McClellan and Special Orders 191

The American Civil War remains one of the most pivotal and complex periods in our history. While much has been written, countless fascinating questions still spark our curiosity. In our podcast Civil War Curious, we enlist expert historians to answer your lingering questions about the conflict.On this episode, we're joined by D. Scott Hartwig, former supervisory park historian at Gettysburg National Military Park and author of I Dread the Thought of the Place: The Battle of Antietam and the End of the Maryland Campaign (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2023). He weighs in on whether George McClellan acted swiftly enough after receiving a copy of Robert E. Lee's operational orders for the 1862 Maryland Campaign. ©2026 by The Civil War Monitor. All rights reserved.