson directly behind Pope’s army and supply base. This forced Pope to fall back to Manassas to protect his flank and maintain his lines of communication. Recognizing Lee’s genius for military strategy, General Jackson quickly became Lee’s most trusted commander, and he would later say that he so trusted Lee’s military instincts that he would even follow him into battle blindfolded.

When Pope’s army fell back to Manassas to confront Jackson, his wing of Lee’s army dug in along a railroad trench and took a defensive stance. The Second Battle of Manassas or Bull Run was fought August 28-30, beginning with the Union army throwing itself at Jackson the first two days. By daybreak on August 28, Major General Hill was positioned on the Confederate left along the “unfinished railroad,” showing for the first time his ability to not only be a good offensive fighter but a good defensive fighter by holding the line against repeated Union attacks while three horses were shot out from under him. But regardless of his successes, his contentious relationship with Jackson proceeded to escalate, overshadowing his accomplishments.