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America's Civil War

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Did Little Mac Really ‘Outfox’ Lee?

Aug 28, 2018

In “No Small Deed” (Sept. 2018), Dennis Frye claims that George McClellan outwitted Robert E. Lee and frustrated all of his strategic goals. I will grant that Lee’s aims were thwarted by the Battle of Antietam, but it was in spite of Little Mac’s gen

All About History

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Union

Sep 8, 2022

At the start of the Civil War, McClellan reenlisted and was shortly appointed to the rank of major general, commanding the Army of the Potomac. However, he fell out with President Lincoln having failed to pursue Lee at Antietam and was removed from c

Civil War Times

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An Army In Name Only

Mar 24, 2020

Steven R. Stotelmyer, a native of Hagerstown, Md., first visited Antietam National Battlefield as a child and has been fascinated with the Maryland Campaign ever since. He is a Battlefield Ambassador Volunteer at Antietam and a National Park Service

Wild West

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Bold Leadership, Good Horses

Jan 22, 2019

When Captain Reuben F. Bernard (pictured) set out after Cochise following the massacre at Dragoon Springs, he was 35 years old and considered one of the Army’s most effective small-unit commanders and Indian fighters. Bernard enlisted in the 1st Drag

Wild West

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Mackenzie Encore

Feb 21, 2023

Following his 1873 Mexican raid Mackenzie continued to operate in his typical fashion. In the winter of 1874–75, amid the Red River War, he led his troopers onto the panhandle plains of Texas in search of hostile Comanches and Kiowas. At Palo Duro Ca

Civil War Times

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Lost Initiative

Feb 13, 2024

Refighting the Civil War still hasn’t lost its appeal, especially in regard to large-scale engagements with as many “what ifs” attached as General Robert E. Lee’s Maryland Campaign. Posing a greater threat than the Army of Northern Virginia did with

America's Civil War

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‘My Fighting Texans’

Feb 26, 2019

The Confederate brigade at the center of Maj. Gen. Patrick R. Cleburne’s defensive victory at Pickett’s Mill hailed from an area of Texas between Houston and Dallas. Like most early volunteers, these Lone Star boys were full of fight. As one of them,

Civil War Times

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What Might Have Been

Feb 13, 2024

Contrasts in Command: The Battle of Fair Oaks, May 31-June 1, 1862 By Victor Vignola Savas Beatie, 2023, $34.95 hardcover On May 31, 1862, a few miles east of Richmond, Gen. Joseph E. Johnston’s Confederate army attacked Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan