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The North would never come closer to losing the war, the South never closer to winning it.  The 16 days following the rout of the Union forces at 2nd Manassas would determine the fate of the country.

 

The panic following the disaster at 2nd Manassas in Washington DC was complete. The Treasury was hurriedly preparing to transfer all funds to New York, Gunboats positioned on the Potomac and steamers with boilers running stood at the ready to get the president and members of government out of the capital on the shortest possible notice.  For at that moment Robert E Lee and the seemingly unconquerable Army of Northern Virginia stood less than 30 miles from the capital with little more than defeated, demoralized and unorganized Union remnants opposing him.   Any Confederate victory at that point in the war would virtually insure European intervention for the South.  It appeared the war was about to be lost for the Union.



On September 2, 1862 Lincoln turned again to General McClellan to rescue the situation. McClellan, loved by his men, worked tirelessly day and night to regroup his Army of the Potomac. His very presence on the field, back in command, was like a tonic to the Union army and in just days the army was a true fighting force again. McClellan, sometimes faulted for over caution in battle, had no equal in his ability to organize and motivate his soldiers and getting this done immediately was paramount.  Lee moved his Army of Virginia north to Maryland by September 3rd and the reconstituted Army of the Potomac followed soon thereafter.  The main forces of the armies made initial contact near Sharpsburg on September 15th.



 

Fate would intervene in the battle that would follow on the 17th. On the morning of September 13th Corporal Barton W. Mitchell and First Sergeant John M. Bloss of the 27th Indiana Volunteer Infantry found a package of three cigars wrapped in an order from Lee.  “Lees lost dispatch” contained his battle plan and troops dispositions and by the end of that day they were in McClellan’s hands.  Arguably, McClellan moved too slowly to fully exploit the information. But the results of the campaign were wildly better than the Union had any reasonable expectation of in the beginning. Though this bloodiest day of the war ended in a tactical draw militarily, Lee’s army was forced back and his campaign terminated. Lincoln could finally issue his Emancipation Proclamation and put an end to the possibility of European intervention. It was one of the greatest strategic and political victories of any modern war.



 

This superb piece features the digitally enhanced Kurz & Allison 1888 lithograph. It has been reprinted on the finest museum quality paper.  It is framed in a cherry stained solid wood shadowbox frame (22 by 18 inches and 2 and 1/8 inches deep) made in the USA.   It includes the conical Minié balls and round musket balls that were recovered from the battle area on each side of the centerpiece of the Union army uniform - the eagle breast plate. These are relic quality and dug from battlefields and camp sites in Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania - the operating areas of the Army of the Potomac. The relics are as dug but cleaned and lightly coated with a clear enamel to protect the piece. No two pieces will be exactly the same.