Brian Klaas

by command of General Robert E. Lee. So this, you know, OK, it seems plausible. And so Barton, you know, sort of sends this up the chain of command. The letters go to the Union tents and they go to a general named Alpheus S. Williams.

And outside of the tent, you know, this is one of these periods where the generals all have their sort of assistant outside the tent to sort of, you know, filter out what's worth the general's time. And the guy who was filtering this day was named Colonel Samuel Pittman. And Pittman reads this and he instantly knows that the orders are genuine. And this is the second part of the story.

And outside of the tent, you know, this is one of these periods where the generals all have their sort of assistant outside the tent to sort of, you know, filter out what's worth the general's time. And the guy who was filtering this day was named Colonel Samuel Pittman. And Pittman reads this and he instantly knows that the orders are genuine. And this is the second part of the story.

And outside of the tent, you know, this is one of these periods where the generals all have their sort of assistant outside the tent to sort of, you know, filter out what's worth the general's time. And the guy who was filtering this day was named Colonel Samuel Pittman. And Pittman reads this and he instantly knows that the orders are genuine. And this is the second part of the story.

This is the part that I absolutely love. So the reason Pittman knows that they're real is because we worked before he joined the army as a bank teller in Detroit, Michigan. And he was the paymaster for the U.S. Army. And as a result of that, what he had to do was process checks that were signed by people in the military.

This is the part that I absolutely love. So the reason Pittman knows that they're real is because we worked before he joined the army as a bank teller in Detroit, Michigan. And he was the paymaster for the U.S. Army. And as a result of that, what he had to do was process checks that were signed by people in the military.

This is the part that I absolutely love. So the reason Pittman knows that they're real is because we worked before he joined the army as a bank teller in Detroit, Michigan. And he was the paymaster for the U.S. Army. And as a result of that, what he had to do was process checks that were signed by people in the military.

And it turned out that Pittman had seen Chilton's signature literally thousands of times before the war broke out. So he happens to be the one person in the Union Army who can look at the signature and say, yes, that's actually the right guy. This is a real set of orders and so on. And so he conveys this information. The Union Army changes its mind and moves and meets at the Battle of Antietam.

And it turned out that Pittman had seen Chilton's signature literally thousands of times before the war broke out. So he happens to be the one person in the Union Army who can look at the signature and say, yes, that's actually the right guy. This is a real set of orders and so on. And so he conveys this information. The Union Army changes its mind and moves and meets at the Battle of Antietam.

And it turned out that Pittman had seen Chilton's signature literally thousands of times before the war broke out. So he happens to be the one person in the Union Army who can look at the signature and say, yes, that's actually the right guy. This is a real set of orders and so on. And so he conveys this information. The Union Army changes its mind and moves and meets at the Battle of Antietam.

Again, this huge showdown. Now, the Battle of Antietam is not a decisive Union victory, but it stops the Confederate momentum. It's a critical moment in the war. And because of it, a lot of historians will argue that Antietam is sort of the thing that was the catalyst for the Emancipation Proclamation, that Lincoln felt, you know, more emboldened to do this. But more, even more critically...

Again, this huge showdown. Now, the Battle of Antietam is not a decisive Union victory, but it stops the Confederate momentum. It's a critical moment in the war. And because of it, a lot of historians will argue that Antietam is sort of the thing that was the catalyst for the Emancipation Proclamation, that Lincoln felt, you know, more emboldened to do this. But more, even more critically...

Again, this huge showdown. Now, the Battle of Antietam is not a decisive Union victory, but it stops the Confederate momentum. It's a critical moment in the war. And because of it, a lot of historians will argue that Antietam is sort of the thing that was the catalyst for the Emancipation Proclamation, that Lincoln felt, you know, more emboldened to do this. But more, even more critically...

There's a relatively good argument you can make that the Confederates were about to get recognized or that the British government was thinking about recognizing the Confederacy because of the momentum they had in the war. And it sort of gave the British government pause. Right.

There's a relatively good argument you can make that the Confederates were about to get recognized or that the British government was thinking about recognizing the Confederacy because of the momentum they had in the war. And it sort of gave the British government pause. Right.

There's a relatively good argument you can make that the Confederates were about to get recognized or that the British government was thinking about recognizing the Confederacy because of the momentum they had in the war. And it sort of gave the British government pause. Right.

They said, let's wait and see, because this battle seems to suggest that this is not going to be a decisive Confederate victory in the war. Of course, they wanted the cotton and so on.

They said, let's wait and see, because this battle seems to suggest that this is not going to be a decisive Confederate victory in the war. Of course, they wanted the cotton and so on.

They said, let's wait and see, because this battle seems to suggest that this is not going to be a decisive Confederate victory in the war. Of course, they wanted the cotton and so on.

So it's one of those aspects where when you think about this, it's this critical moment where if Antietam or something like it had been another really decisive Confederate victory, you know, how different the world could be. I mean, imagine that this had led to a cascade in which the Confederates actually won. It's not impossible to imagine that.