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Why did General Lee Invade Maryland?
Lee invades Maryland!
Why Lee Invaded Maryland: Lee's
greatest objective was that a victory in the North could possibly gain diplomatic recognition from Europe and bring
England and France to the aid and assistance of the South. Such a victory might cause the people of the North to question
President Abraham Lincoln's leadership and force him to sue for peace.
| Lee's invasion plan of Maryland Map |
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| Map of principal Civil War battles in Maryland |
Just one week after the Second Battle of
Bull Run, General Robert E. Lee decided it was time to take the war into
the North. By marching his victorious army into Maryland, Lee had several objectives. He wanted to maintain the momentum
achieved with his stunning victory at Bull Run, which left the retreating Union army in chaos. By advancing into Maryland,
Lee could relieve Virginia of enemy occupation. He knew the Union army would have to mirror his movements and take up defensive
positions in front of Washington and Baltimore.
Lee hoped that by marching
into Maryland he could rally the Border State for the Southern cause. He could perhaps influence the upcoming Congressional Elections and persuade more
Democrats (who favored peace) to outvote the Republican majority in the House and demand an end to the Civil War.
Logistically, moving his army into the unharvested, virgin countryside
of western Maryland would provide new food supplies for Lee's hungry soldiers, and the merchant stores in Frederick could
resupply his troops with new clothing and shoes. September and October mark the key harvest months. Without Union armies impeding
them, the Southern farmers could gather their harvests and subsequently feed Lee's armies during the winter.
On Thursday morning, September 4, 1862, the dirty, ragged Army of Northern Virginia splashed across the shallow fords of the Potomac River just north of Leesburg to the strains of "Maryland, My Maryland."
By midmorning, Saturday, September 6, General "Stonewall" Jackson's advance force of 5,000 men marched down Market Street in Frederick and made camp on the north side of town. The remainder
of Lee's 40,000-man army soon followed.
Upon his arrival in town, Lee designed the Proclamation to the People of Maryland, inviting them to side with the Southern movement. For the next several
days Lee's troops, upon strict orders not to pillage, bought all the food, shoes and clothing they could find at
the stores. But soon it became obvious that the citizens of Frederick, though polite, had little sympathy for the Southern
cause.
So Lee comprised a new set of plans. He would divide his forces into four
sections, sending Gen. Jackson with six divisions of 22,000 men to eliminate the 12,000-strong Federal garrison at Harpers
Ferry to the southwest. The remaining three divisions of Lee's forces--18,000 men, under Gen. James Longstreet- would move
northwest over the Catoctin and South Mountain ranges to Boonsboro and Hagerstown, a distance of 25 miles.
| Why did Lee invade Maryland? |
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| State of Maryland Map |
Later, Jackson would rejoin Lee and Longstreet at Hagerstown. Then, using
these mountain ranges to protect his right flank, Lee could move his combined Confederate forces northeast along the rail
line to Harrisburg, the capital of Pennsylvania and a key rail center for the Union. Early on Wednesday morning, September
10, Lee's forces began leaving Frederick to carry out their assignments.
Three unforeseen events, however, would disrupt Lee's plans. General
George McClellan would reorganize the Army of the Potomac in days, rather than weeks as Lee expected, and arrive in Frederick on Friday, September 12th. Second, the garrison
at Harpers Ferry, rather than fleeing, was ordered to stand until reinforcements could arrive. Third, an official copy of
Lee's Special Orders No. 191--wrapped around three cigars--would be found by a Union private in an abandoned Confederate campsite the next
day. (Maryland Civil War History.)
When Lee learned that McClellan's army was moving westward from Frederick,
he realized the peril of his divided forces. He rapidly sent troops to block the three main passes over South Mountain,
providing sufficient time to concentrate the majority of his forces in a defensive position around Sharpsburg, six miles to the southwest of Boonsboro. Concurrently, McClellan's 85,000
men gathered on the east bank of the Antietam Creek. And thus, late on September 16, the die was cast for the battle
that would begin at sunrise the next morning; the battle that would become known as the bloodiest single-day in America's history.
Sources: Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies; Antietam Battlefield Board; Antietam
National Battlefield Park; National Park Service.
Recommended Reading:
The Antietam
Campaign (Military Campaigns of the Civil War). Description: The Maryland campaign of September 1862 ranks
among the most important military operations of the American Civil War. Crucial political, diplomatic, and military issues
were at stake as Robert E. Lee and George B. McClellan maneuvered and fought in the western part of the state. The climactic
clash came on September 17 at the battle of Antietam, where more than 23,000 men fell in
the single bloodiest day of the war.
Approaching
topics related to Lee's and McClellan's operations from a variety of perspectives, numerous contributors to this volume explore
questions regarding military leadership, strategy, and tactics, the impact of the fighting on officers and soldiers in both
armies, and the ways in which participants and people behind the lines interpreted and remembered the campaign. They also
discuss the performance of untried military units and offer a look at how the United States Army used the Antietam battlefield
as an outdoor classroom for its officers in the early twentieth century. Also available in paperback: The Antietam Campaign (Military Campaigns of the Civil War)
Recommended Reading:
General Lee's Army: From Victory to Collapse. Review:
You cannot say that University of North
Carolina professor Glatthaar (Partners in Command) did not do his homework in this massive examination
of the Civil War–era lives of the men in Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. Glatthaar spent nearly 20 years
examining and ordering primary source material to ferret out why Lee's men fought, how they lived during the war, how they
came close to winning, and why they lost. Glatthaar marshals convincing evidence to challenge the often-expressed notion that
the war in the South was a rich man's war and a poor man's fight and that support for slavery was concentrated among the Southern
upper class. Continued below...
Lee's army
included the rich, poor and middle-class, according to the author, who contends that there was broad support for the war in
all economic strata of Confederate society. He also challenges the myth that because Union forces outnumbered and materially
outmatched the Confederates, the rebel cause was lost, and articulates Lee and his army's acumen and achievements in the face
of this overwhelming opposition. This well-written work provides much food for thought for all Civil War buffs.
Editor's Pick: The Maryland Campaign of September
1862: Ezra A. Carman's Definitive Study of the Union and Confederate Armies at Antietam
(Hardcover). Description: Completed in the early 1900s,
The Maryland Campaign of September 1862 is still the essential source for anyone seeking understanding of the bloodiest day
in all of American history. As the U.S. War Department’s official expert on the Battle of Antietam, Ezra Carman corresponded
with and interviewed hundreds of other veterans from both sides of the conflict to produce a comprehensive history of the
campaign that dashed the Confederacy’s best hope for independence and ushered in the Emancipation Proclamation. Nearly
a century after its completion, Carman's manuscript has finally made its way into print, in an edition painstakingly edited,
annotated, and indexed by Joseph Pierro. The Maryland Campaign of September 1862 is a crucial document for anyone interested
in delving below the surface of the military campaign that forever altered the course of American history. Continued below...
Editorial
Reviews:
Ted Alexander,
Chief Historian, Antietam
National Battlefield
"The Ezra Carman
manuscript is the definitive study of that bloody September day in 1862. By editing it Joseph Pierro has done a tremendous
service to the field of Civil War studies. Indeed, this work is one of the most important Civil War publications to come out
in decades."
James M. McPherson,
author of Crossroads of Freedom: Antietam
"Many accounts
of Civil War battles were written in the decades after the war by soldiers who had participated in them. None rivals in accuracy
and thoroughness Ezra Carmen's study of the battles of South Mountain
and Antietam, in which he fought as colonel of the 13th New Jersey.
Students of the 1862 Maryland campaign have long relied
on this manuscript as a vital source; Joseph Pierro's scrupulous editorial work has now made this detailed narrative accessible
to everyone. A splendid achievement."
Jeffry D. Wert,
author of The Sword Of Lincoln: The Army of the Potomac
"At last, after
a century, Ezra A. Carman's The Maryland Campaign of September 1862 has received the attention it deserves. A Union veteran,
Carman authored a remarkable primary study of the critical operations that ended along Antietam Creek. Editor Joseph Pierro
has given students of the Civil War and American history a most welcome and long overdue book."
Edwin C. Bearss,
author of Fields of Honor: Pivotal Battles of the Civil War
"My introduction
to the Ezra A. Carman Papers at the Library of Congress and National Archives came in the spring of 1961. I was astounded
and amazed by their depth and scope. The correspondence, troop movement maps, etc, along with Carman's unpublished manuscript
on the Antietam Campaign constitutes then as now an invaluable legacy to the American people by Carman and the veterans of
Antietam. But for too long that resource has only been available to the general public as
microfilm or by traveling to Washington. Now thanks to the
publishers and skilled, knowledgeable, sympathetic, but light-handed editor Joseph Pierro, an annotated copy of Carman's masterpiece
The Maryland Campaign of September 1862 will be available to the public."
William C.
Davis, author of Look Away! A History of the Confederate States of America
"Joseph Pierro
brings into the open one of the great and largely unknown masterworks of Civil War history. Ezra Carman's work on Antietam is a fountainhead for study of that pivotal battle, written by a man who was in the fight and
who spent most of his life studying and marking the battlefield. No student can afford to ignore this stunningly thorough
and brilliantly edited classic."
Recommended Reading: Crossroads
of Freedom: Antietam (Pivotal Moments in American History) (Hardcover). Description: The bloodiest day in United States history was September
17, 1862, when, during the Civil War battle at Antietam, approximately 6,500 soldiers were
killed or mortally wounded, while more than 15,000 were seriously wounded. James M. McPherson states in Crossroads of Freedom the concise chronicle of America’s
bloodiest day and that it may well have been the pivotal moment of the war, as well as the young republic itself. Continued
below.
The South, after a series of setbacks in the spring of 1862, had reversed the war's momentum during the
summer, and was on the "brink of military victory" and about to achieve diplomatic recognition by European nations, most notably
England
and France. Though the bulk of his book
concerns itself with the details--and incredible carnage--of the battle, McPherson raises it above typical military histories
by placing it in its socio-political context: The victory prodded Abraham Lincoln to announce his "preliminary" Emancipation
Proclamation, freeing slaves. England and France deferred their economic alliance with the battered secessionists. Most importantly,
it kept Lincoln's party, the Republicans, in control of Congress.
McPherson's account is accessible, elegant, and economical. Also available in paperback:
Crossroads of Freedom: Antietam (Pivotal Moments in American
History)
Recommended Reading:
The Civil War Battlefield Guide: The Definitive Guide, Completely Revised, with New Maps
and More Than 300 Additional Battles (Second Edition) (Hardcover). Description: This new edition of the definitive guide to Civil War battlefields is really a completely
new book. While the first edition covered 60 major battlefields, from Fort Sumter to Appomattox, the second covers all of the 384 designated as the "principal battlefields" in the American Civil War Sites Advisory Commission
Report. Continued below...
As in the first edition, the essays are authoritative and concise, written by such leading Civil War
historians as James M. McPherson, Stephen W. Sears, Edwin C. Bearss, James I. Robinson, Jr., and Gary W. Gallager. The second
edition also features 83 new four-color maps covering the most important battles. The Civil War Battlefield Guide is an essential
reference for anyone interested in the Civil War.
Questions addressed on this page include: Why did General Robert E. Lee invade
Maryland?
What was the main reason why Lee invaded Maryland? State two reasons, with facts, details, history, and results of Lee's
invasion known as the Maryland Campaign? Lee was considered the greatest general in the nation according
to Gen. Winfield Scott, but when asked by Scott to command the Union Army, Lee refused, so what was Lee's grand
strategy for the Confederacy instead? What was Lee’s strategy for the Civil War?
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