HUZZAH! for the XII Corps - An Excellent Campaign History
I don’t know about you - but I find histories of Civil War campaigns particularly engaging - for two reasons. First, they help me picture the nuts and bolts of the military: troop movements and how armies functioned in the field all the way down to company levels, command and the depth of responsibility at varying degrees, and most interesting…how troops negotiated and worked with naturally occurring features such as rivers, rolling hills, and mountain ranges. Second, military histories really shine a light on meticulous research: the gathering of multiple sources (both personal and official correspondence and reports) to show how all the moving parts worked together. Think of the logistics involved to supply, support, and move a 19th-century army! It’s staggering to imagine, really. So, for those of you out there who can really dig a detailed campaign narrative - here you go. M. Chris Bryan’s latest book excels in all these areas and centers on the Union Army of the Potomac XII Corps and the campaign from Cedar Mountain to Antietam between July and September, 1862.
This book is not intended to be an analytically comprehensive account situating the campaign in the broader history of the war and all its implications in terms of things like cause and consequence, especially as all of this relates to the prospect of emancipation. For that, I highly recommend James McPherson’s Crossroads of Freedom - a classic that succinctly takes on this issue among others.
Dunker Church
Rather, this book follows the trajectory of the Union XII Corps to Sharpsburg Maryland in 1862 - what Bryan notes is a much needed addition to the overall military history of the Antietam campaign. Originating as the II Corps, Army of Virginia, this book traces the action from Winchester, Virginia and really picks up steam through an in-depth look at the Battle of Cedar Mountain in August, 1862 - where the Corps fought well but nevertheless failed to chalk up a victory against the storied Confederate Stonewall Jackson. Bryan proceeds to follow the Corps (now the XII Corps, Army of the Potomac) into Maryland, ending with their morning engagement in front of the Dunker Church at Antietam, on September 17, 1862. And by the way, if you want to see a cool recreation of the famous Dunker Church image…check out episode two of 1883.
Where this books shines is the attention Bryan pays to individual accounts - humanizing the campaign in ways that reveal the experiences of combat, a tough nut to crack. For example, he offers private Wallace Lepham’s account of his combat action, resulting in the loss of two fingers and the mangling of a third: “I don’t care a darn for that third finger, for it warn’t of no account; but the ‘pinter,’ and t’other one, were right good ‘uns , and I hate to lose ‘em. I shouldn’t have come to the rear, if I had been able to load my gun.” (67) Such testimony (there is a ton of this sort of thing within these pages…) provides great insights into the fighting man’s perspective of a Civil War campaign.
Bryan acknowledges Ezra Carmen too, a XII Corps officer who took part in the fighting and who would later author a three-volume history of the campaign (which, ironically, does not give sufficient attention to his own corps…). Carmen appears throughout, offering his take on topics from preparing for battle to regimental placements on the field (226; 314).
I am a big fan of rich bibliographies…
Bryan’s use of private correspondence and the OR among a zillion other sources is exceptional. My students often ask (when we take our yearly trip to the Gettysburg battlefield) how one might know 150+ years after the fact exactly where regiments, brigades, divisions, and corps were at any given moment. It’s not easy, I tell them - but we can piece together different strands of evidence and get a pretty decent approximation. Bryan does this with great skill, much to his credit.
In addition to Bryan’s deft reading of the primary (and secondary) sources, a great use of maps and a handy set of indices account for orders of battle, casualties, and other useful information. And for the record, I strongly encourage readers to have these maps bookmarked for reference - it makes figuring out flanking maneuvers and the placement of units on the battlefield much easier to follow.
As my interest in this campaign continues to grow, I am very pleased to have added this to my library - I see it as a go-to for campaigning specifics, and it will be helpful in the classroom when peering into the complexities of campaign history. Grab yourself a copy and let me know what you think.
With compliments,
Keith