For Want of a Leader: Lessons on Mission Command from McClellan’s Failures at Antietam
Ronald Roberts | 11.13.20
For Want of a Leader: Lessons on Mission Command from McClellan’s Failures at Antietam
On September 17, 1862, Federal cavalry captured the ford at Shepherdstown, cutting off the retreat of the Confederate Army at Antietam. Maj. Gen. George Brinton McClellan declared an end to the rebellion after the overwhelming Union victory and Gen. Robert E. Lee’s unconditional surrender—vindicating himself after having previously been removed from command of the Army of the Potomac and cementing his legacy as one of American military history’s greatest fighting generals.
Or so it could have been. Instead, the reality of what transpired at Antietam would have long-lasting effects on the course of the Civil War and holds lessons on the consequences of failing to implement the tenets of Mission Command on the battlefield.
McClellan believed that divine providence had placed the instrument in his hands to defeat Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia and end the war. A copy of Special Orders No. 191, wrapped in three cigars and dropped by a negligent Confederate courier, was discovered by a corporal of the 27th Indiana Volunteer Infantry Regiment in a field outside Frederick, Maryland. The orders included details of Robert E. Lee’s entire campaign plan. Most importantly, it gave the intelligence that Lee would divide his army, having part of the corps of Maj. Gen. Thomas J. “Stonewall†Jackson attacking the Federal garrison at Harpers Ferry. All McClellan had to do was act quickly, march his army to that place, defeat the outnumbered rebels, save the garrison, and then attack the other part of the Southern army, defeating them in detail. McClellan was elated with the discovery. He exclaimed, “Here is a paper with which, if I cannot whip Bobbie Lee, I will be willing to go home.†His words would be prophetic.
https://mwi.usma.edu/for-want-of-a-leader-lessons-on-mission-command-from-mcclellans-failures-at-antietam/
