Decisions of the Maryland Campaign
The Fourteen Critical Decisions that Defined the Operation
Michael S. Lang, University of Tennessee Press, 2022, 344 pages
Book Review published on: September 18, 2025
Decisions of the Maryland Campaign: The Fourteen Critical Decisions that Defined the Operation introduces readers to many critical decisions decided by Confederate and Union leaders at the highest ranks throughout the entire eighteen-day campaign. This book represents Gen. Robert E. Lee's first decision to invade the North based on the opportunities presented to him and his Army. Though significantly defeated during the Seven Days Battles, Gen. George McClellan made his own critical decisions that culminated in the eviction of Lee from Maryland.
The author, Michael S. Lang, examines the key decisions leading up to the bloodiest single-day battle of the war, Antietam, as well as a few key others after the battle leading to Lee's withdrawal. Lang includes sixty-four illustrations, photos being most of them, along with exquisitely drawn sketches. The second portion of the book, part of the appendices, includes a well-developed and easy to follow guided tour. This book is Lang's second contribution to a thirteen-volume series of books that examines the critical decisions of major campaigns and battles of the Civil War.
The book contents include a preface that addresses the methodology of reasoning, an introduction that leads up to the first of fourteen critical campaign decisions. Three chapters focus on the start of the campaign, decisions leading to Antietam, and the aftermath of that deadly one-day battle. Finally, a conclusion and four well-written appendices cap the book ending. Lang describes in the preface how critical decisions, vice routine, and important decisions cover the three levels of war, and when the concept of critical decision-making is fully understood, it can be applied to any battle or campaign in any war. The criterion for a critical decision must shape events immediately after it, along with the campaign and/or battle from that point on. The introduction begins with both Lee and McClellan taking stock and contemplating their own decisions and courses they choose from their past several weeks.
The three main chapters comprise the fourteen critical decisions made during the campaign. The campaign included the Battle of Antietam and the Battles of South Mountain (Turner's, Fox's, and Crampton's Gaps), the Battle/Siege of Harpers Ferry, and the Battle of Shepherdstown. The decisions are arranged in three chapters focused on specific time periods. The number of decisions by chapter are arranged differently than the preface. Chapter 1 has seven decisions, chapter 2 has five, and chapter 3 has two, while the preface has them arranged by six, six, and two.
Each critical decision is methodically arranged in a prescribed order. The composition includes a situation, an options piece, each option paragraph, a decision, results/impact section, and finally an alternative decision/scenario. One could equate this to playing an annotated master chess game. Some books have just the moves while others like this one have notes of why a position was crucial, what were some move options, and what would have been the results of those options. This book allows the reader to grasp the situation better and why decisions were made at each critical point. Lang allows the reader to almost be a participant in the decision-making process by allowing the reader to come to different conclusions. Interspersed through this methodology were maps and pictures to help readers better visualize an understanding of the environment surrounding various options.
Decisions of the Maryland Campaign is well-designed and written. The preface addresses the reasoning and justification for applying the critical decision methodology. This approach allows readers to move from what happened to ask and find answers of why it happened or what caused it to happen. Over sixty illustrations, photos, and sketches, and the well-placed maps allow the reader to follow all the critical decisions and their results. The only point of contention is where the author asserts that there was no preordained divine hand steering the course of events, though has no way of knowing that and is making a prejudicial conjecture.
The communication dispatches and after action reports from the key leaders allow the reader to understand to a better degree why things transpired as they did. This book leaves the reader with a desire to seek out and read the Battle of Antietam and the critical choices made by the major participants. A book like this should be read by all military historians as well as military leaders. The critical decision methodology is something all military leaders can operationalize during the military decision-making process, especially during wargaming.
Book Review written by: Stephen Harvey, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas