So I am going to be perfectly honest, I failed to get ahead of the ball and put together a good blog post for today's episode so I'm kind of flying by the seat of my pants. Plus, this episode turned into a real battlelogue so if you want to learn more about specific battles, I highly recommend Rich and Tracey Youngdahl's "The Civil War (1861-1865): A History Podcast" which just finished its 65 (!) episode series on Gettysburg.
It took Doubleday about a a year to get back into the fight after Fort Sumter and he provided one of the few bright spots for the Union at Second Manassas. After that, he was a filed commander and found himself on campaign for the next year. After Manassas, he successfully commanded at Antietam, Fredericksburg, and Chancellorsville (kind of) at higher and higher levels - brigade, division, and corps
Most of these fights were absolute disasters for the Union, but even still, Doubleday and his troops acquitted themselves well, even frustrating the vaunted Confederate General Stonewall Jackson, who had grown to assume that the Yankees didn't have the fortitude to stand and fight with his experienced troops.
Despite his success in the field, he took a lot of gruff from his detractors - namely he's a little chubby and isn't dashing while riding a horse, qualities that were often considered more important than battlefield success in the 19th century.
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