Special Order 191 outlined Lee’s invasion of Maryland. Found By the Union Army, it allowed McClellan to cut off the invasion and resulted in the Battle of Antietam/Sharpsburg. After capturing Harper’s Ferry and the B&O railroad, the plan was to meet up in Hagerstown or Boonsboro. I assume that they would have met up in Boonsboro considering that is where Jackson would be and it is closer to Harper’s Ferry, Baltimore and Washington DC than Hagerstown is.
So assuming Special Order 191 is not found by the Union Army, what would the Army of Northern Virginia have done? March north into Pennsylvania as Turtledove thinks? Go east to Baltimore along the B&O? Lee was not political but Jefferson Davis may have seen the capture of Baltimore and or entry of Maryland into the CSA as effectively ending the war and ordered Lee to do such. Would the Army of the Potomac under McClellan attack Lee’s supply lines or fall back to defend Washington DC? Ultimately, would it change who won the war either militarily (doubtful) or politically through foreign recognition (more likely)?
Lee barely had 40,000 men with him on the campaign, and his supply train was dwindling and his supply lines were problematic. And McClellan, for all his failings (which were many), was in position to defend Baltimore or Washington with over 70,000 troops, with thousands more available in the Washington defenses.
And like **dropzone ** said, McClellan squandered nearly a whole day before moving, was held for another day at the mountain gaps, and then stood and waited yet another day to bring up troops before he attacked at Antietam.
IMHO (since nobody knows for sure), Lee would have manuvered to try and isolate part of the Army of the Potomac, McClellan would have fended him off and protected DC and Baltimore, and eventually Lee would have had to return to Virginia, probably without the ‘decisive’ battle he had been seeking, which McClellan would have proclaimed to be a Great Triumph.
History after that? Would McClellan have remained in command? (He’d would have probably find some way to give Lincoln the opportunity to relieve him sometime later) Would the outcome of the war be changed? Doubtful. The Federals by this time were already nibbling at the Confederacy’s vitals in the West and getting ready to take big gulps of it.
Just a second thought to add from the same campaign; most folks who have studied the Civil War a little bit know that Sharpsburg/Antietam is considered “the Bloodiest Day of the War” Lee lost nearly 1/4 of his army and staved off disaster by the narrowest of margins.
And then he held the position the next day. In the face of a Union Army with nearly 20,000 troops that had not been in combat yet and another Corps (Burnsides) which had been bloodied but hardly smashed.
If McClellan had chosen to attack that day, he had to have smashed the Confederate lines and all but destroyed the Army of Northern Virginia, which was fighting with their backs to a river, making hasty retreat almost impossible.
It would have come close to ending the war, and leading to a President McClellan in 1864.
In a war where he took any number of hair-raising gambles, Lee’s standing at Sharpsburg is perhaps the biggest one of all–but then, he knew his opponent.
Why did the Federals like to name battles after bodies of water and the Confederates after the nearest town?
In recent months I’ve been calling a lot of people in the NE Virginia, SE Pennsylvania, and Maryland areas and part of that time I was reading Sears’ Landscape Turned Red: The Battle of Antietam and following my calls on its maps. Today I called a very, very old fellow who lived in Spotsylvania, VA. “As in Spotsylvania Court House?” I asked, trying to jar any memories of fighting for Bobby Lee at the Bloody Angle, but he kinda faded out. He perked up to buy the auto repair coverage I was selling. When we were done I buried my head in my hands and said, “Dear God, I hope you’re not still driving.” It’s minimally sleazy and covers his kids’ cars too if they live with him, and it’s something I’m considering for myself except I’d start getting telemarketing calls, but I’m done with it tomorrow.
The sad part is that, though I’m nowhere near that old, I can remember when that whole area was cute towns, beautiful farms, and a thick wilderness of scrub a sane man wouldn’t drive an attack through. I think it is now all suburban sprawl.
Hey, I’m a Federal from Ohio, just living in Alabama because that is where my paycheck moved to (I’ve become rather fond of that paycheck).
Good question, I used to know the answer.
Agreed. A very good book. I have another one called “The Maps of Antietam” that provides numerous detailed maps of the entire battlefield during the day.
Do you live in the East? I’ve visited most of the Civil War Battlefields, and Sharpsburg is probably the most well-preserved in the East; most of the rest have had the DC region built up around them.
Never been to Sharpsburg, but lived in VA during the centennial. Not much happened near Charlottesville, other than Custer capturing it, but we would go up where the action had been sometimes. At the time, the Wilderness was back to being a really lousy place to fight a battle. I suppose it’s now a WalMart.
