as the Civil war begins . What is the army strategy to win the war ? How does the Union Army perform in early battles including Bull run and shiloh ? What happened at the Battle of Antietam that gave President Lincoln the opportunity to issue the emancipation proclamation for answers to these questions and more Civil War insights . Stay tuned . Welcome to the U . S . Army history and Heritage podcast , the official podcast of the United States Army Center of Military History . The Center of Military History , writes and publishes the army's official history , manages the US Army Museum enterprise and provides historical support throughout the U . S . Army . Hello everyone and welcome to the United States Army history and Heritage podcast . I'm lee Reynolds , the strategic communications officer for the Center of Military History in this episode , focusing on the Civil War years of 18 61 and 18 62 . I'm speaking with Dr Peter G night , Director of field and international history programs at the Center of Military History . Welcome DR Knight and thanks for joining me . So I want to give folks a little background about who you are . So dr Peter Knight joined the Center of Military history after retiring from the U . S . Army as a lieutenant colonel . After 23 years of service in the military intelligence branch , he served the numerous tactical and strategic level intelligence assignments , including a combat tour in Iraq as an intelligence advisor to the second Iraqi Army in Mosul and culminating as the deputy commander of the seven oh sixth Military intelligence group at fort Gordon Georgia over the course of his military career , Dr Knight also served in two academic postings . His first was as an instructor and later assistant professor of history at the United States Military Academy at West Point from 2004 to 2007 and the second was as the Army Reserve Officer training corps or ROTC Professor of military science at Princeton University . From 2011 to 2014 . Dr Knight is a 1994 graduate of the U . S . Military Academy at West Point and he later earned his PhD in history from the Ohio State University in june of 2006 . His area of historical specialization is strategic intelligence in the korean war . He wrote his doctoral thesis on the subject and published a chapter on intelligence in the basket research companion to the korean war . I hope I pronounced that right . Okay . DR Knight is also the author of the revised CMH publication , the Staff ride fundamentals experiences and techniques , which published in 2020 and he has led numerous battlefield staff rides for the US army across the globe . So , Dr Knight , what am I missing here and um tell us a little bit more about what the staff rides are . Sure . Uh So the staff ride concept is really an exercise in critical thinking and analysis . It pairs exploration of a battlefield . Uh the terrain associated with that battle . In addition to doing a sort of a preliminary study of the battle , reading some good campaign histories pamphlets to educate oneself on the battle and the key decisions that were made and then going to the field study actually walking the ground to visualize what happened and then to conduct an analysis , an analysis uh that lets people exercise critical thinking skills , evaluating how and why decisions were made under what conditions and what might they do where they placed in a similar situation . It gets them thinking about and asking the right questions that will help them problem solve the challenges that they encounter today . Uh , And so in my background on the west Point in Princeton faculties and in my five years here at the center of Military history , I've had the great privilege to conduct staff rides on numerous Civil War battlefields , many of which we'll talk about today . Oh , great . And some overseas ones as well , I believe . Absolutely . Battle of the bulge Normandy and it's been a great privilege . That's awesome . And what a valuable tool the staff ride really is . So it's , it's more than a battlefield tour and it it really is a great training opportunity for soldiers of all the ages but really helps to inform current decision making great . Well , good . Well , so let's let's dive into it . Well , first of all , was there anything else about your background that I missed that you want to highlight ? I think I think we covered it . We covered it there . Right , okay , perfect . So let's jump back into it . Um , when the episode one , we finished by talking about the attack on fort sumter . So the Civil war has begun . Um , we know that General Winfield scott is the overall Union commander and that he had a plan called anaconda . So can you just pick up there what was anaconda about and and then talk to me about who was in charge of the confederacy ? Absolutely . So we know that after forts sumter , president Lincoln calls up 75,000 militiamen international service for 90 days to put down an insurrection that he termed is too powerful to be suppressed by the ordinary cause of judicial proceedings and in order to maintain the honor , integrity and existence of our national union . This response was immediate and nearly overwhelming as political leaders in the various states raised even more regiments than they were asked to by President Lincoln . Each side believed that the war would be a short lived event and each side grossly underestimated the resolve of the other . One lone voice of experience in the wilderness was Winfield Scott . The aging general in chief of the Union Army , 75 years old . A veteran of the war of 1812 who fought and forcibly evacuated the Cherokee along the trail of tears and lead a masterful expedition to capture Mexico city and secure victory in the mexican war scott had grown so old and obese that he couldn't even mount a horse and his appearance and advanced age left him and his views open to criticism and doubt clearly not fit for field duty . He focused his sharp military mind on a strategic concept called the anaconda plan , which entailed using the American navy to blockade the confederate coastline . While an army of 80,000 plus men would move down the Mississippi River valley and and capture that conquer it , splitting the confederacy in two and over time , systematically strangling the confederacy and its military forces into submission . This would take time , much more time and men and more naval vessels than people in the north were willing to countenance at the time and so northern and southern political leaders who had no real context of war . Aside from the indian fighting in the war of 18 12 , that was then almost 50 years in the past . And they felt that one smashing battlefield victory would be all it would take to make the other side give up . And so each side began massing their armies and the union aimed to take control of the confederate capital that recently relocated to Richmond Virginia . And while the confederates plan to defend their territory against such an incursion , Irvin McDowell , a 43 year old , 43 year old US army major , a supply officer from Ohio whom had never commanded troops in the field yet , was heavily favored for his planning abilities by Treasury Secretary Salman P . Chase also of Ohio would lead a very green army . The army of northeastern Virginia into the battle of First Bull run of First Manassas . He was pressured to act before he and his army were anywhere near ready . And McDowell's battle plan was complex for a novice army and yet it almost succeeded except for his own hesitation . And the timely arrival of confederate reinforcements that allowed the battle to degenerate into a rout of the union forces back to the defenses of Washington , D . C . Was a great embarrassment for the US army and the Lincoln administration . Yeah , I can imagine . And you say he was , he was forced to act sooner than he wanted to . Uh , why and by who ? So great pressure on the Lincoln administration and and the northern populace is calling on to Richmond right to capture the confederate capital . Thinking that one battle would get it done and get it over quickly . And these 75,000 volunteers that are brand new are only in the game for 90 days . Imagine having to train people who've never held a weapon before to get them ready to go in that short amount of time and execute the campaign itself . In that very short time frame we're talking about the battle of Bull Run , which took place . It was what late july of 18 61 . That's right and very close to Washington D . C . Yes . Now I I understand that people thought this was gonna be a quick battle and it was interesting because people went out to the battlefield to watch . They had like sidelines members of Congress would have would take picnic baskets and their family members in carriage rides out to some high ground overlooking the battle area . This was this was an entertainment spectacle to them , which is hard for us to fathom these days . Yeah . People didn't realize what they were getting into . But now let's talk about the Battle of Bull Run and you also mentioned Manassas . So I know there's a difference in some of these battles have two different names . Why is that ? That's correct . And so the Union often named the battles for the rivers , the bodies of water near which they took place since the battle of Bull Run , Bull Run Creek that runs through the battlefield . But of course Manassas and Manassas junction was the town in Virginia that the confederates were defending and they had to attend to name the battle for the geographic location , the town , the area which they were defending . So how does the army today refer to the battle ? Do we use both in an official capacity ? We , we often do use both . I will tell you that the National Park Service has the basic convention of going with the name of the side that won the battle ? So we , yeah . So so Manassas , if you're a confederate uh of the confederate persuasion ? So talk about that battle ? How many days did that take ? And what did the both sides look like ? How many did we have in the Union ? And what talk to me a little bit about ? I think it's interesting to know what type of weapons were being used . Absolutely . So the battle takes place july 18th through 21 18 61 . And uh at the onset of the , of the campaign , the Union forces numbered about 35,000 under McDowell . And remember many of those are 90 day volunteers who had never been in the army tactics were linear volley centric volley fire centric for the purposes of massing fires and for command and control purposes on a smoke obscured battlefield when firing happens and the noise begins , you have to have linear tactics to be able to keep your unit together and control it and to be able to see from one side of the unit to the other that's easily lost amidst the chaos of battle . Uh and of course there were great advances in weaponry at the time . We had the advent of rifle , the rifled musket and rifled artillery pieces that greatly extended the lethal range of the battlefield . Instead of killing a man at 100 yards with a smooth bore musket , you can now kill a man at 300 yards with a rifled musket artillery pieces , which were also direct fire weapons systems at the time . Instead of reaching out and being able to kill people at less than a mile . The rifled artillery extends that range to over a mile and that both sides have the rifle . Both sides had it . But certainly the Union side had more of the rifles than the confederates , especially at the outset . But I would tell you that the advantage of cruise to the tactical defender with that technology behind a covered and concealed position . And so that was a hard lesson learned in the early fighting of the civil war . And did we have repeating rifles yet ? Or is that still years away repeating rifles , carbines and breech loading weapons were developed before the war and they will be utilized , but they're going to be utilized in much smaller quantities and in much more specialized units like the cavalry that need a lighter weapon to carry with them on horseback as they do their reconnaissance missions . And talking about calorie . Were there any cavalry in this battle ? Uh The cavalry in in uh Bull Run was not well utilized . It was , it was kind of kept close uh and not used in the reconnaissance methods that would be , that would come to fruition later in the war . Yeah . And I think that's a good lesson learned from that battle , is how to use the cavalry , how to improve your reconnaissance . And I know that will play a huge role later on in the war . So how you mentioned that the Union almost won this battle , but they didn't . So , you know what happened ? And so the U . S . Army performed surprisingly well in a few parts of this battle and yet predictably horrible in in others , McDowell's plan was sound , but very complex and predicated on a green army performing like seasoned veterans , which they certainly did not . Union divisions were stifled by straggling in discipline . Poor maps of the area movements were delayed because of having to cut down trees and make roads wide enough to fit the artillery and the ammunition wagons tactically , the Union commanders made some great initial pushes . McDowell's initial plan was to try to strike the right flank of the confederate line . But uh Israel Richardson , one of his subordinate commanders , kinda got ahead of himself and engaging at Blackburn's ford and compromise that plan . So McDowell went and decided to attack the other flank . But in order to do that , he had to make a path and that involved cutting down trees and and he was delayed in making that flanking movement . But even with those delays , he made the flanking movement in enough time and did well enough in the first engage big engagement on Matthews hill to push the confederates off . And he was in a position to exploit that gain . But he hesitates at that point to rest and replenish and and and he's probably surprised and shocked at his level of success to that point and and didn't didn't want to hedge his bets by going for too much too soon , but at the same time , his hesitation cost him dearly because joseph johnston's reinforcements from the Shenandoah Valley arrive at the Manassas battlefield just in time to get their defenses set on Henry House Hill . And when McDowell renews the attack , finally , he makes the mistake of moving his rifled artillery , which had a good standoff advantage against the confederates . He moves it too close to their positions and makes it vulnerable to confederate counter battery fire . And then the infantry attacks that are supposed to rely upon that artillery support now become piecemeal commitments of regiments and those piecemeal attacks falter against the strength of the confederate defense . Even seasoned veterans like William Sherman have a steep learning curve in this battle , commanding large formations of troops for the first time and not realizing that that a piecemeal approach was not going to get it done . Yeah . And um , and this is where um , General Jackson confederate general , He really earns his his nickname . Can you talk about that ? Because I think it's kind of significance . And so that moniker comes from General Bernard B who was trying to rally his units by pointing to Jackson as he established his firm defensive line atop Henry House Hill and he said , look , there's stan , there's Jackson standing like a Stonewall rally behind the virginians , the Virginia regiments of , of Jackson's command and thus the name Stonewall Jackson . Stonewall . Jackson that sticks and to this day , we know him as Stonewall . Jackson who was prior to the Civil War . What was he doing ? He was a professor of tactics and artillery at the Virginia Military Institute . And uh , and and his cadets used to used to call him old tom fool . He was very methodical , he was very mundane instructor , very , very uh , mechanical and and and straight laced and and almost robotic in the way he delivered his lesson plans which board his students , uh , and gave him that nickname . So the battle , um , it's , it's McDowell is a chance to win . He hesitates , which hesitates to exploit his success . Something we're going to see many times by union generals in the coming battles over the next several years . Um , and and gets pushed from the battlefield ? It's true . And and you know that hesitation , especially for inexperienced commanders is understandable because these guys have never come commanded these large troop formations ever in their careers . Most of these generals may have commanded platoons and companies in the Mexican war . All of a sudden they're thrust into commands of divisions , cores and armies . It's a , it's a very steep learning curve . So the Union Army starts racing back towards Washington , D . C . It's about what 20 miles away I think . And what does the confederate army do ? Do they pursue and exploit the confederate army becomes as disorganized in victory as the Union does in Los and they're not able really to continue the pursuit to the point that they perhaps would have liked to , but they're also relishing the fact that they've been left in command of the field and earn the first victory in the first major battle of the war , which they'll trumpet throughout the south . Yeah , I mean , that's , that's a , what we would call today , a great propaganda victory for them , not just a battlefield victory . Um , so after that lost by the Union . Um , what does the Union Army do ? What's the , what's the next step and what happens to McDowell ? Okay , so McDowell's is relieved of command . Obviously they're gonna look for a new person to , to stand up a new army and they're gonna look to a man by the name of George Brinton McClellan who will have achieved some success in the mountains of what is today west Virginia , what was then western Virginia and his successful exploits there bring him to Lincoln's attention . And and his reputation as a master administrator , master organizer , he's a West Point graduate , a distinguished graduate of the military academy had been an observer of the Crimean War , understanding and learning about the utility of the use of railroads and armed conflict from that observation . And of course , McClellan himself had been in the railroad business prior to . Uh , so , uh , he seemed like a , certainly a very logical and very talented choice and he had the favor of Winfield scott . McClellan was a protege of his , uh , and so he was a logical fit there . But in terms of what's happening strategically , uh , we have to also look at what's happening out west as well as what's happening in the east . Because , because , because all of this encompasses elements of the anaconda plan . Just as you mentioned in the Western theater , the strategic concept was more in line with Scott's anaconda plan . Scott had proposed that the federal armed forces squeezed the life out of the confederacy by blocking the southern coastline and launching that amphibious thrust down the Mississippi River . While Scott argued that the plan would end the war with minimal casualties , he ignores the fact that it would take many more naval ships than the north had at the time . And while Lincoln believed the anaconda plan had merit , he knew that the army would have to play a much more active role than even scott had envisioned , particularly in the border states of Kentucky and Missouri , both slaveholding states , that had managed not to secede from the Union . Where and where unionist and secessionist forces were already vying for power , Lincoln was determined to not only keep Missouri and Kentucky in the Union , but also to rescue Eastern Tennessee and in july of 18 61 following the Union defeat at Bull run in Virginia , Lincoln sketched out a strategy for the Western theater that involves securing uh Missouri and launching a two pronged offensive from Cairo Illinois to Memphis Tennessee and from Cincinnati Ohio into Eastern Tennessee . But on four august major General McLelland , the new commander of the army of the potomac , presented his own plan for the West that largely accorded with Lincoln's wishes and proved more elaborate . And don't forget , McClellan is also gonna succeed General Scott as general in chief of the Union Army . So this is why he's offering a plan for the Western theater . He recommended one grand campaign involving two western armies , one based in Kentucky , the other in Missouri . The first army would divide into two columns to capture Eastern Tennessee and Nashville , respectively . They would they would then reunite at Chattanooga and proceed to Atlanta and then on to Montgomery Alabama . The other army . After gaining control of Missouri would launch an amphibious expedition down the Mississippi River and seize new Orleans . And so the commanders that that uh the Union would find to try to undertake these plans would be Major General Henry Halleck , also known as old brains . He was an old academic instructor from West Point . He would command the Department of the Missouri and then Major General Don Carlos Buell would command the Department of the Ohio . And then of course Halik would have a talent subordinate in ulysses S Grant and also john Pope um Meanwhile the confederate strategy in the west was per President jefferson Davis's plan , a strategy of territorial defense Stationing forces at critical points along the perimeter of the confederacy in essence forming a defensive cordon across southern Kentucky stretching eastward from columbus on the Mississippi River to Bowling green and from there to the Cumberland Gap on the border with Tennessee and Virginia . General Albert Sidney Johnston was the confederate commanding general in the Western theater . He was the most senior of all the confederate officers in a , in a huge favorite of jefferson Davis . Meanwhile , Brigadier General ulysses S Grant was Henry Alex most aggressive subordinate . And on seven november 18 61 he tried to establish a forward base on the Mississippi River at Belmont Missouri , just across the Mississippi from columbus Kentucky , but that failed . But Grant exemplified two traits in that campaign that would bring him success in all of his in in most of his subsequent campaigns . Clear thinking and coolness under fire . So , and also in December of 1861 , General Benjamin Butler opens a southern front that will eventually result in the capture of new Orleans Louisiana . And by january of 18 62 Grant proposes to Henry , Halleck to bypass the Mississippi River altogether and launch an amphibious expedition up the Tennessee river to capture Fort Henry and use it as a deeper springboard into southern territory . He follows that victory at Fort Henry 10 days later with another victory at Fort Donaldson on the Cumberland river . These two victories set the stage for entry into the south to seize the key , the key railroad junction at Corinth Mississippi Grant's reputation soars he earns the nickname unconditional surrender Grant that nicely accords with his initials and of course that movement toward toward Corinth , Mississippi precipitates the Battle of Shiloh . Alright , well , so they're making a lot of more gains out west than they are in the east at the moment . Um So so let's talk about Shiloh then . So what happened at Shiloh ? And why is it significant ? Absolutely . So the Battle of Shiloh happens on six and seven april 18 62 Union forces under Grant had advanced to Pittsburg , Pittsburg landing on the Tennessee River as they gradually moved toward their objective of Corinth Mississippi and they had paused at Pittsburgh landing to await the arrival of Union forces from Don Carlos . Buell's Department of the Ohio . The idea would be that they would join forces for this campaign against Corinth . Meanwhile , confederate General Albert Sidney johnston , still smarting from Grant's victories at Henry and Donaldson and Bulls recent capture of Nashville Tennessee instead of trying to defend a series of strong points , now decides to mass his confederate troops at Corinth and move forward to preempt Grant as his troops begin to occupy Pittsburgh landing , he's hoping to hit Grant before Buell's forces can arrive and join with him johnston intended for his army to attack the federal left flank , anchored on the Tennessee River , drive it from its base of operations at the landing to the banks of Owl Creek a little further inland and then destroy it . This plan failed to account for the broken terrain over which that assault would occur . Grant and Sherman managed to absorb johnston's attack using the broken terrain and tough defensive efforts to delay and disrupt the attack , buying enough time to establish a formidable line of heavy artillery , naval gunfire and a final defensive line that could now not be broken by nightfall . We'll let me just ask you about that , that terrain . It's a it's a great example of how terrain can play a significant role in the battle . And understanding your terrain , getting a little bit of intelligence right ? Maybe having your recon guys out there did johnson not know the difficulty of the terrain or he just plowed ahead in spite of it , johnston did not have good maps of the area and they did , they very much plowed ahead uh and not wanting to compromise his plan or come into contact too early , he kind of kept his his units back . He didn't do a lot of on the ground reconnaissance . He was trying to keep the plan very simple and and and lock steps so that his troops could easily execute it . Um And so they could not break that that line by nightfall . And in the meantime , overnight on april the sixth , Buell and his troops arrive to Pittsburgh landing . So on april 7th it is Grant that strikes first and attacks and sends the confederates reeling all the way back to Corinth . Right . So again , now another Grant victory and another victory in the west . So um uh and we're now a year into the war . So there have been some union victories , but they've mainly been out west . Uh , meanwhile , what's been happening in the east . And so as George Brinton McClellan creates this army , the army of the potomac , an army of over 100,000 men . This is indeed the largest army ever fielded on the north american continent up to that time . And he , he is a master administrator , a master trainer . He has these troops ready to go , They're marching , they're learning how to use their weapons . Yet he doesn't put that army into action . He doesn't do it fast enough for the liking of the Lincoln administration or for northern public opinion . And there's that great clamor once again on to Richmond with the idea that the capture of the confederate capital will bring a swift end to the rebellion . And so Mcclelland now knows he has to act and he has to consider how he will attack Richmond . And as he looked at an over land approach to Richmond , he really kind of a shoes , the hard fighting that such an over land campaign would cause he'd have to cross several rivers and go through a lot of very uneven and and tangled terrain that the , that the confederate army certainly knows better than he does . And so he's looking at alternatives and he , what he decides to do is try to move his units by water to the tobacco ports of Urbana on the Rappahannock in Virginia in Virginia and then move towards Richmond over land . However , joseph johnston preempts and and negates that plan because he shifts his army back away from the potomac river and creates a new line near the north Anna River guarding the over land approaches to Richmond and Mcclelland is a little bit embarrassed by this change in plan because as his units go into Manassas and places where the confederates had held up before they're finding fake gun emplacements , Quaker guns and and and intelligence or counterintelligence , counterintelligence , they come to realize that the , their positions out that far forward , we're not as formidable as perhaps they had thought . So now Mcclelland has to go back to the drawing board again and this time he comes up with the idea of moving his units by water to fortress Monroe on the peninsula between the James and york rivers and then pursuing a campaign up the Virginia peninsula . Taking advantage of the James and the york rivers to utilize naval assets to help support the ground attack and better supply the ground attack as they push forward towards Richmond kind of the opposite of the Revolutionary War . Although you mentioned the Revolutionary War and of course , Yorktown figures prominently in this , The confederates will set up two defensive lines on the Virginia peninsula , the first one being at Yorktown uh and and and utilizing the Warwick River , which kind of runs uh south to north across the peninsula and terminates at Yorktown uh and they'll make use of some of those Revolutionary War fortifications and and reshape them to their liking . But General john Magruder uh will be the confederate commander in the area and he will set up defensive positions behind the Warwick River to uh negate McLellan's advance . McClellan will will go and probe those areas trying to ascertain where best to try to penetrate those lines . But he's pretty much made up his mind that he's gonna take Yorktown bice siege and use the superiority of his artillery , all of this massive equipment that he's been able to put on boats and move down to the peninsula . And what time of year is this ? This is april april 6th 18 62 exactly . They arrive at four , they start arriving at Fort Monroe on the first of april and then they begin moving out from there and they hit as they go at McG Routers defensive line . McGruder does a great job of deception in in making himself and his army look much much bigger than they actually were . He would have troops moving back and forth with dragging tree branches behind them , stirring up huge dust clouds , just to paint the picture to the Observer on the other side that there's a much larger force there than was actually the case joe johnston . Meanwhile , as he gets wind of the movement of the army of the potomac also moves down to the Virginia peninsula and checks out McGruder's positions and he realizes that these positions are not as well engineered or as tenable as he would have liked and he won . And he actually remarked , only Mcclelland could hesitate to have attacked this position on the Warwick River line . But Mcclelland being cautious and and being uh subject to the experiences of the time . Right back then , army commanders were their own operations and intelligence officers and they were reliant upon the information that they received . And and he had folks like thaddeus Lowe going up in hot air balloons , doing aerial reconnaissance and trying to count heads and flags . And then he had the Pinkerton detective agency also trying to figure out what they could through various uh , spy methods or capturing prisoners . Uh , and that had some play in , in the inflation of numbers that , that and and mcclelland zone thought process always believing that that he was outnumbered by the enemy . Hence his cautious approach , but it was actually the opposite . Indeed , just didn't know that he was in constant friction with the Lincoln always asking for more reinforcements . And yet the Lincoln administration had only agreed to his plan if he left enough troops to protect the capital , which was debatable in terms of Lincoln didn't think he had left enough . Mcclelland thought he did , but Lincoln didn't agree with that . And then the activities of Stonewall Jackson in the Shenandoah valley at the same time created a perpetual threat to Washington . So what was Stonewall Jackson doing ? And who was leaving the forces against him ? So , uh , he uh , Stonewall Jackson would face off against Nathaniel Banks . Nathaniel banks would move into the Shenandoah Valley from the Harpers Ferry end , moving , moving up the valley , if you will , because , because the Shenandoah River goes south , the north and banks would earn a couple of early victories and then and then kind of pull back and uh and then they were so confident in what banks had done . Banks was actually getting ready to dispense more troops to join Mcclelland . But it was at that time that johnston and robert E lee back in Richmond were advising Jackson to begin deliberate operations in the valley for the specific purpose of tying down Union troops so that they didn't reinforce mcclelland , were they ? Now by this time was generally in command of the army . No . Uh right . This , there's still quite a ways to go in the peninsula campaign . What what would happen is that the Battle of Fair Oaks and the Battle of Seven Pines , which occurred just outside of Richmond as McLellan's army gets closer , joe johnston will receive a wound in the chest and he will be removed from the battlefield at that point , jefferson . Davis puts robert e lee in command And then Robert E . Lee embarks upon a series of battles known as the seven days battles which totally upends McLellan's advance towards Richmond . And what's the timing on this ? Because I know um well , first of all , when when does lee take command ? Okay , so so lee assumes command right after the Battle of Seven Pines . And then the Seven days battles begin in early june of of 18 62 . And and they go uh for for a period of seven days . Um and lee takes a much more aggressive attack against Mcclelland uh and and first hits him at Mechanicsville , concentrating armies and the elements of the against the army of the potomac that is north of the Chickahominy river . Elements that to the south were kind of an economy of force mission . And so lee's accepting some risk there because McClellan could , could call that bluff and push towards Richmond . But he , he decided not to uh after the Battle of Fair Oaks and Seven Pines . And and uh in the meantime , Jackson is on the move from the Shenandoah valley and MacLellan gets wind that that movement is underway . And so he's constantly on guard for when and where is Jackson going to show up ? And he keeps most of his units north of the of the Chickahominy River . It was was was McClellan concerned about that movement north . And um and so did he disengage from , from lee to protect Washington or what was happening ? No . So well Erwin McDowell , the first corps commander now demoted to the first corps commander um was actually in the vicinity of fredericksburg . And he was the core that McClellan was asking for to join him on the peninsula . And it was the core that the Lincoln administration just could not let go because of developments in the Shenandoah Valley and wanting that extra insurance , that extra cushion at fredericksburg between the confederate forces and Washington . Uh and so that became a great piece of , of consternation between Lincoln and McClellan . Because at one point Lincoln promises to send McDowell and then he relinquished . He reneged on that on that promise much to to Mcclelland is great frustration and and and we'll see this later in the war of this tension building between uh McClellan and Lincoln . Um , but now , um we're , we've got the , the upcoming Battle of Antietam . So if you can set that up , how did , how did the forces end up meeting there ? Okay , so after the failure of the peninsula campaign in the seven days , battles after Mcclelland failed attempt to take Richmond , uh Lincoln turns to a new commander , he turns to General john Pope who had won some victories out west . He had secured island number 10 of a series of fortifications in the Mississippi river . He had done a brilliant little amphibious campaign there that demonstrated some ability they brought Pope to the east to command a new army . The army of Virginia that would be cobbled together from units that had been in the Shenandoah Valley as well as some other units that that would reinforce from , from Washington . And then the idea would be that they would absorb elements of McLellan's army of the potomac into their force . Uh , and , and to uh , take the battle uh , towards robert E lee uh , in that regard . However , li understanding that McClellan had shot his bolt on the peninsula and is now on the move to join Pope decides he will move over land to hit Pope before mcclelland units can fully join . And so he launches a brilliant campaign and sends his most trusted agent , Stonewall Jackson , to lead the way . Jackson takes up a formidable defensive position in an unfinished railroad cut on the old Manassas battlefield and he awaits the approach of Pope's forces . When Pope makes contact , he fixates on trying to attack Jackson in his formidable defensive position and completely loses sight of Longstreet and the rest of the confederate army of northern Virginia and pays a huge price for that oversight . After the victory at second Manassas , we now have a string of victories , the peninsula campaign the seven days and and , and second Manassas all confederate victories . This emboldens robert E lee to make a move an invasion into Maryland at the same time . Out west Braxton Bragg is planning the invasion of Kentucky and this is the one and only time in the war that jefferson Davis is actually getting his senior commanders in the Western theater in the eastern theater to act in concert and , and , and think of it , Bragg into Kentucky lee into Maryland . Both going into border states , both with the goal of trying to win over those border states and their populations to the confederate . Cause we're here to liberate you because Maryland was absolutely and and so now they're and they're hoping to get recruits to help fill the confederate ranks . They are going to be greatly disappointed on both counts . And so as lee moves into Maryland , he comes to see that he does not have a warm reception there people are not forthcoming . He doesn't get as much intelligence as he normally would if he were in Virginia , Jeb Stuart gets a bit complacent because after having just whipped the army of the potomac on the peninsula and whipped Pope at second Manassas Mcclelland is back in Washington trying to pick up the pieces and kabul , the army of the potomac back together and absorbed the remnants of Pope's army plus 20,000 brand new green recruits who have never held a weapon before and get them on the move in the span of five days to address lee's invasion of Maryland and they're , they're thinking that old cautious George McClellan is gonna move like molasses in january and McClellan surprises them and moves a lot faster with a great deal more alacrity than they anticipated . Plus when McClellan begins the pursuit of lee and approaches Frederick , he gets an intelligence windfall of monumental proportions . Special Orders 1 91 . This order shows lee's plan to divide his army to address the threat to his supply lines . He needs to take the federal arsenal site at Harpers Ferry in order to secure his supply lines back into Virginia . He thought that garrison would would evacuate when his army moved north between it and Washington , but they didn't . And so now he has to go back and address that . And of course , lee was familiar with Harpers Ferry from the john brown raid from 18 59 . Absolutely . As was Jeb Stuart his cavalry right that accompanied him there . And so with all of that , said , Mcclelland knows lee's army is divided dangerously divided . He has the chance to defeat it piecemeal . The problem with it is when he gets this information , the information is already four days old and he's not sure the exact concentration of these separate bodies of of McClellan of lee's army . And so he moves cautiously . But he presses the attack and he goes through the gaps of South Mountain where he encounters the confederates in those passes and pushes them out and then begins to make try to make his move to try to go to the relief of Harpers Ferry . Although he's too late in doing that . In the meantime , robert e lee drops back through Katie's ville and he's approaching the potomac river and he's he's beginning to think I'm gonna , I'm gonna get out of Maryland . But instead , he gets the word on the 15th of september that Stonewall Jackson has succeeded in taking Harpers Ferry and can now rejoin the main body within 24 hours . So lee then decides he's found some good high guy around on a ridge line just north of the town of Sharpsburg , where he can tie his flanks into the potomac river and still have an egress route over Butler's ford to get out of there if he needed to . But he has a great defensive position which he he plays to the hill utilizes the terrain to camouflage his units . He knows just where to concentrate his artillery to make his positions look much more formidable than perhaps they actually were . And uh and so this gives , this gives Mcclelland caution as he approaches from South Mountain . He delays just long enough for lee to concentrate his army and and and fight McClellan to that one day tactical stalemate and at and t at Antietam and so was at Antietam , who who was defending who was attacking there ? Yes , so lee is in the defense and of course McClellan is in the attack and Mcclelland is gonna try to hit him on both flanks . He's going to try the the to hit the confederate left flank first with joseph hooker on the morning of the 17th and then follow that with burnside on the on the opposite flank and see which one succeeds and then press up the middle . Once li has tried to address the threats to his flank , um the battle does not necessarily go as planned . Um lee takes advantage of his central position in the timely arrival of units from Harpers Ferry to strengthen the areas he needs to to counter the the Union attack . And at the end of the day , you have 22,000 plus casualties between the two sides and the single bloodiest day of fighting still to this day in american military history . And then lee slips across the potomac on the 18th . After a day of looking at each other , licking their wounds and realizing that neither side has the artillery and ordinance to continue the battle . Both decide to lay low that day and then and then lee slips across the potomac . What does Mcclelland do ? Does he pursue ? Mcclelland does not pursue , And and he is trying and and again , after experiencing the massive carnage of Antietam , and and for the first time , photographs of this carnage , reaching northern newspapers and Harper's weekly and all these other publications . I think the shock effect of that really tends to unnerve Mcclelland a little bit and Mcclelland is of course , gonna want to rebuild his supplies . He says his animals are starving , he needs fodder for them , he needs more ammunition , he needs to give his troops time to rest and replenish , but this goes on and on for weeks and weeks and Abraham Lincoln actually pays him a visit out there to try to prod him to action . And this increasingly frustrates Lincoln to the point where as , As McClelland finally gets going into Virginia in late October uh , Lincoln is just looking to see if he pursues with any degree of alacrity . And when he sees that he doesn't , ambrose burnside will become the new commander in November of 1862 . And , and then , um , with antietam now , um , you call it a stalemate , right ? Um , I think I've heard it referred to as a Union victory . And , and , and so there are different levels of war . And so from the tactical end , it can definitely be considered a stalemate . It isn't like , uh , the Union took the field and lee chose to leave the field . But in leaving from an operational and strategic standpoint , his attempt to invade the north fails . And of course , from a strategic standpoint , the Union claims victory . And , and it gives Lincoln the impetus to issue the preliminary emancipation proclamation , something he had been waiting to do . And this is , this is representative of a change in philosophy and how to fight the war . Up until that time , McClellan had advocated a conciliatory approach trying to restore the union keeping slavery intact . And this is what a lot of the democrats were were pushing for as well . But the Republican party in the Lincoln administration had come to the idea , as had commanders like john Pope that they brought from the west , that the southern population needed to feel the burden and the cost of their rebellion against the United States and that a harder hand needed to take place ? And the emancipation of the , of the slaves was viewed as a military necessity to rob the south of their ability to continue their economic livelihood and free up their , their white male population to fight the war and uh , to stave off foreign recognition of the confederacy on moral grounds . Because most of the european countries had already abolished slavery . And so what happens is a change in the aims of the war from limited aims aimed at restoring the union , keeping slavery to one that is now on the basis of human freedom to emancipate the slave population , which is now going to require the complete military defeat of the south , the conquering in the south and the eventual occupation of the south To fully realize the right . And so , um , thank you for this . This has been very , very insightful . We went through a lot . I mean from it's , it's a little little more than a year of , of the war , but we're trying to give a good overview of , of what took place . So thank you so much , is there , are there any other up to this point ? So we're really ending around November of 1862 , I think in our next episode , we're gonna pick it up around the same time frame ? And , but is there anything else significant about this timeframe that that you wanted to mention . I think we've covered everything . Alright , great . And then you know , before we close , I always ask if there's any who a trivia . So do you have any who a trivia about this time period ? Absolutely . So um allow me to talk about Professor thaddeus Lowe science professor who persuaded Abraham Lincoln to allow him to form the pioneering aerial reconnaissance organization in the U . S . Army known as the military aeronautics core with a fleet of eight hot air balloons that carry enough tether and telegraph cable to climb and report observations from altitudes as high as 5000 ft . They they normally op at about 1000 . Um But they served throughout the 18 62 peninsula campaign and into the Chancellorsville campaign . How did they get messages back ? Well , well , telegraph , they had the telegraph cable , the cable going , they would telegraph down down the telegraph line . Uh So it was , it was a great concept . Um And a lot of the generals would go up in the balloon , although there were times where the tethers would cut loose and they'd go over enemy lines . And General porter did that one time . And General McClellan wrote in a letter to his wife that you won't catch me going up in that infernal balloon . Oh wow , that's a great piece of trivia . I think something um I knew that they used balloons but I think that's a very unknown aspect of the civil war . Absolutely great . Thank you so much dr knight for your discussion and insights today about the Civil war in 18 61 and 18 62 . And if anyone wants to learn more about the army in the civil war and learn more about army history in general , I encourage you to explore our website at history dot army dot mil and if you want to experience army history every day then visit us on our social media sites on facebook twitter and instagram please join us every week on this podcast for more in depth discussions as we cover topics from all areas of U . S . Army history , examining battles , soldier experiences , equipment , weapons and tactics . Thanks for joining us today on the United States Army history and heritage podcast for the center of military history , I'm lee Reynolds and until next time we're history . The views expressed in this podcast reflect those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views policies or opinions of the US Army or Department of Defense . For more information about the army's proud history and heritage , go to history dot army dot mil . Mhm