And still he achieved his strategic objective and Lee was denied his, so I guess he won. But it was classic McClellan.

I did a term paper on McClellan for a Civil War class in grad school. I think, if the Army had had a modern staff system in place 160 years ago, McClellan would have made an excellent G-3. (If his ego would allow it.) Great at training and organizing, tentative and lacking the killer instinct in the field.

And I would argue that McClellan achieved his tactical objective - defending Washington and sending Lee back in to Virginia - but he failed to achieve the strategic objective - the destruction of Lee's army.

His strategic objective given to him by Lincoln wasn't that ambitious but it should have been. He could have probably done it easily too if he had coordinated his attacks or even just used Porter's Corps and his cavalry after his disjointed attacks.

Just having two of the three sections move simultaneously would have stretched Lee's army to the breaking point. An absolutely criminal waste of his men to attack in such a disjointed fashion.

Yep. And Mac didn't press anything. Just let it happen. No sense of urgency. Probably the best chance to completely destroy a Civil War army until Nashville.

Urgency, don't even put that word in a sentence with McClellan.

During the Maryland Campaign, I think Lee acted with complete disdain for McClellan and the AoP, on the former he was 100% correct, his folly was the latter.

Standby for some pictures of a to scale regiment portraying the 4th Texas at Antietam this past weekend. Highlights included:
- being woke up for food at 0400
-the long roll sounding around 0500
-forming up and marching to the Dunker Church and assaulting the same ground as the 4th in real time 160 years later
-lots of drilling and demonstrations for spectators by infantry and a mounted artillery battery
-film shoots this morning for back ground footage for some documentaries
- food issue was beef, flour, lard and apples.

Currently like 6 beers deep at Reagan in DC.
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- being woke up for food at 0400

But did you stop mid-cooking, kill your fire and fall in line formation?

Yes

What role did the "lost orders" play in the battle? Would Mc have won without them ever being found?

Changed everything, Lee basically had to end his plan to burn the bridge over the Susquehanna at Harrisburg and bring his scattered army back together.

BQ78 said:

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His strategic objective given to him by Lincoln wasn't that ambitious but it should have been. He could have probably done it easily too if he had coordinated his attacks or even just used Porter's Corps and his cavalry after his disjointed attacks.

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I think at this point Lincoln understood this as the AoP's proper objective, although he might not have communicated it explicitly. He was certainly (and rightfully) pissed at McClellan for his failure to pin the ANVa against the river and crush them. McClellan had an entire corps that didn't do any fighting the day before.

Lincoln and McClellan had very different appreciations of how to fight the war. McClellan envisioned a much 'softer', capture the enemy's capital, checkmate kind of war. I think Lincoln understood that it would take a lot more than that to break the South's will to continue fighting. (To borrow from a former boss of mine, "War is an armed contest of wills."

In the end, events proved Lincoln correct. Once Lee surrendered to Grant, Johnston and even Forrest followed shortly after.

BQ78 said:

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Changed everything, Lee basically had to end his plan to burn the bridge over the Susquehanna at Harrisburg and bring his scattered army back together.

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Thanks. I've not done much study on the issue, so I was unsure if its importance was overstated or not.

I think it was this campaign that changed Lincoln's mindset and why Meade got the anger from Lincoln for not following up the Gettysburg victory with vigor. Lincoln did not get pissed at McClellan until November after he ignored three direct orders to move. When Lee withdrew to Virginia he was happy and not pissed and sent nothing but kudos to McClellan in the aftermath of the Antietam battle.

Read the orders that Mac was given when he took command of the army. The number one objective was defend DC, after that it was protect Baltimore and Pennsylvania and next was drive the Confederates from Maryland. Nothing about destroy Lee's army. But Lincoln learned.

A few days after the battle he suggested that Mac could attack Richmond since he was closer to it than Lee's army but Mac of course ignored him (Lee was still contemplating going back into Maryland to try again, the guy had balls) .

When Lincoln visited the army in October he once again congratulated Mac for his victory but he was also there to find out what the plan was for going after Lee before winter set in. It was on this visit that Lincoln started hearing how badly Mac had handled the fighting at Antietam. It wasn't until the end of the month and after Stuart had circled Mac's army again, that Lincoln sent his famous message, "Will you pardon me for asking what the horses of your army have done since the battle of Antietam that fatigue anything?" Historians love this quote to smear Mac but always seem to ignore that Mac gave a reasonable response to the question and Lincoln apologized (sort of like Patrick Henry apologized for his famous give me liberty or give me death speech). So as October turned into November Lincoln was perturbed but not completely fed up with Mac. In early November when he disobeyed yet a third order to get his army over the Potomac River and into Virginia by a certain date, Mac was done.

JABQ04, point yourself out, some good video of the 4th Tx.

ja86 said:

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JABQ04, point yourself out, some good video of the 4th Tx.

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Very nice! Who made the regimental flag?

I'm on the far right. Was asked to be in the color guard. All 4 of us in the pic were in the color guard and are Texans.

The last couple pics are from some filming we did for an American. Battlefield Trust Documentary. Just some random battle scenes for some footage. The video that was posted had some of that as well. All the dudes in Union clothes were from after the event and the filming.

a timely episode from the History Traveler and primarily covers The Cornfield. A great 22 min of my time.

If Mac had used all his army instead of sending in units piecemeal he could have destroyed the ANV and ended the war right there. He had Lee's orders. His problem was he always thought he was outnumbered when the opposite was true.