Full View of the Enemy’s Lines: Reassessing Intelligence, Command, and the Federal Signal Service at Antietam – Cory M. Pfarr
Historian, Cory Pfarr will start off our July lectures with a look at the Federal Signal Service and his forthcoming book during his talk, “Full View of the Enemy’s Lines: Reassessing Intelligence, Command, and the Federal Signal Service at Antietam.”
Civil War scholarship has long framed Antietam through a contrast: Robert E. Lee as the dynamic battlefield commander and George B. McClellan as the detached spectator at the Pry House. Primary source evidence from the Maryland Campaign presents a different picture. Under Major Albert J. Myer and operationally directed by Captain Benjamin F. Fisher, the Federal Signal Service established a network of forward, headquarters, and backbone stations that gathered and relayed intelligence throughout September 17, 1862. One forward post—the Hooker–Meade–Sumner station manned by James Byron Brooks and William H. Hill—functioned as a mobile station that moved with the I and II Corps. Others, including the fixed Michael Miller Farm Station and the backbone post on Red Hill, transmitted battlefield reports in near-real time. These operations reveal a commander acting through an organized intelligence system, not passive observation.
Cory M. Pfarr works for the Department of War (formerly Defense). He is the award-winning author of Longstreet at Gettysburg: A Critical Reassessment (2019); Righting the Longstreet Record at Gettysburg: Six Matters of Controversy and Confusion (2023); and the forthcoming The Federal Signal Service at Antietam: Stations, Officers and Battlefield Intelligence on America’s Bloodiest Day (2026), all published by McFarland Books. His essays and scholarship have appeared in Gettysburg Magazine, North & South Magazine, and The Massachusetts Historical Review, and his work has been featured on the Pennsylvania Cable Network and C-SPAN American History TV, as well as presented to audiences at the U.S. Army War College. He lives in Fallston, Maryland, with his wife and three children.
Come join leading historians and scholars as they discuss intriguing topics about their latest works and research on the Maryland Campaign and the Civil War during the Antietam Institute’s Civil War Summer Lecture Series. See the complete 2026 schedule.
These indoor programs are held in McKinley Hall at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church on Monday evenings at 7:00 p.m. The church is located at 209W Main Street with a small parking area off the alley. More parking is available on Main and Hall Streets. These lectures are free and open to the public. Each week, the Antietam Institute holds a drawing in which the proceeds support the Save Historic Antietam Foundation. Be sure to check their Facebook page for updates and changes to the schedule.
