Posted on 12/12/2019 9:50:10 AM PST by Perseverando
The Confederate Army was unstoppable - within weeks of winning the Civil War.
General Robert E. Lee had won the Second Battle of Bull Run and was marching 55,000 Confederate troops into Maryland on September 3, 1862.
The Confederate Army was welcomed into Maryland as anti-Union protests had been filling Baltimore's streets.
On September 13, 1862, President Lincoln met with Rev. William Patterson, Rev. John Dempster and other Methodist, Baptist and Congregational leaders.
The ministers presented Lincoln with a petition urging him to emancipate the slaves.
Lincoln told them:
"I am approached with the most opposite opinions and advice ...
I hope it will not be irreverent for me to say that if it is probable that God would reveal His will to others, on a point so connected with my duty, it might be supposed He will reveal it directly to me;
for, unless I am more deceived in myself than I often am, it is my earnest desire to know the will of Providence in this matter ...
These are not, however, the days of miracles, and I suppose it will be granted that I am not to expect a direct revelation."
The same day, September 13, 1862, Union Private Barton W. Mitchell was drinking coffee and inadvertently noticed three cigars on the ground wrapped with a piece of paper.
The paper was a copy of Lee's Special Orders No. 191 addressed to Confederate General D.H. Hill revealing his plan to divide the Confederate Army.
With this information in Union hands, the South's anticipated victory was cut short.
Union General George McClellan was now able to intercept and ambush several Confederate brigades just 70 miles from Washington, DC.
This erupted into the Battle of Antietam,
(Excerpt) Read more at myemail.constantcontact.com ...
Which General McClellan could have won if he had not attacked in piecemeal and had sent a cavalry unit around the battlefield to take control of the bridges.
Capturing Lee on the battlefield would have REALLY changed the Civil War and US history. The war would have ended, the South would have sued for peace, and McClellan would have succeeded Lincoln as President.
It was the cute gal from “Timeless” with her time machine what did it.
Except he was George McClellan, possibly the worst commander any army fielded by the United States has ever had.
(Great trainer, horrible commander)
I think it was Kryten & Dave Lister!
Another failure by “Little Mac”. With vital info in his hands about the dispersion of Lee’s forces, Little Mac can only manage a stalemate. What a loser.
There were no bridges. Lee fought with his back to the river. Packhorse/Boteler’s Ford was the only way out. McClellan was clearly paralyzed by the weight of decision. He might have made an admirable chief of staff but was temperamentally unsuited to command. His chronic tendency to credit Lee with vastly exaggerated numbers is the iconic symptom. At Antietam, he was also hyper-sensitive to a theoretical threat to his open left flank. After the Seven Days and Second Manassas campaigns, one can understand the sensitivity; leave a flank open and Lee would find it with half his army. But McClellan lost all perspective.
One of the great speculations of the Civil War. Thanks for posting!
Was it ever determined who actually lost the order? I know this was debated endlessly after the war, but I don’t know if there was ever a consensus reached. D.H. Hill denied he was responsible in an article published in The Century magazine, and even produced his copy of the order.
Some blame DH Hill. Others point to Maj. Henry Kyd.
My mistake. I hadn’t thought about this particular battle since I wrote a paper on it back in 1993. But I have always been totally fascinated in the possible change in US history if McClellan had been more bold.
I visited the Sharpsburg battlefield in 2012. I was amazed that the Dunker Church, Burnside’s Bridge and other features were still there and that corn was still being grown in the famous Corn Field.
True, true, true, true and true.
Historians have been to focused on who lost the order, rather than who lost the cigars.
New information has been brought to light that a Private Lewinsky had been appointed official cigar smuggler of the confederacy, and it is likely that she blew the entire operation.
I’ll give you Sharpsburg; the battle wrapped around the village. I’ll sympathize that naming a battle over a geological feature instead of a town is dehumanizing. But Manassas was just a stretch of land between Centerville, Groveton and New Market.
“The Confederate Army was unstoppable - within weeks of winning the Civil War.”
A slight exaggeration don’t you think.
Almost the entire state of Tennessee and the Southern half of Louisiana, including the city of New Orleans was in Union hand. Almost the entire coast of North Carolina and South Carolina was occupation by Union forces. The Union controlled the Mississippi river down to Vicksburg, MS and below Port Hudson, LA. The Confederate Army had been forced to withdraw from Kentucky. The Western Confederate Army had lost almost every battle it fought in 1862.
It seems a lot of folks think that the Civil War was just between General Lee and whom ever Lincoln appointed to command the Army of the Potomac. It was a much bigger affair.
A quote if have heard but do not know the source “Lee saved the front porch, while the rest of the house burned down.”
Even if Lee had been successful at Antietam, the war would not have ended because of that victory.
An interesting video on Special Orders 191: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=4&v=HjKKoLHwwB8
Oops - I forgot to reset the counter...
There should be statues of this American hero in every state of the Union.
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