Please join us for a Chambersburg Civil War Seminars & Tours Lecture Series! Our next lecture will be: "In the Wake of Antietam: The Loudoun Valley Campaign of 1862" by Kevin Pawlak. Cost is $6 per person. Zoom Login details will be sent with your email registration confirmation.

Synopsis

Following the bloodiest single day in American history, September 17, 1862, and the conclusion of the Battle of Antietam, the Federal Army of the Potomac and the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia rested and refitted on either side of the Potomac River. By late October 1862, urged on by President Abraham Lincoln and his recently announced Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, the Federal army crossed into Virginia once more, armed with a plan to capture Richmond and defeat the Confederacy. The ensuing battles that erupted in the Loudoun Valley and beyond raged for two weeks and added several hundred casualties to the nation’s growing list of names. Confederate forces attempted to slow the advancing Federal army against the backdrop of the 1862 midterm elections. Several fights erupted in Loudoun and Fauquier counties from October 26-November 10, 1862. The campaign proved to be not as decisive as Lincoln hoped. It proved to be George McClellan’s last campaign as a field commander in the Civil War.

Biography

Kevin Pawlak is the Historic Site Manager of Ben Lomond Historic Site and Bristoe Station Battlefield Heritage Park and serves as a Certified Battlefield Guide at Antietam National Battlefield. He graduated from Shepherd University in 2014, majoring in History with a concentration in Civil War and 19th Century America and minoring in Historic Preservation.  Kevin previously worked at Harpers Ferry National Historical Park.  He is on the Board of Directors for the Shepherdstown Battlefield Preservation Association, the Save Historic Antietam Foundation, and the Antietam Institute. He is also a regular contributor to the Emerging Civil War online blog. He is the author and co-author of four books, including To Hazard All: A Guide to the Maryland Campaign.