Lecture Fifteen Antietam
Scope: This lecture shifts the spotlight from Kentucky to Virginia to complete our consideration of the great Confederate counteroffensive in the autumn of 1862. However important the campaign in Kentucky might have been militarily, the Virginia theater continued to command greater attention. This gave special urgency to the events that followed McClellan's retreat from Richmond after the Seven Days. The initial confrontation pitted Lee against John Pope. When Lincoln recalled McClellan's army from the peninsula to Washington, Lee hurried to confront Pope along the Rappahannock River. Three weeks of probing, punctuated by a stirring march around Pope's western flank by "Stonewall" Jackson's command, brought the armies to the old Manassas battleground on August 28-30. Three days of combat left Lee and his soldiers with a major victory in the battle of Second Manassas or Bull Run, after which the Army of Northern Virginia quickly marched north and crossed the Potomac River into Maryland. With Lee on Union soil, Lincoln reluctantly returned McClellan to field command. Fighting in the gaps of South Mountain on September 14 and Jackson's capture of 12,000 Federals at Harpers Ferry preceded the horrific battle of Antietam, where more than 23,000 men fell in the bloodiest day in American history. Lee soon withdrew to Virginia, but McClellan declined to press his advantage. Although Lee's last thrust had been blunted, his army had logged three months of hard marching and fighting that reoriented the military frontier from the outskirts of Richmond to the Potomac River. Beyond the battlefield, Antietam emboldened Lincoln to issue his preliminary Proclamation of Emancipation and prompted the British and French to back away from plans to try to mediate an end to the war.
Post a comment