September 17, 1862 at Antietam was the bloodiest single day of battle in American history. Robert E. Lee fought a magnificent battle preserving his badly outnumbered army against seemingly overwhelming odds. George McClellan, commanding the attacking forces, was completely pleased with his own performance.

But McClellan missed an opportunity to destroy Lee's army. Despite tremendous advantages in intelligence and manpower, the Union general could not execute the assaults of his massive army in a coordinated and timely fashion. Lee utilized his interior lines to offset his opponent's numerical superiority.

Less than a year later at Gettysburg, Lee led the attacking army against an opponent with the advantage of interior lines. How and why Lee failed can be better understood by comparing his plans and objectives with those of McClellan at Antietam. Without realizing it, Lee duplicated at Gettysburg the decisions and plans of McClellan at Antietam. On another day and another battlefield, Lee was equally unsuccessful at overcoming similar problems.

The purpose of this comparison is not to elevate McClellan at Lee's expense, but rather to show the inherent problems in maneuvering large Civil War armies over exterior lines, and to explain the obstacles faced by these men in order to clarify why a victory was incomplete or a defeat complete. Lee's inability to achieve victory at Gettysburg is more easily understood by comparing his experience with that of McClellan at Antietam.

Our speaker, Dr. Roy Heidicker, attended West Point for two years, and ended up serving in the U.S. Marine Corps, primarily as an artillery officer. He has long been interested in military history, but became interested in the Civil War during postgraduate studies at USC. His 2003 PhD dissertation was "Yankee Workers and Southern Gentlemen: The Triumph of Free Labor Soldiers in the American Civil War." His thesis was that the performance of Civil War soldiers was largely based on the types of civilians they had been prior to the war.

Roy and his wife, Judine, own a successful internet business, Classic Aviation and War Art, that sells military art (www.warart.com),

Please join us as we explore the parallels of command decisions in these two historic battles.

Janet Whaley
Program Chair

 

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