Six Days in September

Alexander Rossino

• Publisher: Savas Beatie
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781940669694
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Historical Fiction
• Index: Literature

September 1862.After a string of victories in Virginia, Robert E. Lee marches his Army of Northern Virginia northward across the Potomac River in search of one final battlefield triumph as the best way to bring about Southern independence. Little goes right for Lee when the garrison at Harpers Ferry refuses to evacuate and a lost order reveals his plans to George McClellan and his resurgent Army of the Potomac. The result is a divided Southern army severely weakened by straggling, a failed effort to hold the gaps through South Mountain, and a final stand at Sharpsburg on September 17 (the bloodiest day in American history) with the Potomac River and a single ford at Lee’s back.Alexander Rossino weaves these momentous hours together brilliantly in Six Days in September. Readers live the high-stakes drama through the gritty minutiae experienced by a host of historical characters—including an injured and exhausted General Lee, the pious hard-fighting Stonewall Jackson, a frustrated but reliable James Longstreet, the acerbic Harvey Hill, and the irrepressible Kyd Douglas. Rossino also displays a keen understanding of daily travails undergone by the common foot soldiers, and the unique hardships Sharpsburg’s civilians lived through when two major armies decided to wage war around their sleepy Maryland village. Six Days in September is a sweeping account, brilliantly written with a “you-are-there” sense that will linger long after you finish this book.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Dramatis Personae
• 1 Saturday, September 13, 1862 (mid-morning) Headquarters of the Army of Northern Virginia Near Funkstown, Maryland
• 2 Friday, September 12, 1862 (late afternoon to early evening) Martinsburg, (West) Virginia
• 3 Saturday, September 13, 1862 (pre-dawn to mid-morning) Encampment of the Sixth Alabama Volunteer Infantry Regiment Robert Rodes’ Brigade, D. H. Hill’s Division, Army of Northern Virginia Near Boonsborough, Maryland
• 4 Saturday, September 13, 1862 (evening to early morning, Sept. 14) Headquarters of the Army of Northern Virginia Near Funkstown, Maryland
• 5 Sunday, September 14, 1862 (Sunrise to Midnight) Encampment of the Sixth Alabama Volunteer Infantry Regiment Robert Rodes’ Brigade, D. H. Hill’s Division, Army of Northern Virginia Boonsborough, Maryland
• 6 Sunday, September 14, 1862 (pre-dawn to evening) Headquarters of the Army of Northern Virginia Near Funkstown, Maryland
• 7 Sunday, September 14, 1862 (sunrise to midday) West Farm Near Sharpsburg, Maryland
• 8 Sunday, September 14, 1862 (evening to early morning, Sept. 15) Headquarters of Stonewall Jackson’s Command Near Halltown, (West) Virginia
• 9 Sunday, September 14, 1862 (near midnight to sunrise, Sept. 15) Turner’s Gap Near Boonsborough, Maryland
• 10 Sunday, September 14, 1862 (near midnight to after sunrise, Sept. 15) Headquarters of the Army of Northern Virginia Boonsborough, Maryland
• 11 Monday, September 15, 1862 (mid-morning) Crossing Antietam Creek Near Sharpsburg, Maryland
• 12 Monday, September 15, 1862 (mid-morning to mid-afternoon) Field Headquarters of the Army of Northern Virginia Sharpsburg, Maryland
• 13 Monday, September 15, 1862 (mid-morning to late afternoon) Harpers Ferry Road Near Sharpsburg, Maryland
• 14 Monday, September 15, 1862 (late afternoon) Headquarters of the Army of Northern Virginia Sharpsburg, Maryland
• 15 Tuesday, September 16, 1862 (sunrise to mid-afternoon) Grove House, Headquarters of the Army of Northern Virginia Sharpsburg, Maryland
• 16 Tuesday, September 16, 1862 (mid-morning to early afternoon) On the road to Shepherdstown Near Sharpsburg, Maryland
• 17 Tuesday, September 16, 1862 (mid-morning) Headquarters of the Army of Northern Virginia Sharpsburg, Maryland
• 18 Tuesday, September 16, 1862 (late afternoon to early evening) Hauser’s Ridge, Confederate Left Flank Sharpsburg, Maryland
• 19 Tuesday, September 16, 1862 (late afternoon to evening) Encampment of the Sixth Alabama Infantry Regiment Sunken Road, near Sharpsburg, Maryland
• 20 Wednesday, September 17, 1862 (pre-dawn to mid-morning) Grove House Sharpsburg, Maryland
• 21 Wednesday, September 17, 1862 (pre-dawn to mid-morning) Headquarters of the Army of Northern Virginia Sharpsburg, Maryland
• 22 Wednesday, September 17, 1862 (mid-morning) Sharpsburg, Maryland
• 23 Wednesday, September 17, 1862 (mid-morning) Mid-morning atop Reel Farm Ridge Sharpsburg, Maryland
• 24 Wednesday, September 17, 1862 (sunrise to late morning) Encampment of Sixth Alabama Infantry Regiment Sunken Road, near Sharpsburg, Maryland
• 25 Wednesday, September 17, 1862 (mid-to-late morning) Reel Farm Ridge Sharpsburg, Maryland
• 26 Wednesday, September 17, 1862 (early afternoon) The Confederate right flank Rohrbach Bridge, near Sharpsburg, Maryland
• 27 Wednesday, September 17, 1862 (early to late afternoon) Behind the Confederate center Sharpsburg, Maryland
• 28 Wednesday, September 17, 1862 (evening) Headquarters of the Army of Northern Virginia Sharpsburg, Maryland
• 29 Thursday, September 18, 1862 (afternoon) Sharpsburg, Maryland
• Afterword
• Acknowledgments
• About the author