The Maryland campaign was a major campaign of the Eastern Theater of the American Civil War which occurred from 4 to 20 September 1862 when the Confederate general Robert E. Lee led his Army of Northern Virginia in an invasion of Maryland which resulted in the indecisive Battle of Antietam on 17 September. There, he was fought to a draw by the Union general George B. McClellan and his Army of the Potomac, but McClellan refused to press his advantage and destroy Lee's army, prolonging the war by two and a half years and resulting in McClellan's sacking by President Abraham Lincoln.
Background[]
Success at the Second Battle of Bull Run left Confederate general Robert E. Lee facing an important decision: how to follow up his victory. The Union troops defeated by Lee had retreated into the defenses of Washington DC. Now Lee chose to invade the North. On every front, the Confederates were poised for action. In Arkansas, General Thomas Hindman was preparing to retake Missouri. In Mississippi, Earl van Dorn and Sterling Price were gathering forces for a possible offensive against Ulysses S. Grant's Army of the Tennessee. On 3 September 1862, just three days after Second Bull Run, Lee wrote to President Jefferson Davis: "The present seems to be the most propitious time...for the Confederate army to enter Maryland."
History[]
Advanced units of General Robert E. Lee's army began fording the Potomac River on 4 September. He was acutely aware that the physical state of his force was poor: "It lacks much of the material of war," he wrote to President Davis, "is feeble in transportation, the animals being much reduced, and the men are poorly provided with clothes and in thousands of instances are destitute of shoes." Lee believed that the Union forces around Washington were also "in a very demoralized and chaotic condition" after Second Bull Run and that the cautious General George B. McClellan now commanding them would stay in his defensive positions for at least four weeks. Lee's presence in Maryland might up opinion in the North against continuing the war; at the very least, it would keep the Union armies on the defensive. But if Lee thought the Union Army was dispirited, he also had concerns about his own.
A shrinking force[]
Many of the Confederate troops were euphoric as a result of their victories through the summer, and advanced into Maryland with enthusiasm. But others were tired of soldiering barefoot on an empty stomach and reluctant to venture beyond the limits of the Confederacy. While Lee called for stiff disciplinary action against "stragglers," troops deserted in the thousands. Hopes that Marylanders would flock to fill the ranks quickly evaporated. Those who wanted to fight for the Confederate cause had already gone South earlier in the war. Except by slaveholders, the invading army was not welcomed as liberators. Most civilians barred their doors against them. The locals observed the ragged condition of the army with shock and awe. Describing the "gaunt starvation" evident in their faces, one Maryland woman, Mary Mitchell, wrote: "That they could march or fight at all seemed incredible." Initially Lee had hoped Maryland's fertile land would provide food and fodder. The reality was that his troops ate green corn and suffered in consequence.
Union stand[]
Lee had assumed that garrisons threatened by his advance into Maryland would be withdrawn to avoid capture. But the Union army at Harpers Ferry was ordered by the commander-in-chief, General Henry Halleck, to hold its position, despite McClellan's protests. On 9 September, General Stonewall Jackson marched the bulk of the Confederate army back across the river to seize Harpers Ferry. General James Longstreet was sent to Boonsboro to defend Jackson against a possible Union assault through the passes across South Mountain. But he was diverted to Hagerstown after a false report of a Union column marching toward him. Defense of the passes was left primarily to a division under General Daniel Harvey Hill, aided by General J.E.B. stuart's cavalry. By dividing his army, Lee exposed himself to "defeat in detail," but again he gambled on McClellan's inertia. With his forces scattered, Lee was to find he had miscalculated the state of the Union army.
The merger of the Army of Virginia into McClellan's Army of the Potomac after Second Bull Run resulted in a remarkable revival of morale. Soldiers greeted McClellan as a savior. Ordered by President Abraham Lincoln "to destroy the rebel army," McClellan led a revitalized 70,000-strong force out of Washington in pursuit of Lee.
Union luck[]
On 13 September, McClellan's troops entered Frederick, recently vacated by the Army of Northern Virginia. McClellan then enjoyed a stroke of luck. A copy of Lee's Special Order 191, circulated to all the Confederate commanders on 9 September, was found in a field outside the town and passed to McClellan's staff. It gave full details of Lee's forces. McClellan was exultant, declaring: "Here is a paper with which if I cannot whip Bobbie Lee, I will be willing to go home." On the night of 13 September, Union forces moved toward South Mountain. Once through the passes they would be able to attack Lee's army before it could concentrate or escape. While Longstreet marched back from Hagerstown, the Confederate defenses at the mountain passes were tightly held. Fighting raged through 14 September. Crampton's Gap fell after hours of resistance by a handful of Confederates faced with 12,000 Union troops, but this was exploited too late. Turner's Gap and Fox's Gap were held by D.H. Hill's division throughout the day. The delay this imposed on McClellan's army was enough to allow Lee to escape. On 15 September, McClellan ordered his troops to retreat to the town of Sharpsburg, between Antietam Creek and the Potomac.
Taking Harpers Ferry[]
Meanwhile, Jackson was threatening Harpers Ferry. The arsenal was guarded by 11,000 green Union troops under Colonel Dixon Stansbury Miles. Holding the high ground, the Confederates sited their artillery and attacked at will. Harpers Ferry surrendered on 15 September. Jackson seized military stores as well as 11,000 prisoners. Leaving Major General A.P. Hill's men in charge, Jackson joined Lee at Sharpsburg. He arrived on 16 September to find Lee facing McClellan's army across Antietam Creek. All day the opposing artillery batteries had been dueling. Darkness brought the additional rattle of heavy skirmishing up and down the lines, a prelude to impending battle.
Although Lee was buoyed by news of Jackson's success at Harpers Ferry, he was also unwilling to accept that his Maryland campaign had failed. McClellan, meanwhile, proceeded with his habitual caution. On 15 September, his Army of the Potomac had begun arriving at Antietam Creek, but left Lee undisturbed on the opposite bank. The next day, McClellan had some 60,000 men facing 25,000 Confederates. By 17 September he was ready, but Lee had amassed most of his men, so the chance of a decisive Union victory was missed.
The Battle of Antietam[]
With scattered forces still arriving, by nightfall on 16 September Lee had just 25,000 men. Lee gave command of the left of his line to Jackson and the right to James Longstreet, the two wings meeting at Dunker Church. McClellan had some 75,000 troops on the opposite side of Antietam Creek. On the evening of 16 September, he started moving Joseph Hooker's corps across the creek to Lee's left. Initial skirmishes allowed the Confederates to identify the direction of the main Union thrust of the following morning.
At dawn on 17 September, as Joseph Hooker's corps advanced up the Hagerstown Pike to slam into the left flank of General Robert E. Lee's army, the prospect for the Confederates was grim. Union troops advanced in daunting mass, well equipped and uniformed, in marked contrast to the ragged Rebels. There were no earthworks, so the soldiers fought in the open or were sheltered only by trees or terrain from the storm of artillery and infantry fire that erupted. Furious fighting raged in the Cornfield and the West Woods - locations lost and retaken time and again at an appalling cost in lives.
Battle for the West Woods[]
Brigadier General John Bell Hood's Texans, reportedly angered at having their breakfast interrupted, seized the West Woods back from the Union Iron Brigade at the expense of 64% casualties, with the 1st Texas Infantry Regiment sustaining losses of 82%. A Union division ordered forward by Major General Edwin V. Sumner counterattacked from the flank out of the West Woods, losing more than 2,000 men in half an hour.
Lee holds his ground[]
McClellan, in the safety of the Pry House on the other side of Antietam Creek, well away from the savagery of the battlefield, failed to coordinate the action of his different corps. Thus, while the Confederates weathered storm after storm on their left - at one point even losing Dunker Church only to retake it later - there was no pressure on their right or center. Even when joined by two more divisions in the course of the morning, Lee still did not have half McClellan's strength. But he was able to maneuver troops across from his center and right to reinforce his left, and by midmorning he had fought the Union troops on that flank to a standstill.
Holding the sunken road[]
It was 9:30 AM before a Union division attacked the Confederate center, held by 2,500 men under Major General D.H. Hill. holding a sunken wagon road that, with good reason, became known as Bloody Lane, Hill's outnumbered infantry repulsed a series of Union assaults, inflicting some 3,000 casualties on their enemy before being forced to withdraw when their exposed flank was caught in enfilading fire - sweeping the length of their line. Even then Union forces were unable to break through; two entire corps that could have been committed to the sector were standing idle across the creek.
McClellan's original battle plan had envisaged Major General Ambrose Burnside distracting the Confederate right, while the main Union attack went in on the left. But Burnside did not move until 10 AM, and then chose to feed his divisions across the Lower Bridge, which would later come to bear his name. On the Confederate side, Burnside's Bridge was covered by the fire of Georgian sharpshooters and artillery under the command of Brigadier-General Robert Toombs. Union forces took three hours to fight their way across and even then could not exploit their success.
McClellan's folly[]
Union luck appeared to change in the afternoon, with Lee facing potential disaster. Federal troops belatedly found a crossing to Lee's right at Snavely's Ford. They threatened not only to stave in his right flank, but also to cut off his only line of retreat to the Potomac River. Had McClellan committed all his forces at this moment he would surely have won the day, but, ever cautious, he insisted on retaining his reserves - 20,000 men who never fired a shot.
Lee was saved by the belated arrival of A.P. Hill's division, force-marched from Harpers Ferry. Its unexpected appearance on his flank led Burnside to withdraw prudently back across the creek. In the late afternoon, fighting ceased. There seemed every reason to expect that McClellan would resume his offensive the following day, but he did not. After some skirmishing, the Confederate forces were able to withdraw unmolested to the Potomac River and cross into Virginia.
Aftermath[]
Victory at Antietam strengthened President Lincoln's political position - he issued the Emancipation Proclamation just a few days later, on 22 September. Lincoln had intended to proclaim the freedom of Confederate slaves during the summer, but had been advised that to do so at a time of military setbacks might smack of desperation. Now he saw his opportunity.
Visiting McClellan's camp in early October, the President urged him to pursue Lee across the Potomac River. McClellan's response was to prove too slow for Lincoln to tolerate.