One of the first things I heard from a Park Ranger at the National Park was “Were it not for Harpers Ferry, the battle of Antietam would never have happened.” Well, I knew enough to realize this was a big deal because Antietam was the single worst day of fighting in all of U.S. history with over 22,000 soldiers killed, wounded or missing. Harpers Ferry, Antietam, and more were part of the Confederates’ first incursion into the North in an effort known as The Maryland Campaign.
I can’t do justice to the recounting of the campaign’s details. Suffice to say that this was Lee vs McClellan over the course of two weeks of bloody battles which resulted in a draw. Lee returned to Virginia while McClellan licked his wounds. The Union’s holding its territory and Lincoln’s issuing his Emancipation Proclamation were enough to cast the Confederacy as pro-slavery which prevented England and France from recognizing the South and causing a defacto legitimization of secession by the South.
Of the 22,717 victims from the battle of Antietam over 17,000 were wounded. This was human damage on a scale that had never before been seen. It totally overwhelmed the medical resources available but also catalyzed a revolution in war medicine. This history was documented at the National Museum of Civil War Medicine in Frederick, the town where 8,000 soldiers were taken to be treated. Barbarous stuff but out of it came a revolution medical command and control, protocol for triage, systematic first aid, and ambulance systems.
The Maryland Campaign was hugely important. Many things came of it but one I found particularly fascinating was an animosity between two people that played out in a U.S. Presidential election.
Lincoln had been frustrated after Antietam at McClellan’s lack of follow through. Pursuit of Lee is what Lincoln wanted but instead McClellan took time to revitalize his troops. After that year’s Congressional elections were over, when there could be no repercussions, Lincoln fired McClellan and replaced him with a man of action, Burnside. The amazing twist which resulted was that in the 1864 U.S. Presidential elections it was McClellan who became the Democratic party candidate to run in opposition to Lincoln. Had McClellan won I’m sure his revenge would have been sweet!
The more I learn about the Civil War the more impressed I am, the more saddened and bewildered I become and the more I realize how little I know about our nation’s history.
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