This is the sixth of a seven-part series reviewing the recent annual Civil War Symposium produced by the Andrew Carnegie Free Library & Music Hall in Carnegie, Pennsylvania.
92,348. That is the number of casualties the Army of the Potomac and Army of Northern Virginia had suffered from the start of the Seven Day’s Campaign until the end of the Maryland Campaign three months later. 92,348, second only to the 90-day period comprising the Overland Campaign in 1864. Clearly, as summer gave way to fall in 1862, both armies were in need of rest and reorganization, and their leaders knew it.
After the climactic Battle of Antietam on September 17th, 1862, and the sputtering action across the Potomac River at Shepherdstown a few days later, the common belief is not very much happened until George McClellan was relieved of command nearly two months later. A closer analysis, though, shows both armies continued active operations intended to bring on the next battle and, perhaps, the capture of the Confederate capital of Richmond.
In a relatively short career as a professional historian, writer, researcher and field guide, Kevin Pawlak has quickly become one of the most 
well-versed experts of events in the late summer and early fall throughout northern Virginia. By his telling, neither McClellan or Robert E. Lee had any thoughts about winter encampments just yet. 1862 had not yet seen the end of bloodshed in the Commonwealth of Virginia.
Lee’s troops had fallen back into the lower Shenandoah Valley, and his army that had been reduced to less than 30,000 effectives after Antietam would swell to nearly 78,000 by early October. Lee wanted to pin McClellan to the line of the Potomac River, perhaps bringing him once more to battle while keeping him at distance from the Confederate capital in Richmond.
Across the way, Little Mac was being pressured by President Abraham Lincoln and General-in-Chief Henry Halleck to cover Washington, D.C. while finding a way to re-engage Lee’s veterans. Forced to protect a lengthy stretch of the shallow Potomac River to guard against another Confederate incursion, McClellan hoped to concentrate near Harper’s Ferry and meet Lee somewhere near Winchester.
Already, though, the pressure was on Lincoln to relieve McClellan. Northern Republican governors met in a “war conference” at Altoona, Pennsylvania, on September 22nd, the same day Lincoln issued the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation. While pledging their support for the war effort, several would journey to the nation’s capital to urge the President to sack McClellan. Yet on September 26th, Lincoln would write that he still supported his general.
J.E.B. Stuart’s second “Ride Around McClellan” did not do very much to help the case, however. 130 miles with little opposition and few casualties had resulted in damage to critical railroad infrastructure and the “liberation” of northern livestock. Clearly, McClellan needed to do something.
It was about this time that Lincoln wrote one of his most pragmatic letters to his troublesome general, noting the Army of the Potomac was then closer to Richmond than was the rebel army. All McClellan had to do was move along the “chord” while Lee would necessarily have to follow the “arc.”
By October 26th, McClellan was doing just that, and pointing his troops south across their namesake river toward the town of Warrenton. Advanced squadrons of Union cavalry would begin to probe into the Loudon Valley, thusfar touched only slightly by the hard hand of war. For the next week, a relatively small triangle outlined by the Blue Ridge mountains and two local turnpikes would be the scene of a number of skirmishes that would determine the course of the campaign and McClellan’s future.
Alerted to the danger, Lee moved on the 28th to block the Yankee thrust toward Richmond. Longstreet’s infantry would be dispatched from the Shenandoah Valley toward Culpepper Courthouse while “Stonewall” Jackson’s troops would remain on McClellan’s flank and rear. In between, Stuart would oppose the federal cavalry probes with only around a thousand horsemen which was the most he was able to mount at the time.
The first action occurred on Halloween as Confederates captured a Union picket post and scattered the remainder of the regiment. Reinforcements, however, slowed the southerners, and the two sides engaged in a back-and-forth struggle for most of the day before mutually breaking off the action and backing away.
The following day, November 1st, the federals became more aggressive as Stuart resorted to defensive tactics behind the north fork of Beaver Dam Creek. Again, the bluecoats were stymied as Stuart engaged in a masterful delaying strategy.
Union infantry joined the fight, and both sides brought their artillery into action, as well. It was here where Confederate Major John Pelham would first make a name for himself before his star would shine even more brightly six weeks later near Fredericksburg.
By the time Stuart was finally pushed back to his last defensive position, it was too late. Longstreet’s veteran infantry arrived in Culpepper, and the road to Richmond was effectively blocked. But, with more than 50 miles separating Longstreet and Jackson, McClellan began to sense an opportunity to defeat the Confederates in detail.
It was too little, though, and much too late for George McClellan. As the cavalry action in the Loudon Valley was coming to its conclusion, the appearance of Longstreet in front of the Army of the Potomac pushed Lincoln to issue the orders he had promised to make if McClellan was too slow: McClellan would be relieved and Ambrose Burnside would rise to command.
Conventional wisdom has suggested there was near mutiny within the Army of the Potomac, but a closer reading of contemporary letters shows the reaction more divided and nuanced. While McClellan was the idol of his men, those soldiers were more interested in getting on with the war regardless who was leading them. They would follow Burnside to Fredericksburg arriving there on November 17th. Lee’s troops would appear on the opposite side of the Rappahannock River three days later, and the two sides would stare at each other for nearly a month.
The cavalry skirmishes in the Loudon Valley would bring the Maryland Campaign to and end, but there was one final military act to play out in 1862: the Battle of Fredericksburg.
June 16th: The Captain Thomas Espy Post No. 153 – A Hidden Gem Revealed
