From Second Bull Run to Gettysburg: The Civil War in the East, 1862-63

by Edward J. Stackpole

Stackpole Books presents Gen. Edward J. Stackpole’s Civil War classics -- They Met at Gettysburg, Drama on the Rappahannock, Chancellorsville, and From Cedar Mountain to Antietam -- in a single abridged volume that covers the war’s pivotal and turbulent middle year in the Eastern Theater, from the summer of 1862 through the summer of 1863. This year of bloody conflict included the war’s defining Second Bull Run, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, and Gettysburg. It was a year during which the Union cycled through generals as Lincoln sought one who could fight and win – from McClellan to Pope for Second Bull Run, back to McClellan for Antietam, to Burnside for Fredericksburg, to Hooker for Chancellorsville, and to Meade for Gettysburg. As Union command in the East remained unsettled and these generals proved incompetent, timid, or both – or worse – this was the South’s chance, and Lee came into his own as a general for the ages during these months, besting Pope at Second Bull Run, decimating Burnside at Fredericksburg, and outsmarting and outfighting Hooker, with help from Stonewall Jackson, at Chancellorsville. Lee, with a growing belief in his army’s invincibility and an awareness that the Union’s considerable resources in men and material would soon tell, twice mounted invasions of the North during these months, first at Antietam, where he fought McClellan to a draw but had to turn back, and last and more disastrously at Gettysburg, where Meade defeated Lee in three days of hard fighting and sent the Confederates reeling back to Virginia. This was also the year during which Lincoln gave the war higher purpose and greater Antietam enabled him to issue the Emancipation Proclamation while Gettysburg yielded the famous address. The new birth of freedom Lincoln promised would be won or lost on the battlefield.

This is epic history, told in sweeping, dramatic style by a master of the craft. One battle flows seamlessly to the next in Stackpole’s grand narrative, which also turns a soldier’s eye to the leadership of the men in blue and gray. This book will find enthusiastic readers among general readers as well as among Civil War buffs, military history aficionados, and military officers seeking insightful professional reading.

672 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 1, 2018

About the author

Edward J. Stackpole Jr. was an American newspaper publisher, businessman, author and military officer from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. A veteran of World War I and World War II, he attained the rank of major general, and was a recipient of the Distinguished Service Cross, Legion of Merit, and Purple Heart with two oak leaf clusters.

Stackpole was a native of Harrisburg, and was raised and educated in Harrisburg. He attended Harrisburg Academy and graduated from Yale University in 1915. After attending Citizens' Military Training Camps in 1915 and 1916, in 1917 he received his commission as a second lieutenant. He served with the Pennsylvania National Guard's 110th Infantry Regiment during the First World War, and received the Distinguished Service Cross and three awards of the Purple Heart. He continued to rise through the ranks of the National Guard and attained the rank of brigadier general in 1933, and major general in 1940. During the interwar years, his command assignments included the 104th Cavalry Regiment, 52nd Cavalry Brigade, and 22nd Cavalry Division.

During the Second World War, Stackpole accepted reduction in rank to brigadier general to enter active duty, and commanded the 56th Infantry Brigade, a unit of the 28th Infantry Division. Stackpole was subsequently assigned to lead the Panama Security Command, which staffed and managed early warning stations on the Atlantic and Pacific sides of the Panama Canal to guard the canal from attack by the Axis powers. He later performed special duty on the War Department staff, and his wartime service was recognized with award of the Legion of Merit. After the war, he commanded the 28th Infantry Division during its reorganization as a Pennsylvania National Guard unit, and was again promoted to major general. He retired from the military in 1947, and in 1956 was promoted to lieutenant general on Pennsylvania's retired list.

In his civilian career, Stackpole was president of the Telegraph Press, which published the Harrisburg Telegraph. He was also president of the Stackpole Company book publishing firm, WHP Radio, and the Military Service Publishing Company, a publisher of military texts and training manuals. He was a director of American Aviation Publications, the Harrisburg Trust Company, the Harrisburg Hotel Company, and the Penn-Harris Hotel Company. As a civic activist, Stackpole was president of the board of trustees of the Pennsylvania School for Children of Veterans, and a member of the board of the Harrisburg Hospital and the Pennsylvania Chamber of Commerce.

Stackpole was also an author who specialized in historical works about the American Civil War. He died in Harrisburg on October 1, 1967. Stackpole was buried at Harrisburg Cemetery in Harrisburg.