Nothing but sheer necessity justified the advance of the
Army of the Potomac to South Mountain and Antietam in its then
condition. The purpose of advancing from Washington was simply to
meet the necessities of the moment by frustrating Lee's invasion of
the Northern States, and when that was accomplished, to push with the
utmost rapidity the work of reorganisation and supply, so that a new
campaign might be promptly inaugurated with the army in condition to
prosecute it to a successful termination without intermission."* (*
Battles and Leaders volume 2 page 554.)
And in his official report, showing what the result of a Confederate
success might well have been, he says: "One battle lost and almost
all would have been lost. Lee's army might have marched as it pleased
on Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia, or New York. It could have
levied its supplies from a fertile and undevastated country, extorted
tribute from wealthy and populous cities, and nowhere east of the
Alleghanies was there another organised force to avert its march."*
(* O.R. volume 19 part 1 page 65.)
3. The situation in the West was such that even a victory in Maryland
was exceedingly desirable.
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