The Battle of Harpers Ferry: 158th Anniversary of Antietam Live!

hey everybody gary edelman american battlefield trust uh we're really pleased that you are joining us here for our coverage of the maryland campaign and antietam 158. we hope that you will now right now share this with your friends so as many people can see it as possible and make it worthwhile for us to go out into the field and do these things as we go along you may have already seen our video that we recently posted about special orders 191 that's also known as the lost order and that sort of sets up this maryland campaign as our guest is about to discuss the maryland campaign consists of numerous actions the most well-known of which are south mountain harpers ferry antietam or sharpsburg and shepherdstown and we're going to be talking about a lot of these today and in the coming days and dennis is going to set it up but before we do i think some of you uh know uh that we do some weird things on these it makes us different than some of the other people doing videos and i'm often obsessed with middle name trivia but i've got a new thing and with our partners at ancestry or ancestry.com we have some prizes to give away this year we're not going to be giving away anything today but keep watching and i'll give you a tease as to the type of thing i'm doing this year i'm going to name two words that are sequential in a well-known quote and you have to tell me who said it and what the context of it was for instance if i were to say ingloriously fly i might be talking about joseph hooker talking about what robert e lee is going to have to do before the battle of chancellorsville if i were to say and you probably know this one already if practicable you might have to say oh man that was lee talking to richard ewell at gettysburg about taking the hills south of town i've got a whole list of them here don't bother looking you can't read my writing but with no further ado well before i bring on my guest let me just say that at some point some of these quizzes might result in some free subscriptions to ancestry these are 300 values so we'll talk about that more later but without further ado again let's bring on dennis fry dennis is um a founding member of the association for the preservation of civil war sites which as you know became or merged into the civil war preservation trust which became the civil war trust which is now the american battlefield trust he is early from our business long time park ranger and sort of an institution at harpers ferry and uh past president of the american battlefield's trust as well and long involved with and i think current president of the excellent partner save historic ed teemum foundation i'm going to come grab the camera from dennis and then you'll see him take it away sir hi gary hi everybody it's really great to be with you here at my home harpers ferry and i literally did grow up here in this area in fact the mountain that you can see in the background that i'm pointing to that's home that's the elk ridge the blue ridge in maryland and i grew up about four miles north of harpers ferry so i had such a blessed career i was able to literally work my entire career as a national park service ranger here at harpers ferry national historical park in my own backyard my own backyard most national park rangers have to move time and time and time again before they would ever come home and i got to start at home so i've really been blessed with a career in history and in battlefield preservation and i'm really glad to be sharing with you today on something that is so so important to me and i'm so passionate about and that's the maryland campaign you know if you were going to summarize this campaign in one word one word i want you to think about that for a moment one word people that know me know that i like to do things simply so we're gonna go as simple as you can be one one word what would it be just just pause for a moment think about what is that word it summarizes all of this everything gary's gonna film over the next few days one word your word may be my word maybe invasion invasion we have a portion of the united states invading the other portion of the united states yes it's a new country still a fledgling country the confederate states of america is invading the united states of america there is the united states what you see back there to this side of the gap that's the harper's fair water gap you see in the background two miles from where we are right now that is the united states gary and i are not standing we let me say that again we are not standing in the united states of america this isn't we are in the confederacy this is a new nation oh yes we speak english but we are not them not now so right now what's happened is that lee downstream from harpers ferry a little more than 30 miles from here this direction has crossed the river come into maryland and what you see to the left of your screen that's maryland maryland has remained in the union it is the united states of america this is an invasion lee faced one terrible problem that he did not anticipate that he did not expect the yankees didn't cooperate they didn't follow his plan imagine that the enemy doesn't follow your plan lee's plan is pretty simple we're going to pennsylvania we're moving the army to pennsylvania because remember now 1862 is an election year an election year now it's not presidential but it's a congressional election year and a lot of people forget that this is the first time in american history that a republican party has the majority in the u.s house of representatives that's never happened before 1860 first republican majority in american history 1862 is the first time that republican majority is up for re-election and if you remember your constitutional history you'll recall that all appropriations bills begin in the u.s house of representatives and that's the opportunity for robert e lee the opportunity because you see if he can convince people the voters of the united states white males of course in 1862 that the lincoln administration is inept that the republicans are incompetent if lee can convince the electorate of that the democrats win in 1862 and if the democrats win you know what they're going to do they're going to stop funding this war and you know what happens lincoln is powerless he can't he can't do anything if he doesn't have the money appropriated by the congress this war is over and lee knows that so this is the grand opportunity we're going to pennsylvania because every day we spend in pennsylvania are votes against republicans and lee is very conscious of this so politics and invasion if you only think of two words that's what's going on in september of 1862 so why are we here at harper's ferry harvester was not part of lee's plan it was not part of the scheme lee wasn't even paying any attention to harper's very really so why are we here why are we focused here well it's because the federals didn't cooperate so watch my hands for a moment generally intends to go north into pennsylvania we're going north across pullman potomac river maryland pennsylvania he expected the union army out here in the shenandoah valley the lower shenandoah valley to abandon the valley and be ordered north as the confederate army goes north these people out here in the shenandoah valley and harpers ferries at the northern end of the valley would be ordered out there's 14 000 federal soldiers here in the vicinity of harpers ferry martinsburg lower shenandoah valley and this is where lee's plan is foiled instead of being ordered to leave they are ordered to remain steadfast don't leave the union commander here colonel dixon miles m-i-l-e-s the last order she receives from washington before telegraph lines are sliced you will not abandon harper's ferry you will not now dixon miles have been in the army for 42 years he knows how to follow orders and so they don't leave and this is a problem for lee because lee can't go into pennsylvania with a yankee core what is in essence a union core to his rear behind him you don't have to be a west point graduate to understand you don't want the enemy to your rear ever and so lee at frederick nearby frederick we can't see frederick but as far away as you can see on the horizon are the catoctin mountains in maryland frederick's on the other side of that mountain frederick's about 20 miles from where gary and i are standing right now about a day's march good day's march for an army general lee has lost patience why aren't these people here why aren't these people leaving finally he decides we got to get rid of them and that leads us to special orders 191. now gary's already explained special orders 191 but here you see the physical manifestation of special orders 191 the actual environment the battlefield environment that lee is directing his army to so let me explain basically 191 divides the confederate army into four parts three three of those four columns are coming here under the direction of stonewall jackson one column is designed to take this mountain maryland heights the elk ridge a second column is designed to take this mountain which is also the blue ridge known as loudoun heights and a third column is supposed to take the ground that gary and i are standing on this is high ground called bolivar heights now bolivar heights is the lowest of the three ridges think of harper's ferry as inside a triangle inside a triangle and those three mountains are the triangles so place a confederate battle flag on the top of each one of these mountains and look what happens the yankees are caught in the middle they're caught in the middle so also think of 191 like this as the triangle that's what lee's objective is that jackson is supposed to execute take the tie ground take the triangle wrap them up inside but look at this this is the complexity look at this you have to converge this triangle has to come together it has to come together we've got three confederate columns moving in three different directions on the compass and they all have to come together at the same time and let me ask you dennis uh did they have walkie-talkies or cell phones i like gary's questions i hope you're laughing like i am but but look at the complexity think of this bringing three different columns together without modern communications they can't see each other they can't communicate with each other other than with a courier on a horse and if somebody doesn't show up on time and there's a gap the yankees get out the federals are able to leave this is special orders remember now it's special orders plural 191 in my opinion as a professional civil war historian is the most complex orderly issues during the war trying to bring three divergent columns together simultaneously without modern communication so they can seal a trap very difficult and stonewall jackson's the man that he chooses to make it happen so let's go talk about jackson first and let's go talk about what's going to happen here next so gary and i are still on bolivar heights we've moved about 200 yards to the west towards the shenandoah river behind me you now have a much broader view of the elk ridge in maryland heights maryland heights is the southern extremity of of the elk ridge the main battle for harpers ferry is going to be on top of that mountain because maryland heights of the triangle maryland heights is the highest of the three mountains if if the federals hold maryland heights stonewall jackson fails special orders 191 fails they all know that so the confederates have to be successful in taking maryland heights so you can see the battlefield behind me the battlefield is the top of that mountain so the confederates are coming from your left to your right they're moving from the north towards the south and miles has forces up there about a third of his force here is up there and there's a big fight on september the 13th the same day as gary explained to you that special orders 191 falls into george mcclellan's hands there at monocacy uh outside of frederick there's a fight happening on maryland heights for the future harpers ferry the confederates general lafayette mcclause's confederates barksdale's boys and kershaw south carolinians on top of that mountain are going to force new yorkers and ohioans back from the left to the right eventually the federals think we're out flanked we can't hold most of them are inexperienced soldiers and they abandon the mountain they leave the mountain they come down they're never ordered to come down by miles they come down and that pretty much seals the fatal harpers ferry the confederates have taken the high ground maryland heights but stonewall jackson's in for a disappointing surprise dixon miles doesn't raise the white flag there's no surrender what do we do now and let me just say that you know we're not going up to maryland heights right now because we've already shot that and i'll tell you what that is a brutal climb if you ever want to make it go on our youtube channel and just look for our harpers ferry video i went from the lower town and climbed all the way up maryland heights to the stone ford so you can take a virtual tour there and we're going to pick up next with on schoolhouse ridge a place you may have heard of that involves stonewall jackson and the trust so we're now standing at the western base of bolivar heights schoolhouse ridge jackson's position three confederate divisions the stonewall division richard yule's division but old baldy's not here remember he was badly wounded at second manassas so it's under the command of a lawyer from georgia alexander r lalton and then ap hills division so there's about 15 000 confederates here remember we have sealed the trap the main federal position is right up here look at this look at this bolivar heights bowl of rice look at that elevation this is what jackson has to attack now now think about this for a moment you're very familiar with stonewall jackson and his battlefields most of you walked the ground that jackson fought you probably haven't walked this i want i want you to know something this elevation is higher than little round top stonewall jackson has to attack a mountain with the federal army on top of it that's taller elevation wise steeper than little round top now jackson did crazy things and many people even say jackson was crazy but he didn't believe in suicide i mean this is a suicide assault from schoolhouse ridge to this position nearly one mile of open expanse one mile of open expanse and there's a big difference from what you see today almost no trees there's no cover so the confederates are coming at you from schoolhouse ridge if jackson orders a frontal assault across this ground and then up that slope and there's one other thing that's different no trees the yankees can see you the entire mile one mile that is a picket pettigrew charge at gettysburg that you are under fire artillery fire from bolivar heights dixon miles has a formidable position stonewall jackson knows it so what's jackson going to do they won't give up they're not giving up he brings the artillery to the tops of the mountains at maryland heights and loudoun heights and begins to blast them miles still doesn't give up on september the 14th so that's when jackson comes up with a plan and the plan is this we're going to do two things one we're going to assault this position oh yeah you heard me we're going to assault this position that's insane you say no not if we do it at night well that's even more insanity because if you know civil war history nobody attacks at night jackson is going to stage a night assault against this position meanwhile simultaneous to this attack we're going to do a flanking maneuver we're going to take ap hills division from the southern end of schoolhouse ridge off to your right down to the shenandoah river and ask hill to maneuver along the river and come up behind the yankees come up behind them to the chambers farm jackson can't see it from here but he knows it's there because remember this was jackson's first command of the civil war the first time he commanded troops in the field during the civil war he was assigned to harpers ferry in 1861 so he knows that chambers farm is over there about two miles from here and he knows that if he can put confederate infantry and artillery on the chambers farm on the lowest portion of bolivar heights behind the yankees which are up here he can succeed so two maneuvers at once an assault head-on at night and a nighttime flanking maneuver well here they come rebel yell musket fire you would see artillery explosions dixon miles thinks he's under attack he thinks he's under assault he doesn't know this is a fake attack it's a faint assault jackson's making commotion and noise to try to convince miles here they come in the meantime where's the real maneuver ap hill creeping around the exposed union flank and it works it works miles doesn't know about hill's maneuver the confederates come to about where we're standing right now they never try to go up the mountain because that wasn't intended jackson's ruse works and hill will take position that night and dixon miles doesn't know it okay and i'm going to ask you dennis to talk about some of the preservation here but before we do i want to make sure you all understand we were over in that direction on top of bolivar heights looking toward maryland heights and loudoun heights and then we moved a little along the heights okay and now we're here and for the next video we are going to go and overview the chambers farm back from the top of bolivar heights but dennis tell us a little bit about how this land came to be preserved well this is not only a battlefield from september 13 14 15 1862 but it is really important in battlefield preservation history because the ground that gary and i are standing on right now is hallowed ground not only because they fought here but because it represents a first this land here is the very first acquisition by the original civil war trust we're standing on that ground first purchase made by the civil war trust good thing they did there's 56 acres here on this section of oliver heights this open ground it was an orchard a huge orchard here in jefferson county west virginia sold to a developer the developer intended to take this 56 acres and turn it into condominiums and apartment buildings and he had the support at that time of the local government this would have been destroyed it wasn't fortunately we had the great great economic collapse of 1988 1989 that's a preservationist great friend and he went bankrupt and when he went bankrupt the bank reclaimed this property and the civil war trust did a heck of a deal i was fortunate enough to bring the sides together because i was chief historian here at the time and knew this was available knew the bank knew the bankers and of course knew the trust and the trust leadership married everybody together and all of us together were successful in saving this land so gary and i we feel it and you need to come here to harpers ferry and feel it because this is the first this is the first time if you remember the civil war trust you saved a battlefield and if i may too it didn't end there i said that we'd saved um something like 500 acres here at harpers ferry it wasn't long until 166 more acres across the road um along schoolhouse ridge were also acquired so now people can come here and they can uh walk from one to the other and they can walk up oliver heights and get a good feeling for it this is what you do double thumbs up all hands up all fingers up hallelujah to the members of the american battlefield trust thank you as a original founder thank you and we'll see you up at the chambers farm in just a sec so sunday night september the 14th the confederates are moving they're moving and the key maneuver is that flanking maneuver by ap hills division from schoolhouse ridge south to the shenandoah river with the objective being the chambers farm today known as the murphy farm you could see it in the distance you can see it behind me you'll see a white house just to your left and an open field that is the historic chambers farm and so what we want to do is place ap hill on that ground because that's bolivar heights gary and i are still here on the federal position now the federals are facing this direction this direction because that's where most of the confederates are that's where jackson is off to the west so if ap hill comes in behind to the rear to the rear we have the enemy behind us and not only removing four five thousand confederates that night but we're bringing 20 pieces of artillery with us 20 pieces of artillery that we're going to lift from the shenandoah valley to that farm monday morning miles knows nothing about this maneuver nothing about this flanking maneuver monday morning fall fog so thick you could put your hand out in front of you and almost not see your own hand but as people that live around here know in september that fog doesn't last long boy the sun comes it begins to burn and it starts to rise one soldier referred to it as a a theater and a stage and the curtain rising on that stage that morning and as that curtain rose oh my dixon miles colonel miles where did they come from where did they come from they're at 800 yards point-blank range confederate infantry to his rear in position 20 pieces of artillery open up on his backside and the barrage is is unbelievable plus confederate artillery blasting from loudon heights the crest of loudounites and from maryland heights and then from schoolhouse regions we've got artillery coming in from four different directions and and they can't hold they can't they can't they can't put themselves in position there's no way they can line up it's murder it'd be suicide so miles recognizes this he calls the council of war of his officers he says what should we do he knows what he wants to do everybody agrees unanimous white flags up white flags up and so the federals will surrender they'll surrender morning of september 15 1862 jackson has accomplished almost an impossible feat here remember how complex special orders 191 is and you know the main story of special orders 191 is not the convergence and not even harper's ferry what people remember and you remember about special orders 191 it got lost and was found no no no no the big story is it succeeded it succeeded even though it was lost and found jackson succeeded at harpers ferry he captures the place the union force here surrenders and this frees lee he has no rebels he has his he has no yankees behind him anymore the problem is george mcclellan is now in front of him south mountain and moving towards sharksburg and antietam creek so the situation's changed dramatically despite this great victory 191 is now irrelevant immaterial lee is along the antietam creek two-thirds of the confederate army two out of every three rebels is down here lee sends a message to jackson get your tail up here as quickly as possible we got to bring our army back together again and lee is along the antietam creek waiting waiting for jackson to move his forces from victory here at harpers ferry to join me for hopeful victory somewhere in maryland perhaps along the antietam creek the fruits of victory here for jackson no other confederate victory of the war like it jackson will capture here nearly 13 000 united states soldiers the largest surrender of united states forces during the american civil war it is a disaster for the yankees an entire union corps basically wiped out by stonewall jackson in what really is his greatest tactical victory of the war great i'm going to give the camera to dennis here hopefully it won't fall off and um so this is great thank you dennis and um what i would say is of course i think this is going to dovetail in with what we're going to say a little bit later and that is that jackson does move with all possible haste but he has to leave someone behind i think you know who that is let me say let me not say who that is it's a fast-moving division commanded by a guy who's often sick but who can move quickly when he needs to and kind of likes to go into battle so i'll let you ponder that one there i want to say that we have a lot more coming join us on september 16th and september 17th as we cover as much uh of the maryland campaign as we can we're talking south mountain we're talking antietam not on just the 17th but the 16th as well and we're talking about the battle of shepherdstown we'll do as much as we can we don't know when we can post videos it's all subject to connectivity and being out in the field but expect some special guests you'll see dennis back again tom clemons dr carol reardon dr jim brumall my buddy tim smith um as well as uh um brian cheeseboro doug allman uh and a whole fiesta of trust people uh kevin pollock as well licensed battlefield guide at antietam i'm sorry for anybody else i'm forgetting so um so just make sure you join as much as you can and share these things with your friends look out for our quiz with our partnership with ancestry.com so we can award some stuff and then just know that what this is all about the whole reason we're out here today and we're going to be spending a lot of the week out in the field is of course to preserve more american land and to educate the public about why this matters well you know what happened in these early founding conflicts the rev war 1812 and the civil war and why it matters today and you the members and supporters of this organization have already helped us to preserve some 2 000 acres in the maryland campaign that's 700 acres at south mountain 550 acres here at harpers ferry including portions of schoolhouse ridge that you've already seen there we go dennis likes this he's nodding up and down we're talking about 450 acres um at the battlefield of antietam and a like amount a little bit less at shepherdstown so thank you thank you to all you members we hope you can join us and thanks for watching you

Channel: American Battlefield Trust

Views: 29,954

Rating: 4.9298244 out of 5

Keywords: American Battlefield Trust, Civil War Trust, Harpers Ferry Civil War, Harpers Ferry Tour, Harpers Ferry Antietam, Harpers Ferry Maryland Campaign, Garry Adelman, Dennis Frye, 158th Anniversary of Antietam

Id: 97KZ0WEqGyo

Length: 29min 4sec (1744 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 15 2020