*After McClellan’s failure to take Richmond in the Peninsular Campaign, Lincoln gave overall command of the armies to General John Pope.  Pope had been in the Mexican War and had done some more recent fighting in the West when the Union took Memphis.  He was an active general, so often in the field that he claimed his headquarters was in his saddle.  Unfortunately, he was not as effective in the east as he was in the west, and Lincoln said that his problem was that he kept his headquarters where his hindquarters ought to be.

*Pope was ordered to move against Richmond, but Lee knew what he was doing.  The Confederate cavalry commander, J.E.B. Stuart rode entirely around Pope’s army, and even raided his headquarters, stealing his best coat, $350,000 in cash, and his dispatch book.  Stuart offered to trade the coat for his own hat, captured by Union cavalry not long before, but Pope did not reply.

*Aware of the Federal forces’ movements, Lee sent Stonewall Jackson against Pope, and they met near Manassas, where Pope was defeated in Second Manassas or Second Bull Run.  Pope was sent back out west where he fought the Indians until 1886, and Lincoln gave command back to McClellan.

*In the West, Admiral David Farragut of Knoxville and commander of the US Navy’s Gulf Blockading Squadron captured New Orleans.

*In New Orleans, and elsewhere, the Union forces began freeing slaves, saying they were contraband, or war materiel that it was necessary to seize from the Confederates to hurt their war efforts.  Although usually obliged to work for the Army, often in unpleasant jobs, most slaves preferred this to slavery.

*This created an awkward position for Lincoln.  Although he did not like slavery, he did not feel that the Constitution let him abolish it, and he did not want to offend the Border States that had remained more or less loyal, but that still held slaves.  He had said that if he could save the Union by freeing all of the slaves, he would do it; if he could do it by freeing some, he would do it; if he could save the Union without freeing any slaves, he would do it.  However, many Northerners, especially in the Republican Party, wanted to free the slaves, and they, and Lincoln, considered justifying the move on the grounds of hurting the Confederate war effort.  Lincoln drafted the Emancipation proclamation, which freed all slaves in areas presently in rebellion (but not in Union-controlled Confederate areas or in loyal states).  His cabinet advised him not to make it public, however, until the US had won a sufficient victory that it did not just seem like a last ditch effort or an attempt to raise a slave revolt.

*The South also needed a grand gesture.  The plan to get European aid by stopping cotton shipments had not worked.  Southern leaders felt that the South needed to win a major victory outside the South, and Lee obliged by invading Maryland.

*Maryland was a Border State, and many of its people were thought to be loyal to the South.  It was hoped that Marylanders would help the Army of Northern Virginia, and that the Confederates could beat the Army of the Potomac and possibly even capture, or at least threaten, Washington.

*One Confederate officer made a mistake.  Someone, probably a lieutenant in D.H. Hill’s division, dropped a piece of paper that he had wrapped around three cigars.  That piece of paper was a copy of Lee’s battle plan and general orders for his army.  It was found later on by a sergeant in the Army of the Potomac, and brought to McClellan.  It told him everything he needed to know about Lee’s army and his plans, but because it said that Lee had fewer men than he imagined (in fact, McClellan outnumbered Lee more than two to one) he was reluctant to believe it or to act.

*When he finally moved, McClellan was able to catch Lee at a town called Sharpsburg, along the Antietam River.  On 17 September, 1862, the fought across the river, with the Union trying desperately all day to cross it and hold the field.  It was a terribly bloody battle, and remains the bloodiest single day in American military history, with over 26,000 men killed or wounded.

*Two important Union corps commanders at Antietam were Generals Hooker and Burnside.

*The battle is technically a draw, but Lee’s forces are so badly injured that he withdraws back to Virginia.  However, had McClellan moved as quickly as he should have, he could have completely defeated Lee.

*Lincoln removes McClellan from command permanently, replacing him with Ambrose Burnside, but he still calls this a Union victory, and issues the Emancipation Proclamation, which will take effect on 1 January, 1863.  After this, Europe cannot easily side with the Confederacy.

*Burnside knows that McClellan was too cautious.  He, too, is cautious by nature, but feels he must invade Virginia.  He builds a bridge of pontoon boats across the Rappahannock River just outside Fredericksburg, Virginia.  This took a long time, and gave Lee time to position his forces just beyond the town, on a low ridge called Marye’s Heights, and in places they even were able to shelter behind a stone wall.  Colonel E. Porter Alexander, a Confederate artilleryman, said after looking at the Confederates’ line of fire, that ‘a chicken could not live on that field when we open fire on it.’

*When Burnside finally got across the river, he ordered a charge against the Confederate position, which was beaten back by the rifles and cannon of the Confederacy.  Not to be outdone, he ordered wave after wave, sending a total of fourteen charges against the wall, all of which were defeated before they ever reached it.  Some units lost half their men or more, and many living men were trapped on the field overnight, afraid to move lest they be seen and shot.  Some used the coats of their dead comrades as blankets, and others piled up dead men as walls against Confederate bullets.

*Fredericksburg was a great Confederate victory.  The Union suffered almost 13,000 casualties, compared to the Confederacy's 5,000.  Burnside retreated on 15 December, 1862, and would be replaced soon by Joseph Hooker.
 

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