Watch Steven R. Stotelmyer present "The Insolence of Epaulets" on August 25, 2021 at the Jacob Rohrbach Inn
Note from the author:
Dear Reader,
This website was created to correct two errors inside Too Useful to Sacrifice. One is informational and other appears to be a formatting issue. The first sentence on page 82 contains is a factual mistake: “…dismounted Virginia cavalry…” should be replaced with “…understrength infantry…” Somehow the layout of page 85 resulted in shifted text. As you may have noticed this produced duplicate text and missing text. This website provides the missing text at the bottom of the page. I wholeheartedly apologize for any inconvenience these errors may have caused.
Regards,
Steven R. Stotelmyer
August 2019
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Their replies were not reassuring. The enemy held commanding positions on both flanks of Turner’s Gap. “On our left a commanding hill was lost before night,” wrote D. H. Hill, “Batteries posted upon it next morning, acting in concert with the heavy batteries placed on our right … would have made any position untenable on the pike or the crest of the mountain.” Longstreet agreed: “The enemy was in great force with commanding positions on both flanks, which would give a cross-fire for his batteries . . . making the cramped position of the Confederates at the Mountain House [Turner’s Gap] untenable.” Longstreet personally confirmed the situation while riding to join Hill, when he “discovered. everything . . . in such disjointed condition that it would be impossible for my troops and Hill’s to hold the mountain against such forces as McClellan had there.” Hood agreed: “After a long debate, it was decided to retire and fall back to Sharpsburg.” Lee had no choice: he had to abandon Maryland.
