Background
Describing his army as "not properly equipped for an invasion of an enemy's territory," Lee nevertheless counseled Confederate president Jefferson Davis—who worried about his capital's security—that "we cannot afford to be idle" and that "as long as the army of the enemy are employed on this frontier I have no fears for the safety of Richmond." Lee cited a number of reasons for the campaign. He hoped that Maryland, a slave state, would join the Confederacy. He also hoped to undermine Northern morale enough that in the autumn voters might elect a Congress intent on "peace at any price." Recognizing that a move northward would force pursuing Union troops to evacuate Virginia, Lee hoped that the autumn harvest, especially in the Shenandoah Valley, would be available to sustain his army and the citizens of Virginia through the winter. These were reasons enough to overcome Lee's reservation about his army's lack of shoes, horses, and supplies.
The Campaign Begins
The Lost Order
Lee's plan found official expression in Special Orders No. 191, duplicates of which were distributed to various subordinates. Lee addressed one of these copies to Confederate general Daniel Harvey Hill. Jackson also sent Hill a copy, and after the war, Hill produced the order from Jackson. The one from Lee, however, was lost in the vicinity of Frederick.
In the meantime, McClellan lacked solid evidence of the Confederate army's size and the direction of its movements, and he thus continued to advance on a broad front in order to defend both Washington and Baltimore. While pushing toward Frederick, his army covering each of the three main roads, McClellan received widely varied estimates of Lee's intentions and numbers. His best guess, based on cavalry and civilian reports, put Confederate strength at about 100,000 men, or not quite double the size of Lee's actual force. McClellan based his operations on this figure, leading him to move with what later historians criticized as too much caution.
While Jackson pursued his prize at Harpers Ferry, the rest of the Army of Northern Virginia marched north to Hagerstown. This happened sooner than Lee had originally outlined, but the general had heard that Union troops might be approaching Hagerstown from the north, and he determined that the town was crucial to his operation. D. H. Hill's men brought up the Confederate rear, leaving Frederick on September 11.
On September 12, the Army of Northern Virginia was dangerously spread across roughly twenty-one miles, from Harpers Ferry north to Hagerstown. Providing the only link between Jackson in the south and James Longstreet's men to the north, D. H. Hill's division was then at Boonsboro, near South Mountain. The town was situated about halfway between Frederick and Hagerstown, and about halfway between Hagerstown and Harpers Ferry. McClellan was jubilant. On September 13 he sent a telegram to Lincoln: "I have the whole rebel force in front of me … I think Lee has made a gross mistake, and that he will be severely punished for it."
His jubilation was tempered with caution, however, as the Lost Order appeared to confirm his belief in Lee's superior numbers. After listing the various divisions detached with Jackson, the order twice referred to the "main body" of the army, suggesting that Lee commanded a force so large he did not fear dividing it in enemy territory. If the order called attention to the challenges in confronting Lee's army, it also demanded action. Already having ordered his men to move in the direction of South Mountain, McClellan now understood that an attack there would divide the Confederates, rescue the Harpers Ferry garrison, and perhaps allow him to destroy Lee's army piece by piece.
On the evening of September 13, Lee hastily ordered Hill to block the roads that traveled over South Mountain, hoping to buy time while Jackson continued his siege of Harpers Ferry. The first real fighting of the Maryland Campaign was about to begin.
Battle of South Mountain
By eight o'clock that night Lee realized his campaign was in jeopardy. McClellan's success at South Mountain had cost the Confederates nearly 3,000 casualties, compared with Union losses of slightly more than 2,000, and if Lee now failed to concentrate his scattered forces in time, then he risked losing his entire army. He ordered McLaws—and likely Jackson and Walker, too—to retreat back across the Potomac and arranged for the rest of the army to regroup at Shepherdstown Ford, in Virginia.
Retreat to Sharpsburg
At Harpers Ferry, Union forces under the command of Colonel Dixon S. Miles ran up a white flag at about eight thirty that morning. After Miles was mortally wounded by a stray shell, Union general Julius White officially surrendered about 12,500 men, their rifles, seventy-three artillery pieces, and other supplies. After a quick breakfast, Jackson began the march to Sharpsburg, with the first of his men arriving at dawn on September 16. Lee quickly placed them on the Confederate left flank, along the Hagerstown Pike. His right flank was securely anchored on Antietam Creek, and the Confederates controlled the southern two bridges of the three that crossed it.
McClellan, looking for an advantage, ordered Hooker's First Corps to cross at the northernmost bridge and prepare to attack the Confederate left flank first thing in the morning. On the west side of Antietam Creek, near a bit of forest now known as the East Woods, Hooker's men quickly encountered Confederates under John Bell Hood. A lively firefight flared at dusk and soon settled into sporadic skirmishing that lasted throughout the night.
Battle of Antietam
Lee had spread all of his army—except for A. P. Hill's division, which was still marching from Harpers Ferry—along the Hagerstown Pike and across two and a half miles of Maryland countryside. In the north, Confederates held a ridge on the Nicodemus farm, across a cornfield belonging to David R. Miller, and anchored on a plateau near the white-brick Dunker Church and across the pike from the West Woods. D. H. Hill's men commanded the center of the line, positioned on a farm lane that ran east to west and sank below ground level.
By eight thirty in the morning, when McClellan dispatched two divisions of Edwin V. Sumner's Second Corps to bolster Hooker, thousands of men already lay dead or dying amid broken stalks of corn and the battered remnants of trees. Union general Joseph K. F. Mansfield had been mortally wounded an hour earlier, while Hooker suffered a gunshot wound to the foot. The Confederates hardly fared better. Jackson's division—named for Stonewall Jackson and containing the famed Stonewall Brigade—had been reduced to only a few hundred men and, with its highest-ranking officers all fallen, was now commanded by a lieutenant colonel. For now, 11,700 Confederates had bent but not broken before 16,500 Union attackers, but Lee had run out of nearby reinforcements. He rushed two divisions in support of Jackson's men: John Walker's, at the extreme right of the Confederate line, and McLaws's, still tired after its night-march from Harpers Ferry.
At the same time that Sedgwick and French emerged from the East Woods, Union general Ambrose E. Burnside was to attack the Confederates on their far right, over the southernmost bridge. The idea was to prevent Lee from borrowing troops from his right to reinforce his left, and after a short delay, the attack got started between nine and ten in the morning. Burnside made several small runs at the 500 Confederates on the west bank of the Antietam, but the bridge—an arched, stone walkway—was too narrow to mount an effective charge. Finally, Burnside sent troops downstream, where they found a place to ford the creek and then came upon the Confederates from behind. At the same time, a small storming party made one last rush on what came to be known as Burnside's Bridge. One Virginia soldier described the fighting as "volumes of musketry and noise of the artillery … mingled in one vast roar that shook the earth." By one o'clock the crossing was in Union hands.
Shepherdstown Ford
After a difficult night-crossing of the river, Lee moved toward Charlestown, leaving a rearguard to prevent Union troops from following. That evening, elements of Union general Fitz-John Porter's Fifth Corps swept aside the small Confederate force and captured a few pieces of artillery. Once again A. P. Hill's men saved the day, returning to the ford on the morning of September 20 and driving the Union troops from Virginia.
Aftermath
After two months of waiting, Lincoln used the victory at Antietam to issue the Emancipation Proclamation on September 22. (It became effective January 1, 1863.) The document offered seceded states the right to return to the Union and keep their slaves, but if they did not, their slaves were declared "forever free." Slavery itself was not outlawed, owners were not compensated, and newly freed slaves were not made citizens. In addition, the proclamation could not free slaves in non-seceded states, but it did make enslaved African Americans in the Confederate states an economic and political object of the war while satisfying political pressure from Radical Republicans to more forcefully address the slavery question. In the process, the Lincoln administration shifted its reason for fighting from restoring the union to ending slavery. While Confederates were predictably outraged and some Union soldiers grumbled, the shift helped the president diplomatically. England and France had long abolished slavery, and Lincoln correctly judged that they would not now intervene on behalf of a slave state.
Victory at Antietam did nothing to abate a long-simmering tension between Lincoln and McClellan. For political reasons, the president was happy to capitalize on the Army of the Potomac's success, but he still refused to accord much credit to its leader, whom he viewed as a potential political rival. Even in 1862, it was well established that successful generals became presidents, and the Republicans were not anxious to jeopardize their political control by lionizing McClellan, who was a Democrat.
Time Line
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September 2, 1862 - After the Union defeat at the Second Battle of Manassas, President Abraham Lincoln places George B. McClellan in command of the defenses of Washington, D.C.
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September 3, 1862 - Confederate general Robert E. Lee orders the Army of Northern Virginia to cross the Potomac River into Maryland. Union general George B. McClellan is ordered to assemble a field army.
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September 4, 1862 - Confederate general Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson's troops enter Maryland, crossing at White's Ford in Loudoun County.
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September 5, 1862 - Advance elements of Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia reach the crossroads of Frederick, Maryland. Abraham Lincoln and Henry W. Halleck offer Union general George B. McClellan field command of Union forces.
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September 6, 1862 - Union general John Pope is relieved of his command of the Army of Virginia following his defeat at the Second Battle of Manassas. He is reassigned to the Department of the Northwest to help suppress a Sioux Indian uprising in Minnesota.
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September 7, 1862 - The Army of Northern Virginia concentrates approximately 65,000 of its men in Frederick, Maryland.
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September 8, 1862 - From Frederick, Maryland, Robert E. Lee issues a "Proclamation to the People of Maryland," declaring that his campaign would free Marylanders to join the Confederacy. Union cavalrymen skirmish with Confederate pickets at Urbana.
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September 9, 1862 - Confederate general Robert E. Lee issues Special Orders No. 191, instructing Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson to take about two-thirds of the Army of Northern Virginia and march south from Frederick, Maryland, to the Union garrison at Harpers Ferry.
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September 10, 1862 - Pursuant to Special Orders No. 191, Confederate troops under Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson begin their march toward Harpers Ferry. The rest of the Army of Northern Virginia marches north, from Frederick, Maryland, to Hagerstown.
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September 11, 1862 - As the pursuing Army of the Potomac nears, Confederate general D. H. Hill's men are the last Confederates to leave Frederick, Maryland.
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September 12, 1862 - Forces from the Union Ninth Corps skirmish with Confederate cavalry in Frederick, Maryland. To the south, Confederate general Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson's troops approach Harpers Ferry.
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September 13, 1862 - Confederates under Lafayette McLaws encounter Union troops at Maryland Heights, to the north of Harpers Ferry. Corporal Barton W. Mitchell of the 27th Indiana finds a stray copy of Robert E. Lee's Special Orders No. 191, detailing the Confederate army's movements in Maryland and Virginia.
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September 14, 1862 - At the Battle of South Mountain, Union forces attack Confederates and take Fox's and Crampton's gaps but aren't able to break the line at Turner's Gap. To the south, Confederates begin their bombardment of Harpers Ferry, but Robert E. Lee orders a general retreat from Maryland, to begin at eight o'clock in the evening.
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September 15, 1862 - Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson captures the Union garrison at Harpers Ferry. Robert E. Lee calls off the Confederate retreat and moves to concentrate his forces on Antietam Creek near Sharpsburg, Maryland.
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September 16, 1862 - As the Union and Confederate armies consolidate their forces near Sharpsburg, Maryland, an artillery duel breaks out across Antietam Creek. Union general George B. McClellan orders Joseph Hooker's men across the creek to prepare for an attack on the Confederate left flank first thing in the morning.
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September 17, 1862, 5:30 a.m. - After a night of rain, Confederate artillery opens fire to begin the Battle of Antietam. Soon after, Union forces under Joseph Hooker attack the Confederate left. Fighting ranges from the West Woods to the high ground around the Dunker Church.
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September 17, 1862, 7:30 a.m. - Union general Joseph K. F. Mansfield is mortally wounded at the Battle of Antietam.
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September 17, 1862, 8:30 a.m. - Union general George B. McClellan dispatches two divisions of Edwin V. Sumner's Second Corps to reinforce Joseph Hooker's men at the Battle of Antietam. Confederate reinforcements arrive just in time to drive Sumner's men back. Union general John Sedgwick is shot three times.
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September 17, 1862, 9:00–10:00 a.m. - At the Battle of Antietam, Union general Ambrose E. Burnside's Ninth Corps attacks Confederates across a narrow bridge over Antietam Creek.
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September 17, 1862, 9:30 a.m. - At the Battle of Antietam, Union general William H. French's division attacks D. H. Hill's Confederates defending a sunken road that comes to be known as Bloody Lane.
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September 17, 1862, 12:30 p.m. - At the Battle of Antietam, the sunken road known as Bloody Lane falls to Union troops after three hours of fighting.
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September 17, 1862, 1:00 p.m. - The southernmost bridge across Antietam Creek falls to Union troops under Ambrose E. Burnside. For the next two hours, Union troops cross the bridge and organize for an attack. Confederate general A. P. Hill arrives in time to attack Burnside and halt his advance.
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September 18, 1862 - A day after the bloody Battle of Antietam, Confederate general Robert E. Lee decides to retreat back across the Potomac River. During the evening the Army of Northern Virginia begins to cross Boteler's Ford into Virginia.
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September 19, 1862 - With support from Fitz-John Porter's Fifth Corps, Union cavalry under Alfred Pleasonton take positions opposite Shepherdstown on the Maryland shore of the Potomac River. Union and Confederate artillery duel throughout the day. That evening, 500 Union troops cross the ford and attack Confederate positions, capturing five cannon.
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September 20, 1862 - The Battle of Shepherdstown ends in a tactical stalemate, but Confederate general Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia is saved from destruction as it retreats from Maryland.
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September 22, 1862 - President Abraham Lincoln issues the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation.
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October 2, 1862 - President Abraham Lincoln visits Union general George B. McClellan at his headquarters near Sharpsburg, Maryland. The president orders the general to march overland to Richmond, a strategy McClellan has long opposed.
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November 5, 1862 - President Abraham Lincoln, unhappy with George B. McClellan's pursuit of the Army of Northern Virginia following the Battle of Antietam in September, removes the general from command of Army of the Potomac. He is transferred to duty in Trenton, New Jersey.
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November 7, 1862 - Union general George B. McClellan receives an order from President Abraham Lincoln relieving him of command of the Army of the Potomac.
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Categories
- Civil War, American (1861–1865)
References
Further Reading
Cite This Entry
- APA Citation:
Clemens, T. G. Maryland Campaign. (2012, September 20). In Encyclopedia Virginia. Retrieved from http://www.EncyclopediaVirginia.org/Maryland_Campaign.
- MLA Citation:
Clemens, Thomas G. "Maryland Campaign." Encyclopedia Virginia. Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, 20 Sep. 2012. Web. READ_DATE.
First published: September 13, 2012 | Last modified: September 20, 2012
Contributed by Thomas G. Clemens, a retired history professor at Hagerstown Community College, in Hagerstown, Maryland. He is also president of Save Historic Antietam Foundation, Inc., and a tour guide at Antietam National Battlefield, both located in Sharpsburg, Maryland.