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The Maryland Campaign #1
To Antietam Creek: The Maryland Campaign of September 1862
In September 1862 the Federal army huddled within the defenses of Washington, disorganized and discouraged from its recent defeat at Second Manassas. Confederate General Robert E. Lee led his tough and confident Army of Northern Virginia into Maryland in a bold gamble to force a showdown that would win Southern independence. The future of the Union hung in the balance. The campaign that followed lasted only two weeks, but it changed the course of the Civil War.
For the sesquicentennial of Antietam and the Maryland Campaign, D. Scott Hartwig delivers a two-volume study of the campaign and climactic battle. This riveting first installment takes the reader from the controversial return of George B. McClellan as commander of the Army of the Potomac through the Confederate invasion, the siege and capture of Harpers Ferry, the day-long Battle of South Mountain, and ultimately, to the eve of the great and terrible Battle of Antietam.
794 pages in total, 652 pages of narrative
For the sesquicentennial of Antietam and the Maryland Campaign, D. Scott Hartwig delivers a two-volume study of the campaign and climactic battle. This riveting first installment takes the reader from the controversial return of George B. McClellan as commander of the Army of the Potomac through the Confederate invasion, the siege and capture of Harpers Ferry, the day-long Battle of South Mountain, and ultimately, to the eve of the great and terrible Battle of Antietam.
794 pages in total, 652 pages of narrative
808 pages, Hardcover
First published September 1, 2012
99 people are currently reading
276 people want to read
About the author
D. Scott Hartwig
12 books18 followersDavid Scott Hartwig is a thirty-four year veteran of the National Park Service and served as Gettysburg’s supervisory historian for twenty years. He won the NPS regional Freeman Tilden Award for Excellence in Interpretation in 1993.
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
May 15, 2019
I cannot imagine there is a book in print or out of print that covers the Maryland Campaign of 1862 as thoroughly and comprehensively as D. Scott Hartwig's To Antietam Creek. He appears to have left no stone unturned. In 652 pages of text plus three appendices, he covers the Maryland campaign in extensive – sometimes excruciating – detail up to the eve of the clash along Antietam Creek. Hartwig made impressive use of numerous first-hand accounts in letters and memoirs and delved deeply into official records and previously-published works by credible historians. His account, unlike many others, is well-balanced between the Union and Confederate perspectives. It is as focused and complete as could be expected from a man with 34 years in the National Park Service including 20 years as the supervisory historian at Gettysburg. Hartwig unravels many misconceptions about the campaign – in particular regarding the actual numbers engaged on each side, the speed of McClellan's advance to South Mountain, the march discipline of the armies (straggling was epidemic on both sides), the reputations of certain Southern division and brigade commanders, and the comparative performance of the staff officers in each army. I appreciated the attention given to the achievements of Lafayette McLaws of Georgia. For many years he has been criticized or just ignored by historians and deserved better. Hartwig gives McLaws his due. Overall, To Antietam Creek rates a solid Four Stars in my library.
Why only Four Stars? Hartwig's book too frequently misnames, misidentifies, or misspells the names of important figures and places. The Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, Roger B. Taney, is referred to as Tawney. In the course of the book, Confederate Brigadier General Nathan G. “Shanks” Evans is called Nathaniel, then Nathan, and later Nathaniel again. Confederate Brigadier General Ambrose “Rans” Wright is dubbed Augustus and cavalry leader William E. “Grumble” Jones is called John. Union Brigadier General Isaac Rodman is referred to as Israel. This sloppiness bleeds over to place names. The Virginia heights opposite Harpers Ferry (it lost the apostrophe many years ago) are sometimes spelled Loudon and then as Loudoun Heights. Loudoun is correct. Hartwig could not decide on the name of the road running westward from Harpers Ferry. It was Charlestown Pike, and then Charleston, then Charlestown again. Charles Town (often then Charlestown) lies close to Harpers Ferry to the southwest. Charleston, now West Virginia's capital, is 300 miles distant. Admittedly these are minor miscues, but so much sloppiness reflects badly upon a serious work of history. Just a little effort by a knowledgeable proofreader could have corrected these errors.
I notice others reviewers have praised the maps. I disagree. In books on battles or campaigns good maps are critical. Provision of too many small scale maps hinders the reader's ability to follow along with the movements of operations. To Antietam Creek concentrates its few large scale maps in the later half of the book. The large scale maps lack details of topographical features such as names of watercourses, roads, farm lanes, villages, etc. which are pertinent to the account. While such features may appear on the maps, they are not identified. Too often farms, particular roads, or creeks are mentioned in the text, but then not indicated on the maps.
Despite its shortcomings, D. Scott Hartwig's To Antietam Creek is one of the best books on the U.S. Civil War I have read in years. A second volume on the Battle of Antietam is in production. I look forward to it.
Why only Four Stars? Hartwig's book too frequently misnames, misidentifies, or misspells the names of important figures and places. The Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, Roger B. Taney, is referred to as Tawney. In the course of the book, Confederate Brigadier General Nathan G. “Shanks” Evans is called Nathaniel, then Nathan, and later Nathaniel again. Confederate Brigadier General Ambrose “Rans” Wright is dubbed Augustus and cavalry leader William E. “Grumble” Jones is called John. Union Brigadier General Isaac Rodman is referred to as Israel. This sloppiness bleeds over to place names. The Virginia heights opposite Harpers Ferry (it lost the apostrophe many years ago) are sometimes spelled Loudon and then as Loudoun Heights. Loudoun is correct. Hartwig could not decide on the name of the road running westward from Harpers Ferry. It was Charlestown Pike, and then Charleston, then Charlestown again. Charles Town (often then Charlestown) lies close to Harpers Ferry to the southwest. Charleston, now West Virginia's capital, is 300 miles distant. Admittedly these are minor miscues, but so much sloppiness reflects badly upon a serious work of history. Just a little effort by a knowledgeable proofreader could have corrected these errors.
I notice others reviewers have praised the maps. I disagree. In books on battles or campaigns good maps are critical. Provision of too many small scale maps hinders the reader's ability to follow along with the movements of operations. To Antietam Creek concentrates its few large scale maps in the later half of the book. The large scale maps lack details of topographical features such as names of watercourses, roads, farm lanes, villages, etc. which are pertinent to the account. While such features may appear on the maps, they are not identified. Too often farms, particular roads, or creeks are mentioned in the text, but then not indicated on the maps.
Despite its shortcomings, D. Scott Hartwig's To Antietam Creek is one of the best books on the U.S. Civil War I have read in years. A second volume on the Battle of Antietam is in production. I look forward to it.
September 28, 2023
While the clash between Union and Confederate armies at Gettysburg in July 1863 enjoys a pride of place as the Civil War’s most famous battle, a good argument could be made that its most important one was fought ten months earlier at Antietam Creek. It was there that the Union’s Army of the Potomac turned back an invasion of the Northern states by the Confederacy’s Army of Northern Virginia. With their withdrawal back to Virginia, the Confederates lost the strategic initiative, and with it perhaps their best attempt to end the war on their own terms. And with the victory giving President Abraham Lincoln the pretext for issuing an Emancipation Proclamation that set the stage for freeing the slaves in the states that had broken away from the Union, any hope of recognition of the Confederate States of America by the major powers of Europe was lost.
The battle’s importance has ensured that Antietam has received its fair share of attention over the years. Yet none of these works can match the thoroughness of D. Scott Hartwig’s account of the campaign. In this book he spends nearly 800 pages just to take his readers to the eve of the battle, leaving it and its aftermath to a second volume. While some may find this degree of coverage excessive, Hartwig uses it to lay the groundwork for what is the most comprehensive study available of the early stages of Robert E. Lee’s Maryland campaign and the events that led to the bloodiest day in American history.
Hartwig begins his account in the aftermath of the battle known variously as Second Bull Run or Second Manassas. By either name it was a victory by the Army of Northern Virginia, one that gave Confederate forces in the East the initiative for the first time in the war. Lee sought to maintain it with a thrust first into Maryland and from there to Pennsylvania. Some sort of movement of the Confederacy’s main army was necessary, as over the previous year of campaigning it had exhausted the available forage in northeastern Virginia. By striking into the Union, Hartwig argues, Lee hoped not only to find much-needed provisions, but to undermine as well Northern resolve to continue the war and win a final victory over Union forces that would secure the Confederacy’s independence.
Such a victory was possible given the demoralized state of the forces opposing Lee. Among the many subjects covered in detail by Hartwig are the politics of the Army of the Potomac, the leadership of which spent as much time quarreling among itself as it did waging the war. In the aftermath of Second Bull Run, President Abraham Lincoln wanted new leadership for his country’s premier fighting force. The lack of viable options, however, gave him little choice but to retain George McClellan in command. Though an overly cautious when on campaign, McClellan’s organizational abilities and obvious devotion to his men made his retention the easy choice, and it gave the soldiers in his command renewed hope in the wake of their recent defeats on the Virginia Peninsula.
This proved important once McClellan received reports of Lee’s advance into Maryland. Hartwig offers an assessment of the forces that underscores the advantages enjoyed by both sides. Though the Union possessed important advantages in materiel, the ranks were filled with replacements still learning the business of war. By contrast, though poorly clothed and equipped the Army of Northern Virginia was comprised mainly of veterans of the previous year of war, and were well inured to the hardships of campaigning. Lee’s advance was capably executed, and a large detachment quickly pinned down Union forces at Harper’s Ferry. The discovery of a copy of Lee’s orders, however, emboldened McClellan, who in response to this intelligence windfall advanced the Army of the Potomac into Maryland to counter Lee’s invasion.
With Harper’s Ferry surrounded, McClellan moved his forces to relieve it. Their clash with Confederate troops at the Battle of South Mountain on September 14, 1862 ended in the most decisive Union victory to date, one that secured key passes needed for Union forces to continue their pursuit. Moreover, defeat cost Lee the tactical initiative, leading to his decision to concentrate his units at Sharpsburg, near Antietam Creek. Though the Confederate commander contemplated withdrawal to Virginia, Thomas Jackson’s successful capture of Harper’s Creek a day later convinced him to continue. Hartwig makes an interesting argument here that, had Lee withdrawn at this point, it would have been possible for the Confederates to present the Maryland campaign as a victory for their forces, one that could have aided their efforts to win European recognition. Instead, Lee sought to maintain the strategic initiative, a decision that set the stage for a battle that would decide the campaign he hoped would change the course of the war.
This it did, though not in the way Lee hoped. Looming in the background of Hartwig’s account is Lincoln’s declaration, which once issued would redefine the goals of the war. While this justifies the attention the battle had received as a historical event, what Hartwig brings to his account is a meticulous degree of examination that helps explain in detail exactly why the campaign played out the way it did. This he supplements with astute judgments about the men and decisions on both sides of the conflict, to which his command of the details of the campaign and the sources about them provide considerable credence. Errors are impressively few in a work of this size, and while the visual quality of the maps leaves a little to be desired, they are legible and plentiful enough to give the reader a solid understanding of the geography and dispositions of the campaign. On its own Hartwig’s book is an impressive achievement, and with his concluding volume, I Dread the Thought of the Place: The Battle of Antietam and the End of the Maryland Campaign, it comprises the definitive account of the Maryland campaign. Though there will undoubtedly be more books written about such an important turning point in the Civil War, it is unlikely any of them will even come close to the standard Hartwig has set with his thorough scholarship and fluent writing.
The battle’s importance has ensured that Antietam has received its fair share of attention over the years. Yet none of these works can match the thoroughness of D. Scott Hartwig’s account of the campaign. In this book he spends nearly 800 pages just to take his readers to the eve of the battle, leaving it and its aftermath to a second volume. While some may find this degree of coverage excessive, Hartwig uses it to lay the groundwork for what is the most comprehensive study available of the early stages of Robert E. Lee’s Maryland campaign and the events that led to the bloodiest day in American history.
Hartwig begins his account in the aftermath of the battle known variously as Second Bull Run or Second Manassas. By either name it was a victory by the Army of Northern Virginia, one that gave Confederate forces in the East the initiative for the first time in the war. Lee sought to maintain it with a thrust first into Maryland and from there to Pennsylvania. Some sort of movement of the Confederacy’s main army was necessary, as over the previous year of campaigning it had exhausted the available forage in northeastern Virginia. By striking into the Union, Hartwig argues, Lee hoped not only to find much-needed provisions, but to undermine as well Northern resolve to continue the war and win a final victory over Union forces that would secure the Confederacy’s independence.
Such a victory was possible given the demoralized state of the forces opposing Lee. Among the many subjects covered in detail by Hartwig are the politics of the Army of the Potomac, the leadership of which spent as much time quarreling among itself as it did waging the war. In the aftermath of Second Bull Run, President Abraham Lincoln wanted new leadership for his country’s premier fighting force. The lack of viable options, however, gave him little choice but to retain George McClellan in command. Though an overly cautious when on campaign, McClellan’s organizational abilities and obvious devotion to his men made his retention the easy choice, and it gave the soldiers in his command renewed hope in the wake of their recent defeats on the Virginia Peninsula.
This proved important once McClellan received reports of Lee’s advance into Maryland. Hartwig offers an assessment of the forces that underscores the advantages enjoyed by both sides. Though the Union possessed important advantages in materiel, the ranks were filled with replacements still learning the business of war. By contrast, though poorly clothed and equipped the Army of Northern Virginia was comprised mainly of veterans of the previous year of war, and were well inured to the hardships of campaigning. Lee’s advance was capably executed, and a large detachment quickly pinned down Union forces at Harper’s Ferry. The discovery of a copy of Lee’s orders, however, emboldened McClellan, who in response to this intelligence windfall advanced the Army of the Potomac into Maryland to counter Lee’s invasion.
With Harper’s Ferry surrounded, McClellan moved his forces to relieve it. Their clash with Confederate troops at the Battle of South Mountain on September 14, 1862 ended in the most decisive Union victory to date, one that secured key passes needed for Union forces to continue their pursuit. Moreover, defeat cost Lee the tactical initiative, leading to his decision to concentrate his units at Sharpsburg, near Antietam Creek. Though the Confederate commander contemplated withdrawal to Virginia, Thomas Jackson’s successful capture of Harper’s Creek a day later convinced him to continue. Hartwig makes an interesting argument here that, had Lee withdrawn at this point, it would have been possible for the Confederates to present the Maryland campaign as a victory for their forces, one that could have aided their efforts to win European recognition. Instead, Lee sought to maintain the strategic initiative, a decision that set the stage for a battle that would decide the campaign he hoped would change the course of the war.
This it did, though not in the way Lee hoped. Looming in the background of Hartwig’s account is Lincoln’s declaration, which once issued would redefine the goals of the war. While this justifies the attention the battle had received as a historical event, what Hartwig brings to his account is a meticulous degree of examination that helps explain in detail exactly why the campaign played out the way it did. This he supplements with astute judgments about the men and decisions on both sides of the conflict, to which his command of the details of the campaign and the sources about them provide considerable credence. Errors are impressively few in a work of this size, and while the visual quality of the maps leaves a little to be desired, they are legible and plentiful enough to give the reader a solid understanding of the geography and dispositions of the campaign. On its own Hartwig’s book is an impressive achievement, and with his concluding volume, I Dread the Thought of the Place: The Battle of Antietam and the End of the Maryland Campaign, it comprises the definitive account of the Maryland campaign. Though there will undoubtedly be more books written about such an important turning point in the Civil War, it is unlikely any of them will even come close to the standard Hartwig has set with his thorough scholarship and fluent writing.
February 5, 2024
Robert E. Lee’s 1862 Maryland Campaign involved more than just the Battle of Antietam, Hartwig argues in the introduction to this book. And then he spends the next 700 pages or so proving his point.
This is an incredibly comprehensive, detailed look at the approximately two weeks between the Confederate victory at the Second Battle of Bull Run, and the Battle of Antietam that followed. “These events have been only lightly touched on in previous histories,” Hartwig writes. “This volume is the first attempt to give appropriate attention to… the campaign leading up to Antietam.”
While some Civil War books focus on big-picture strategy, others on detailed military tactics and maneuvers, and still others on individual anecdotes about soldiers’ experiences during and between battles, this book does it all. The result is a well-done “something for everybody” combination that should give any curious reader what they’re looking for.
And, possibly, more than they’re looking for? There is an awful lot of detail in here for a layman like me. But anyone who picks up such a hefty book about the lead-up to Antietam that ends before the battle even begins, probably knows what they’re getting into. So I certainly can’t fault Hartwig for his thoroughness in what must be the definitive study of the pre-Antietam Maryland Campaign.
The book begins with character sketches of Generals McClellan and Lee and the state of their armies as Lee headed north and McClellan set out after him. McClellan’s Army of the Potomac was “better equipped, uniformed, and supplied,” but Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia had “superior organization, morale, and leadership,” in addition to having the wind at its back after its victory at Bull Run.
Much of the book follows the armies as the Confederates made their way into Maryland and the Union forces tried to determine what they were up to, where they were and where they were headed next. The level of detail extends to what river crossings they used, whose farms they traveled through, down which streets in which towns they marched. It’s clear early on that this is not going to be a quick read, but it’s well-written enough that it’s still very readable if you’re not in a hurry to get to the action.
The chronicle of who went where and when is supplemented with anecdotes that lend color to the story - we learn, through the soldiers’ own words, of the Confederates’ wonderment at entering a state untouched by war, interacting with civilians and sometimes spending their Confederate money at local shops for supplies. As the campaign goes on, however, there are other stories about the often pitiful condition of troops on both sides - shoeless, dirty, ill from foraging for unripe food like green corn. And the often ambivalent or sometimes downright hostile Marylanders didn’t welcome the Confederate troops in quite the way the troops had hoped they would.
All the while, McClellan was focused on containing Lee, first by ensuring that Washington, Baltimore and Pennsylvania were protected, and then by pushing the Confederates out of Maryland. Hartwig notes that McClellan seemed to prefer doing this “by maneuver rather than by battle,” while President Lincoln would have preferred for him to inflict some damage on the enemy in the process. Even when McClellan famously came into possession of Lee’s misplaced “lost order,” he failed to fully take advantage of the intelligence to the extent that he could have.
After a number of skirmishes, the Union victory at the Battle of South Mountain, together with its subsequent loss of Harpers Ferry, represent the climax of the book. Had Lee withdrawn from Maryland at this point, “the escape of the enemy back into Virginia and the shame of the surrender of Harpers Ferry… would have dealt the Union a humiliating blow,” Hartwig asserts. It would have forestalled the Battle of Antietam altogether, which would have eliminated the conditions that allowed for the issuance of the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, and could have changed the trajectory of the war altogether. “But Lee did not withdraw, for he was Lee,” Hartwig writes, “and he strove for something larger than merely striking the enemy a hard blow.” As the Battle of Antietam loomed, Lee knew “his campaign of maneuver was finished. The battle now pending must be won.”
Thus sets up Hartwig’s second volume, published last summer, more than a decade after the first. Where volume one leaves off, “a negotiated settlement - with slavery continuing intact - remained possible,” Hartwig writes. But the battle to come “slammed the door on a limited war; there would be no turning back.”
There is, perhaps, a fine line between reading “everything you need to know” about the Maryland Campaign, and “more than you ever wanted to know” about it. There were times while reading that I felt the former was the case here, while at other times I felt the latter was true. It’s certainly not a breezy read, but as a setup to the second volume that I presume will delve into the pivotal battle and its consequences with just as much detail, this is an important book that sets the stage better than I imagine anything else could.
This is an incredibly comprehensive, detailed look at the approximately two weeks between the Confederate victory at the Second Battle of Bull Run, and the Battle of Antietam that followed. “These events have been only lightly touched on in previous histories,” Hartwig writes. “This volume is the first attempt to give appropriate attention to… the campaign leading up to Antietam.”
While some Civil War books focus on big-picture strategy, others on detailed military tactics and maneuvers, and still others on individual anecdotes about soldiers’ experiences during and between battles, this book does it all. The result is a well-done “something for everybody” combination that should give any curious reader what they’re looking for.
And, possibly, more than they’re looking for? There is an awful lot of detail in here for a layman like me. But anyone who picks up such a hefty book about the lead-up to Antietam that ends before the battle even begins, probably knows what they’re getting into. So I certainly can’t fault Hartwig for his thoroughness in what must be the definitive study of the pre-Antietam Maryland Campaign.
The book begins with character sketches of Generals McClellan and Lee and the state of their armies as Lee headed north and McClellan set out after him. McClellan’s Army of the Potomac was “better equipped, uniformed, and supplied,” but Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia had “superior organization, morale, and leadership,” in addition to having the wind at its back after its victory at Bull Run.
Much of the book follows the armies as the Confederates made their way into Maryland and the Union forces tried to determine what they were up to, where they were and where they were headed next. The level of detail extends to what river crossings they used, whose farms they traveled through, down which streets in which towns they marched. It’s clear early on that this is not going to be a quick read, but it’s well-written enough that it’s still very readable if you’re not in a hurry to get to the action.
The chronicle of who went where and when is supplemented with anecdotes that lend color to the story - we learn, through the soldiers’ own words, of the Confederates’ wonderment at entering a state untouched by war, interacting with civilians and sometimes spending their Confederate money at local shops for supplies. As the campaign goes on, however, there are other stories about the often pitiful condition of troops on both sides - shoeless, dirty, ill from foraging for unripe food like green corn. And the often ambivalent or sometimes downright hostile Marylanders didn’t welcome the Confederate troops in quite the way the troops had hoped they would.
All the while, McClellan was focused on containing Lee, first by ensuring that Washington, Baltimore and Pennsylvania were protected, and then by pushing the Confederates out of Maryland. Hartwig notes that McClellan seemed to prefer doing this “by maneuver rather than by battle,” while President Lincoln would have preferred for him to inflict some damage on the enemy in the process. Even when McClellan famously came into possession of Lee’s misplaced “lost order,” he failed to fully take advantage of the intelligence to the extent that he could have.
After a number of skirmishes, the Union victory at the Battle of South Mountain, together with its subsequent loss of Harpers Ferry, represent the climax of the book. Had Lee withdrawn from Maryland at this point, “the escape of the enemy back into Virginia and the shame of the surrender of Harpers Ferry… would have dealt the Union a humiliating blow,” Hartwig asserts. It would have forestalled the Battle of Antietam altogether, which would have eliminated the conditions that allowed for the issuance of the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, and could have changed the trajectory of the war altogether. “But Lee did not withdraw, for he was Lee,” Hartwig writes, “and he strove for something larger than merely striking the enemy a hard blow.” As the Battle of Antietam loomed, Lee knew “his campaign of maneuver was finished. The battle now pending must be won.”
Thus sets up Hartwig’s second volume, published last summer, more than a decade after the first. Where volume one leaves off, “a negotiated settlement - with slavery continuing intact - remained possible,” Hartwig writes. But the battle to come “slammed the door on a limited war; there would be no turning back.”
There is, perhaps, a fine line between reading “everything you need to know” about the Maryland Campaign, and “more than you ever wanted to know” about it. There were times while reading that I felt the former was the case here, while at other times I felt the latter was true. It’s certainly not a breezy read, but as a setup to the second volume that I presume will delve into the pivotal battle and its consequences with just as much detail, this is an important book that sets the stage better than I imagine anything else could.
March 10, 2015
An excellent look at the period leading up to the Battle of Antietam in 1862. I was especially impressed with the details on the Battle of South Mountain, and am looking forward to the book on the battle itself.
December 5, 2019
One of the best Civil War histories I have read; a comprehensive, thorough look at the leadup to the Battle of Antietam. Hartwig does well what many Civil War histories do poorly - provide a detailed examination not so much of how the battle of fought, but why it was fought where it was, why the timing of events occurred as they did, etc. Too often Civil War battle histories simply state that this formation arrived just at this moment, but the logic of how and why they arrive - which is, in the end, the difference in the fight - is largely unexamined. Hartwig remedies that omission in glorious detail and vivid writing that makes what, for some, may seem like the dull logistics and maneuvering of an army on the march into the high-paced race for time and position that it was. Can't wait for the next book.
With that said, this is definitely a book for Civil War buffs - if you just want a basic overview of the campaign and key events, look elsewhere. This is for those of us who want to revel in the glorious details of how a campaign was fought and won.
With that said, this is definitely a book for Civil War buffs - if you just want a basic overview of the campaign and key events, look elsewhere. This is for those of us who want to revel in the glorious details of how a campaign was fought and won.
December 17, 2023
What a wonderful book! Nothing but praise! In my opinion, THE definitive account of the Maryland Campaign in 1862, up to the battle of Antietam. Very well presented, with some battle maps.
I’m very familiar with this area of the country, and have traveled over most of the roads and spent numerous days and weeks studying this campaign from start to finish over several decades. It’s one of my most visited battlefield parks. So, I was hoping for a detailed and rich account of this most important campaign in the American Civil War. I was not disappointed.
So, why a 4 rating?
It’s not due to the detail, or the writing style, or any factual errors that I could find. Rather, it’s about the lack of detailed maps of the operational scale of the movements. While this area still contains the same road network of 1862 it’s also obviously grown exponentially in population with more roads etc. Luckily for me, I’m also a wargamer, and one of my favorite series of games is “Great Campaigns of the American Civil War” which specializes in detailed maps (showing the ground and locations as they were in 1862…) with a scale of about 2 miles to the inch. And this campaign was published in this series a few decades ago. The map that came with the game was invaluable to me to follow along on every road, town , river and creek mentioned. Once the book got down to the tactical level my other numerous battle games contained detailed maps that supported the text. But without these maps, it would have been difficult to pick out the many fords crossing the Potomac River, for example. Modern maps and Google Earth generally don’t show these items.
So, I knocked it down a notch for this reason. I know maps are expensive to make, but I’ve always figured that if you mention a place, it should be on a map, so the reader can supplement the text with WHY that place mattered.
A small issue for me, but a warning to others without my maps. It’s still a great read, but at well over 800 pages, be prepared. Volume 2 will cover the Battle of Antietam. I’ll start it in the new year.
I’m very familiar with this area of the country, and have traveled over most of the roads and spent numerous days and weeks studying this campaign from start to finish over several decades. It’s one of my most visited battlefield parks. So, I was hoping for a detailed and rich account of this most important campaign in the American Civil War. I was not disappointed.
So, why a 4 rating?
It’s not due to the detail, or the writing style, or any factual errors that I could find. Rather, it’s about the lack of detailed maps of the operational scale of the movements. While this area still contains the same road network of 1862 it’s also obviously grown exponentially in population with more roads etc. Luckily for me, I’m also a wargamer, and one of my favorite series of games is “Great Campaigns of the American Civil War” which specializes in detailed maps (showing the ground and locations as they were in 1862…) with a scale of about 2 miles to the inch. And this campaign was published in this series a few decades ago. The map that came with the game was invaluable to me to follow along on every road, town , river and creek mentioned. Once the book got down to the tactical level my other numerous battle games contained detailed maps that supported the text. But without these maps, it would have been difficult to pick out the many fords crossing the Potomac River, for example. Modern maps and Google Earth generally don’t show these items.
So, I knocked it down a notch for this reason. I know maps are expensive to make, but I’ve always figured that if you mention a place, it should be on a map, so the reader can supplement the text with WHY that place mattered.
A small issue for me, but a warning to others without my maps. It’s still a great read, but at well over 800 pages, be prepared. Volume 2 will cover the Battle of Antietam. I’ll start it in the new year.
December 17, 2023
This thorough and detailed 800+ page account of the campaign in Maryland leading up to the Battle of Sharpsburg/Antietam is now the definitive book on the subject and likely will be for quite some time. With this book in his collection, the Civil War enthusiast will not need to acquire any more books on the battles of South Mountain and Harper's Ferry. Wait.... Forget that last sentence. That's just crazy talk.
But adding this book to one's collection is made difficult by the fact that even though it was first published in 2012 and is in fact the definitive history of the subject, it is now out of print! A paperback reprint is available for $47 but the hardback is nearly impossible to find and ridiculously expensive if one is located. (I got the copy I read through interlibrary loan). Hartwig's follow up, I Dread the Thought of the Place, which finishes up the story of the Maryland Campaign, was released earlier this year and can be had for a mere $54.95. Both books were published by Johns Hopkins University Press, which has chosen in its wisdom to make them pricey and (evidently) quickly unavailable. Authors of popular history should probably avoid university presses, which are notorious for overcharging readers.
But adding this book to one's collection is made difficult by the fact that even though it was first published in 2012 and is in fact the definitive history of the subject, it is now out of print! A paperback reprint is available for $47 but the hardback is nearly impossible to find and ridiculously expensive if one is located. (I got the copy I read through interlibrary loan). Hartwig's follow up, I Dread the Thought of the Place, which finishes up the story of the Maryland Campaign, was released earlier this year and can be had for a mere $54.95. Both books were published by Johns Hopkins University Press, which has chosen in its wisdom to make them pricey and (evidently) quickly unavailable. Authors of popular history should probably avoid university presses, which are notorious for overcharging readers.
November 2, 2023
This prelude to the Civil War Battle of Antietam — chronicling the Maryland Campaign from post-Second Manassas to eve of Antietam — exceeds 650 pages of main text. That's about 300 pages more than Stephen Sears' study of the more significant Antietam battle itself, Landscape Turned Red, so of course this book is for those who particularly enjoy the details.
What does author D. Scott Hartwig do with those details? Well, he gives us an interesting, frequently strong work in To Antietam Creek. But, yes, the devil's in the details after all, and there are a few stumbles on that front here. Hartwig is to be congratulated for his obviously Herculean research and for making this book as compelling as it generally is. He sometimes neglects, though, to give readers the helping hand they have every right to expect when tackling a book of this size. His biggest failure is conveying geography and chronology of the many moving pieces in this part of the campaign, the principal of which are the Battle of South Mountain and the Confederates' movements against Harpers Ferry and its eventual surrender. How far is Harpers Ferry from the contested gaps in South Mountain? How far is Sharpsburg from Boonsboro? When General Robert E. Lee audaciously divided his army and arms of it operated from a handful of locations in the September 1862 invasion of Maryland, that gambit was a precarious balancing act. Hartwig's attempts (so-called) to show how all of these mini-campaigns related to each other frequently result in dropping the balls during the juggling. It would have been easy, as Hartwig shifts from one part of the campaign to another, to say "Meanwhile, five miles northeast in Turner's Gap ..."
But Hartwig doesn't help us. He may assume the maps will do that work for him, but unfortunately there aren't enough maps, and the ones that are here sometimes lack a location (a farm, for instance) that is mentioned. There are too few maps that pull back enough to make clear what's happening overall. Understanding how all these various parts of the campaign relate to each other — where they were and when — is vital.
One tedious aspect of reading To Antietam Creek perhaps cannot be helped in a book of this size: breaking down every last detail of where every organizational level was situated relative to each other on every movement. One learns to speed-read over some of this, especially because the maps might not help us picture where everyone is anyway. But Hartwig makes up for this shortcoming in quick snippets of biography of the combatants and in big-picture aspects of the campaign and the state of the war in general, and in insightful commentary and analysis.
I think Hartwig's is the first book on the Maryland Campaign to include the updated scholarship about Lee's "Lost Order," Special Orders No. 191, which, incredibly, was found in the grass, wrapped around cigars, by Union soldiers, orders that served up Union General George McClellan with Lee's plans. Hartwig spends surprisingly few words about perhaps the most fascinating and discussed war orders of all time, especially considering the relatively new information that McClellan messaged President Lincoln about the find at midnight, and not the earlier noon of the day of the find, as previously thought.
While I've been nitpicking a bit here, I want to stress that To Antietam Creek is a very worthwhile read. Hartwig generally organizes things well and is sharp about what he includes. Insightful, fascinating quotes from the participants are plentiful; notably, Hartwig goes out of his way to represent the experience of the common soldier.
Overall, Hartwig's contribution to Civil War history is massive — and his even bigger book about the Battle of Antietam itself, just published (review to come) is even more welcome. Voracious readers of Civil War campaigns won't be disappointed with To Antietam Creek overall, but they may be frustrated at times. To add another of those frustrations for me, one that seems small, but I don't consider it as such: To Antietam Creek is littered with typographical errors. I don't think calling it disgraceful is overstating it, particularly considering that this book comes from the press of one of our supposedly great universities, Johns Hopkins. At a current list price of $47 for this 2012 book, you'd think they could have hired a proofreader or editor, but clearly no one spent much time cleaning up this book. It's reprehensible, and it mars a good Civil War campaign study.
What does author D. Scott Hartwig do with those details? Well, he gives us an interesting, frequently strong work in To Antietam Creek. But, yes, the devil's in the details after all, and there are a few stumbles on that front here. Hartwig is to be congratulated for his obviously Herculean research and for making this book as compelling as it generally is. He sometimes neglects, though, to give readers the helping hand they have every right to expect when tackling a book of this size. His biggest failure is conveying geography and chronology of the many moving pieces in this part of the campaign, the principal of which are the Battle of South Mountain and the Confederates' movements against Harpers Ferry and its eventual surrender. How far is Harpers Ferry from the contested gaps in South Mountain? How far is Sharpsburg from Boonsboro? When General Robert E. Lee audaciously divided his army and arms of it operated from a handful of locations in the September 1862 invasion of Maryland, that gambit was a precarious balancing act. Hartwig's attempts (so-called) to show how all of these mini-campaigns related to each other frequently result in dropping the balls during the juggling. It would have been easy, as Hartwig shifts from one part of the campaign to another, to say "Meanwhile, five miles northeast in Turner's Gap ..."
But Hartwig doesn't help us. He may assume the maps will do that work for him, but unfortunately there aren't enough maps, and the ones that are here sometimes lack a location (a farm, for instance) that is mentioned. There are too few maps that pull back enough to make clear what's happening overall. Understanding how all these various parts of the campaign relate to each other — where they were and when — is vital.
One tedious aspect of reading To Antietam Creek perhaps cannot be helped in a book of this size: breaking down every last detail of where every organizational level was situated relative to each other on every movement. One learns to speed-read over some of this, especially because the maps might not help us picture where everyone is anyway. But Hartwig makes up for this shortcoming in quick snippets of biography of the combatants and in big-picture aspects of the campaign and the state of the war in general, and in insightful commentary and analysis.
I think Hartwig's is the first book on the Maryland Campaign to include the updated scholarship about Lee's "Lost Order," Special Orders No. 191, which, incredibly, was found in the grass, wrapped around cigars, by Union soldiers, orders that served up Union General George McClellan with Lee's plans. Hartwig spends surprisingly few words about perhaps the most fascinating and discussed war orders of all time, especially considering the relatively new information that McClellan messaged President Lincoln about the find at midnight, and not the earlier noon of the day of the find, as previously thought.
While I've been nitpicking a bit here, I want to stress that To Antietam Creek is a very worthwhile read. Hartwig generally organizes things well and is sharp about what he includes. Insightful, fascinating quotes from the participants are plentiful; notably, Hartwig goes out of his way to represent the experience of the common soldier.
Overall, Hartwig's contribution to Civil War history is massive — and his even bigger book about the Battle of Antietam itself, just published (review to come) is even more welcome. Voracious readers of Civil War campaigns won't be disappointed with To Antietam Creek overall, but they may be frustrated at times. To add another of those frustrations for me, one that seems small, but I don't consider it as such: To Antietam Creek is littered with typographical errors. I don't think calling it disgraceful is overstating it, particularly considering that this book comes from the press of one of our supposedly great universities, Johns Hopkins. At a current list price of $47 for this 2012 book, you'd think they could have hired a proofreader or editor, but clearly no one spent much time cleaning up this book. It's reprehensible, and it mars a good Civil War campaign study.
February 15, 2026
This nonfiction history of the American Civil War covers the initial invasion of Maryland by the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia (“ANV”) in September of 1862. This book takes you right up to but does not include September 17, 1862, the day of the Battle of Antietam. That battle is discussed in Volume 2 of this authors work on the invasion of Maryland. This book gives you a very intimate and detailed look at what it was like to be a soldier during the American Civil War. The invasion of Maryland occurred shortly after the Battle of Second Manassas, which was a Confederate victory. After that exhaustive 2 day battle, both armies were in disarray and in bad need of time for reorganization and recovery. Robert E. Lee did not want to give the Yankees time for such reorganization and refitting of their army. Instead, he tried to take advantage of the Yankees during this period of change, including the switch back to General McClellen as the commanding officer of the Union’s Army of the Potomac. Thus, the ANV pushed ahead into Maryland with hopes of giving Virginians a chance to recover from months of battles taking place in their state. Plus, Lee hoped to refresh and resupply his army from the abundance of foodstuffs in Maryland during the harvest reason while the Union Army delayed their pursuit as they reorganized after their defeat at Second Manassas. Lee’s hope of a delayed pursuit did not happen to the extent he had hoped. Both armies were tired after all the battles in the Spring and Summer of 1862. Their clothing was torn and well-worn especially in the Confederate Army regarding footwear. The horses, artillery, wagons and other equipment were showing much wear and tear to the point of often being unreliable. This author did an exhaustive search of actual writings (letters, journals and post war publications) by the soldiers themselves that told of their experiences during these marches into and throughout Maryland. He describes the weather conditions, road conditions, the availability of reliable maps, river crossings and the impact those had on the soldiers in both armies. He details what they ate and how they were supplied (or not supplied) with food, clothing and so forth. You will definitely get to know what it was like to be a soldier and the hardships soldiers faced during the American Civil War if you read this book. The author also details strategic and tactical plans the generals made on the fly along with the difficulty of communicating those plans in the days before radios and cell phones. It definitely proves the adage that the best laid plans of mice and men (and generals) often go astray.
November 9, 2025
This is an EXTREMELY detailed history of the Maryland Campaign, sometimes frustratingly so. For instance, when the Army of Northern of Northern Virginia fords the Potomac on the way to Frederick MD we are told the order of individual regiments as they crossed, and then where they camped - takes pages and pages. Before battles are fought, we are told about the deployment of troops sometimes down to the company level, and with their commanding officers, sometimes down to the level of Lieutenants. All of this has the effect of bogging down the narrative. There are just too many people to keep track of.
I read the book on a Kindle, and the few included maps were too small to be of benefit. This, along with the nature of a history like this, which is full of many geographical references, made it necessary to source 3rd-party maps, which was very time-consuming. I found myself referring to my printed-off maps constantly. Obscure places required even more research.
Still, I enjoyed this book. The author writes well, and engagingly when the extraneous detail doesn't get in the way. And give the author much credit for synthesizing an incredible amount of research. I now have an excellent picture of the time and events covered.
I read the book on a Kindle, and the few included maps were too small to be of benefit. This, along with the nature of a history like this, which is full of many geographical references, made it necessary to source 3rd-party maps, which was very time-consuming. I found myself referring to my printed-off maps constantly. Obscure places required even more research.
Still, I enjoyed this book. The author writes well, and engagingly when the extraneous detail doesn't get in the way. And give the author much credit for synthesizing an incredible amount of research. I now have an excellent picture of the time and events covered.
May 5, 2025
This review covers both To Antietam Creek and I Dread the Thought of the Place as they are two parts of a whole. D. Scott Hartwig has written the new standard account of the 1862 Maryland Campaign. The research I’d phenomenal as is the writing. Hartwig not only discusses the major political and military aspects of the campaign, but dives deeply into the writings of regular soldiers and field officers. The result is a story of gritty Civil War combat. These volumes take readers deep into all the facets of the history of our country’s great tragedy. While they are hefty tomes, the reader is rewarded with a deep understanding of the campaign and the experiences of those involved. Photographs are sparse and maps are limited as dictated by the publisher. With the volumes appearing about a decade apart, the maps in the second book are superior to those in the first book as a different cartographer was used. I really cannot recommend these two books highly enough.
September 20, 2023
Scott Hartwig's "To Antietam Creek" is a magisterial history of the opening phases of the Maryland Campaign of 1862, culminating in the Battle of South Mountain, the capture of Harpers Ferry, and the looming lines of battle straddling Antietam Creek. Hartwig's book is not for the faint of heart: details roll through each of the pages, with unit and regimental histories interspersed with strategic decision-making and on-the-ground realities for Union and Confederate soldiers caught in the awful human conditions of battle. Hartwig's book deserves its place as the single source for the Maryland Campaign and is vital for any Civil War enthusiast.
February 28, 2024
Mr. Hartwig provides an in-depth honest reading covering both armies during the period following the Battle of Second Manassas (Second Bull Run) to the eve of the Battle of Antietam. The book follows Lee's Maryland Campaign and the Army of Northern Virginia and the response by McClellan and the Army of the Potomac. Covers in great detail the Battle of South Mountain and the siege at Harper's Ferry and how those two engagements set-up events at Antietam a couple days later.
April 1, 2024
very detailed description of the lead up to the battlelebofbAntietam
Not a light read, lots of primary sources and well documented. The author tends to write extremely long paragraphs with almost no breaks in each chapter. Th e book version worked well with the numerous footnotes being good. While I enjoyed the book it does present a level of detail not seen in most popular history. I enjoyed the book but it is certainly not a beach read.
Not a light read, lots of primary sources and well documented. The author tends to write extremely long paragraphs with almost no breaks in each chapter. Th e book version worked well with the numerous footnotes being good. While I enjoyed the book it does present a level of detail not seen in most popular history. I enjoyed the book but it is certainly not a beach read.
April 11, 2021
Definitive. From top level strategy to picket post encounters and everything in between.
February 10, 2024
One word: stupendous! On to the second book.
July 5, 2013
Excellently researched and written very well. Hartwig's history is very detailed.
August 22, 2019
Highly Detailed
Took me five years to finish
Took me five years to finish
September 4, 2025
Good but exhaustive. Nothing needs to be this long
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