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This month, our Five Things column features Alex Rossino, author of our latest release, Their Maryland: The Army of Northern Virginia From the Potomac Crossing to Sharpsburg in September 1862. Here, he tells of five facts which he discovered while researching and writing this book.
Take it away Alex . . .
1. The evidence shows that Robert E. Lee embarked upon the expedition in Maryland with only a vague concept of what he hoped to achieve. His plans for the campaign evolved as he learned new information.
Lee believed secessionist sentiment in the state was stronger than it was, and he hoped the appearance of his army north of the Potomac River would encourage the rebellious elements of Maryland society to rise up and create problems for the Lincoln administration.
Historians have long painted Lee's two major invasion/raids north of the Potomac in very similar terms. In fact, his campaign in Maryland, and his decision to fight at Sharpsburg, cannot be fully understood without taking into account his desire to instigate the secession of the state. The objective of taking Maryland out of the Union also makes the 1862 campaign a very different thing than the Gettysburg campaign of 1863.
Of course, there is much, much more to this story in my new book Their Maryland.
2. To date, no one has examined the historical sources to determine where Daniel Harvey Hill's division camped near Frederick, Maryland, from September 6-11, 1862. The sources reveal that Hill's brigades bivouacked along Ballenger Creek, approximately four miles south/southwest of Frederick, a location several miles away from the place where skirmishers with the 27th Indiana discovered the lost copy of Special Orders No. 191 on September 13. The sources also reveal that while Hill's headquarters cannot be identified with certainty, the general probably camped either at the farm of a man named George Markell or that he lodged at a house in Frederick itself.
If neither Hill nor his command can be placed at the location where the Lost Orders were found, then who lost the lost orders? I suggest who the culprit responsible for losing the orders may be, but come to no firm conclusion.
3. A theory put forward a few years ago stated that the famous photograph of Rebel troops halted on the street in Frederick, Maryland, may have been men with Jubal Early's Valley Army on July 9, 1864, and not men with Stonewall Jackson's command when they marched through the city on September 10, 1862. This theory spread far and wide thanks to the Internet, causing a lot of debate about the picture.
I examined the available sources to see if they offer a way to substantiate one date or the other and reach what I think are interesting and well-founded conclusions. The evidence for both dates is weighed carefully.
4. Most people know about the siege of Harpers Ferry. When the Federal garrison capitulated on September 15, 1862, Jackson captured 12,500 men and vast amounts of valuable supplies. What many people don't know is that he also captured up to 2,000 "contrabands" who had collected behind Federal lines. In other words, African Americans. Some were escaped slaves and others were free blacks and servants from Federal regiments. I go into this matter in some detail. This incident reveals that the more publicized seizure of blacks by Lee's troops during the 1863 Gettysburg campaign was neither unique, nor unprecedented.
5. Many Civil War enthusiasts believe that Robert E. Lee rode Traveller (yes, spelled with two "L's") during the Battle of Sharpsburg/Antietam. The evidence shows that Lee did indeed ride a horse for parts of the day on September 17, both while being led by an orderly and under his own direction. There is no evidence, however, that the horse he rode was Traveller. None of the multiple sources describing Lee during the battle mention Traveller. One source even describes Lee riding a small black horse . . .
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