Saturday, June 22, 2013

September 16, 1862---A deadly "Tell"



SEPTEMBER 16, 1862:      

The Army of Northern Virginia takes Sharpsburg, Maryland. 

The Army of the Potomac deploys on the far bank of nearby Antietam Creek. 

McClellan is irrationally convinced that Lee has nearly 120,000 men in Sharpsburg. Lee has only 18,000 troops to oppose the Federals, who number 60,000.  Yet McClellan is reluctant to move despite the fact that Antietam Creek is shallow, easy to cross, and undefended. 

Instead of attacking, “Little Mac” begins repositioning his troops, carelessly tipping his hand in the process, and making the coming battle a far more difficult contest. 


September 15, 1862---"God bless you and all with you."



SEPTEMBER 15, 1862:       

General McClellan sends his Commander-in-Chief a welcome telegram, and Lincoln responds, "Your dispatch of today received. God bless you and all with you. Destroy the Rebel army if possible.”


September 14, 1862---The Battle of South Mountain



SEPTEMBER 14, 1862:      

The Battle of South Mountain. 


“South Mountain” is the name given to the continuation of the Blue Ridge Mountains after they enter Maryland. It is a natural obstacle that separates the Hagerstown Valley and Cumberland Valley from the eastern part of Maryland. Three pitched battles were fought for possession of three South Mountain passes: Crampton's Gap, Turner's Gap, and Fox's Gap. The Union Army of the Potomac needed to pass through these gaps in pursuit of the Army of Northern Virginia.

1.       The Battle of Crampton’s Gap (The Battle of Burkittsville) pitted 13,000 Union troops against 3,000 Confederates holding the Gap. The hypercautious local Union commander believed even after the battle that he had been significantly outnumbered, and acted like, it was said, a "lion making exceedingly careful preparations to spring on a plucky little mouse." After daylong heavy fighting, the Union took the Gap, but the Confederates had been able to delay troop movement and had kept the Union from reinforcing beleaguered Harper’s Ferry. 
 
2.       The Battle of Turner’s Gap:    5,000 Confederates held Turner’s Gap against a significantly larger Union force. Again, the Union command believed they were outnumbered, and again the battle raged all day. The battle ended at dusk with a skeleton force of Confederates still holding the Gap.

3.       The Battle of Fox’s Gap:         Union troops actually took Fox’s Gap, but Confederate reinforcements shifted from Turner’s Gap stalled the Union advance through the Gap. On graves detail around dusk, Union soldiers dumped 60 Confederate bodies down a local farmer’s dry well, paying him $60 in compensation. 



Although the Rebels still (barely) held Turner’s Gap and Fox’s Gap at nightfall, Lee realized that the next day’s fighting might create a rout and so he ordered his outnumbered and exhausted forces to withdraw from South Mountain. 

The Battle of South Mountain was an important morale booster for the defeat-stricken Army of the Potomac, and equally deflating to the Army of Northern Virginia.    

Lee actually contemplated a retreat out of Maryland since McClellan was now in position to destroy Lee's army before it could concentrate.  

However, McClellan's limited activity on September 15 after his victory at South Mountain condemned the garrison at Harpers Ferry and gave Lee time to unite his scattered divisions at Sharpsburg for the Battle of Antietam on September 17. 

Union casualties of 28,000 engaged at South Mountain were 2,325 (443 killed, 1,807 wounded, and 75 missing); Confederates lost 2,685 (325 killed, 1560 wounded, and 800 missing) of 18,000.
 


September 13, 1862---Lucky 13



SEPTEMBER 13, 1862:      

 "Here is a paper with which if I cannot whip Bobbie Lee, I will be willing to go home." So said Major General George Brinton McClellan, Commander of the United States Army of The Potomac, when men of the 27th Indiana Regiment brought McClellan a copy of Lee’s Special Orders No. 191, outlining his entire Maryland battle plan. 

General D.H. Hill C.S.A. had apparently used his copy of Special Orders No. 191 as a cigar case---three cigars were tucked neatly within. 

Rarely has an opposing General been given such a battlefield advantage. But even here, McClellan dithered. Fearing the Orders were false (a possibility, since faked Orders had been a previous Confederate ruse), and convinced that he was outnumbered (he wasn’t, even on Lee’s papers, and Rebel desertions were a plague on Lee since he had entered Maryland) McClellan typically and timidly made far less than effective use of Special Orders No. 191.