Counter-Thrust: From the Peninsula to the Antietam

Series Editors' Introduction

Series Editors’ Introduction Americans remain fascinated by the Civil War. Movies, television, and video—even computer software—have augmented the ever-expanding list of books on the war. Although it stands to reason that a large portion of recent work concentrates on military aspects of the con- flict, historians have expanded our scope of inquiry to include civilians , especially women; the destruction of slavery and the evolving understanding of what freedom meant to millions of former slaves; and an even greater emphasis on the experiences of the common soldier on both sides. Other studies have demonstrated the interrelationships of war, politics, and policy and how civilians’ concerns back home influenced both soldiers and politicians. Although one cannot fully comprehend this central event in American history without understanding that military operations were fundamental in determining the course and outcome of the war, it is time for students of battles and campaigns to incorporate nonmilitary themes into their accounts. The most pressing challenge facing Civil War scholarship today is the integration of various perspectives and emphases into a new narrative that explains not only what happened, why, and how, but also why it mattered. The series Great Campaigns of the Civil War offers readers concise syntheses of the major campaigns of the war, reflecting the findings of recent scholarship. The series points to new ways of viewing military campaigns by looking beyond the battlefield and the headquarters tent to the wider political and social context within which these campaigns unfolded; it also shows how campaigns and battles left their imprint on many Americans, from presidents and generals down to privates and civilians. The ends and means of waging war reflect larger political objectives and priorities as well as social values. Historians may continue to debate among themselves as to which of these campaigns constituted true turning points, but each of the campaigns treated in this series contributed to shaping the course of the conflict, opening opportunities, and eliminating alternatives. By July 1862 George McClellan’s thrust toward the Confederate capital at Richmond had been turned back in a week’s worth of battles orchestrated by Robert E. Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia. Still, McClellan’s Army of the Potomac remained close enough to Richmond to pose a real threat, and John Pope’s Army of Virginia was approaching from the north. Once more Lee exploited divisions in the Union high command. Learning that the new Union general in chief, Henry W. Halleck, had decided to withdraw McClellan’s command from the James River, Lee rushed north to strike at Pope, perhaps the only Union general he truly detested. At Second Manassas the Confederates smashed into the nearly unguarded Union left, sending Pope reeling back toward Washington. Lee decided to take the war north of the Potomac, as images of foreign intervention, northern war-weariness, and Marylander support for the Confederacy tempted him. It was a critical moment for the Lincoln administration: the president had been debating all summer whether to strike at slavery. All depended on whether McClellan could rally a defeated and disheartened force, forge a new army from Union forces around Washington, and defeat Lee in battle. Aided by a little luck, McClellan forced several passes at South Mountain, gathered his forces east of Antietam Creek, and attacked Lee’s lines east and north of Sharpsburg, Maryland, on September 17, 1862. The result was the bloodiest single day of combat during the war. Lee barely hung on: after remaining in place a day, he withdrew southward over the Potomac. Lincoln seized the moment to issue the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation; eight weeks later he fired McClellan when that general did not move quickly enough to bring Lee to battle. In the East the summer of 1862 proved a critical moment in the war, between Lee’s effort to turn the tide of the conflict and Lincoln’s decision to embrace waging hard war against the Confederacy and striking a blow at slavery. Benjamin Franklin Cooling recounts these events, yet questions to what extent one can call Antietam a turning point, given the persistence of the conflict. That escalation and emancipation changed the nature of the conflict is clear, Cooling argues, and yet that simply set the stage for what would come next. xx | series editors’ introduction Counter-Thrust ...