Summer Lecture Series: “Directed to Take Command”: Winfield S. HancockReturn to Calendar

Monday, June 16, 2025

7:00pm

Location: St. Paul's Episcopal Church, 209 W Main St, Sharpsburg, MD 21782
Website: https://www.heartofthecivilwar.org/events/view/2083
Event/Entrance Fee: Free & Open to the Public

Civil War historian and author, Sarah Kay Bierle will be discussing the subject of her up coming book during her talk – “Directed to Take Command”: Winfield S. Hancock & Antietam’s Sunken Road. In the midst of the Federal attacks toward the Sunken Road on September 17, 1862, during the Battle of Antietam, the First Division of the Second Corps lost their commander, Major General Israel B. Richardson, at a critical point of their battle hopes and carnage. General McClellan personally directed Brigadier General Winfield S. Hancock to take command of the division. He rode into a tenuous battlefield situation and took charge of the largest command he had led up to that time. Hancock’s previous military experiences—both in peacetime and war—had been shaping his leadership style. As events unfolded at the heart of Antietam battlefield that day, Hancock met the challenges and dangers in ways that surprised the troops now under his command and yet obeyed the orders he had been given. This program will take a deeper look at Hancock’s life and leadership, the situation he inherited at Antietam, and his report of the actions and decisions in the aftermath of the capture of the Sunken Road.

301-432-5079