Posted on 12/12/2019 9:50:10 AM PST by Perseverando
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 dont 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
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There should be statues of this American hero in every state of the Union.
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