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Huzzah! for Don Caughey (Crossed Sabers) who’s put together a great series of posts (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) on the Union Cavalry expedition out of the trap that was Harpers Ferry on the night of 14 – 15 September 1862. He’s done a really nice job in illuminating a poorly understood episode in the Maryland Campaign.

Maryland Heights (left) from Harpers Ferry, 1865 (J. Gardner, coll. Library of Congress)

As a kind of supplement to those posts, I’ve scanned some pictures of the prominent officers of that force. You know I like to see the faces.

I’ve also made an attempt at drafting a map of the route they took from the Ferry to Greencastle…

It is well that Antietam on the Web does not depend entirely on one person for new material, as I am again overwhelmed with my vocation and necessarily neglecting this avocation. Thankfully, AotW is also served by a large group of people who each contribute in many ways, large and small. We’re at 85 enrolled Members now, with hundreds more contributing less ‘officially’ over the years.

One of our newest members, Larry Freiheit, has done some fine research on the War, and has offered a capsule analysis of JEB Stuart’s performance on the Maryland Campaign of 1862 to be our latest Featured Exhibit. It’s been a while since we put up a new exhibit, so I’m very glad to have Larry’s help.

I’m slowly working through Larry’s paper, formatting paragraphs and his abundant footnotes for the web, but I wanted to get some of the highlights out: teasers, I guess, for the complete work due in a few days. I hope he won’t mind my taking a few nibbles out of the whole to whet the appetite …

• … Stuart's actions during this campaign were part of and controlled by Lee's late 1862 strategy and must be evaluated in light of his tactical moves implementing that strategy …

• There was no reason for Lee to believe that the slow-moving Federal army was going to be such a threat that unusual expediency or detailed instructions on his part were needed. Stuart, as the cavalry division commander reporting directly to Lee, could not help but be influenced by this relaxed control of his army commander, but the danger with Stuart was that the “Gay Cavalier” needed tighter control and guidance than any of Lee's other top commanders…

• … during the Maryland Campaign, Stuart's penchant for frivolity came into play arguably detrimentally affecting his performance … Stuart's mood of jollity and lack of serious concern about the enemy [early in the campaign] prevailed and infected his staff. It is likely, however, that this mood was at least partially influenced by Lee's relative calm state of mind believing that the Union advance was typical of what he saw of the events during the Peninsular Campaign …

• Lee relied on Stuart for intelligence of the enemy's moves but also used other available means … but given the results of his actions during this campaign based on what he knew, Lee's intelligence gathering was inadequate. … [h]owever, it is also true that McClellan's intelligence in this generally friendly country was little better than Lee's. Stuart and Pleasonton maintained fairly effective cavalry screens thwarting both Union and Confederate efforts to gauge the other's movements.

• Stuart's ride from Harper's Ferry to Sharpsburg to personally bring the good news about its fall to Lee (about which Lee had already received news) can be viewed as another of his unnecessary grandstanding exploits despite his statement that Jackson asked him to do so. Here, as later at Gettysburg, Lee had no time to coddle Stuart and met his report with a brusque reply.

• His screening efforts prior to and including the Frederick sojourn were at least good; rearguard actions from Frederick to South Mountain and his noteworthy defensive actions in Sharpsburg especially at Nicodemus Hill with his artillery are generally viewed as very good; his miscues at the South Mountain gaps and Harper's Ferry are recognized as failures…

Of course posting bullets this way is not entirely fair to Mr Freiheit — being out of context and unsupported by his notes, so I’ll get his complete piece up on AotW as soon as I can. I’ve been enjoying his perspectives, and wanted to share; and it’s taking me way too long to prepare for publication.
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Update Monday 8/27

Larry’s complete article is now up on AotW. Very fine.
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Note

The illustration above is of General Stuart at the head of his column on the famous ride around the Federal Army of the Potomac in June 1862 (click for larger view). The original lithograph by Henry Alexander Ogden was published in about 1900, and is at the US Library of Congress.

I admit I’m something of a research snob.

I prefer sources primary and delight in finding fault (at least in my own head) with the over-simplification and same-old tired anecdotes found in many mass market publications. The ubiquitous Time-Life Civil War series is a good example of this sort. Last week, however, I found a gem among these weeds.

cover, Voices of the Civil War: Antietam

Also by the Editors of Time-Life, this 1996 volume is packed with carefully selected eyewitness quotes, stunning photographs, and excellent explanatory text. I’m embarrassed to tell you I didn’t even know the book existed til I found it in a neighboring library.

A likely explanation for its unexpected quality can be found in the list of “consultants” credited in the back of the volume. These were the late Brian Pohanka, ANB Historian Ted Alexander, and Gettysburg’s Scott Hartwig. I see their fingerprints all over it.

Some of my Antietam boys are much better known for action elsewhere. One such celebrity was Henry Reed Rathbone (1 July 1837 – August 1911). He’s at the far left in this famous scene from 1865:

Currier & Ives–Assassination of President Lincoln (1865, US Library of Congress)

At the fatal shot

[i]nstantly, Major Rathbone sprang upon the assassin. Booth dropped the derringer, broke from Rathbone’s grasp, and lunged at him with a large knife. Rathbone parried the blow, but received a deep wound in his left arm above the elbow. Booth placed one hand on the balustrade, to the left of the center pillar, raised his other arm to strike at the advancing Rathbone, and vaulted over the railing. Rathbone again seized Booth but only caught his clothing…

Being webmaster of Antietam on the Web has its challenges, but big rewards, too. Once of the greatest is the steady stream of correspondence I get from people all over the world who have pieces of the puzzle to share.

Just before stepping off the grid for vacation a couple of weeks back, I had a note from a delightful person in Arizona who’s family owns the painted portrait you see here.

MGen Thomas C Devin, artist unknown; poss. Healy (c. 1870, courtesy of the owner)

This noble warrior is Thomas Casimer Devin (1822 – 1878), here in the uniform of Major General: the (honorary) rank he attained by brevet in March 1965 and by appointment in the US Volunteers after the War was over.

He was Colonel in command of the 6th New York Cavalry at the battle of Antietam in 1862, and led a detachment from his Regiment in that action, their first significant combat of the War.

We’ll touch later on the battle of Five Forks for which he is celebrated here, but first let me skip ahead to the punchline of this post. Take a peek down in the bottom left corner of the picture and note the flag draped at Devin’s right knee. Yes, those are actually dinner forks …

Thulstrup’s Antietam (1887)

This famous print, from a watercolor by Bror Thure de Thulstrup, is behind a great story sent me by email from a great-granddaughter of the late Gustav August Freudenthal, once Private, Company K, 20th Regiment, New York Volunteer Infantry.

The story is that Freudenthal told his family he is pictured in the painting.

It seemed unlikely on first hearing, but I thought I’d dig about a little to be sure …

I had a kind email from the g-g-granddaughter of Oliver D. Green, medal of honor recipient and staff officer at Antietam. She corrected my error on AotW in his middle name (it’s Davis). I’m very glad she brought him to my attention.

Oliver Davis Greene

A career Regular Army officer from west-central New York State, Oliver Davis Greene graduated from West Point in 1854 and saw duty in the West with the 2nd US Artillery Regiment. At the start of the War in 1861 he was 1st Lieutenant, Battery G, and was in action as the battery’s commander at First Bull Run in July. He was then assigned as Captain and Assistant Adjutant General (AAG) on Major General Don Carlos Buell’s staff.

In that service Captain Greene made a powerful enemy: Andrew Johnson, then military governor of Tennessee. In 1864, of course, Johnson was elected Vice-President of the United States, and became President himself on Lincoln’s assassination in 1865.

It was at Nashville in the summer of 1862 that Greene and Johnson bumped heads …

I have some follow-up to the last post, about General McClellan dashing over the field during the battle of Antietam on 17 September 1862. Happily more battle illustration is required in accompaniment.

A Fateful Turn: Late morning looking east toward the Roulette Farm (James Hope via ANBP)

This is one of the five famous Hope Paintings, a series of very large panoramic views painted by battle veteran James Hope working from sketches he made during the battle. These were first exhibited to the public in or after 1872 at his Watkins Glen studio.

The Park Service notes describe this picture:

… burning Mumma Farm is seen on the left, and Gen. George McClellan is riding with his staff on his only visit onto the battlefield that day at about 2:00 pm. On the right, Richardson’s and French’s Union Divisions advancing on Bloody Lane.

Is this further evidence of McClellan’s whereabouts on the field or artistic interpretation?

I’ve been lured again by a pretty picture to post about being open to options when interpreting historical information. The image is from the Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine, May 1886:

General McClellan riding the line of battle at Antietam.
(by Edwin Forbes, after his sketch made at the time.)

The troops were Hooker's and Sedgwick's, and the time about 11 A. M. of September 17. General McClellan rode his black horse, “Daniel Webster,” which, on account of the difficulty of keeping pace with him, was better known to the staff as “that devil Dan.”–EDITOR.

I think this is pure fantasy. I don’t remember another reference to such a ride, certainly not in advance of the Federal line between the East and West Woods, as shown here. However, combat artist Forbes was on the scene that day, so maybe I shouldn’t dismiss this image entirely …

Pontoon bridge at Berlin, Md., October 1862

In the last week of October 1862, General George McClellan crossed the bulk of his Army of the Potomac into Virginia, ready to again do battle with General Robert E. Lee’s Confederate Army of Northern Virginia. It was the first significant movement of the Army–outside of the scrap at Shepherdstown on 19-20 September–since the Battle of Antietam.

Conventional wisdom has it that McClellan had stalled continuously since Antietam in defiance of President Lincoln’s impatience with the lack of pursuit of Lee’s battered ANV, and that the President fired the General immediately after the election in November for that lack of aggressive action.

But is this too simplistic?