The NJ Police Chief Magazine Volume 25, Number 3 | Página 12

The New Jersey Police Chief Magazine | March 2019
Join us in October for an Award-Winning Program in a Historic Location
to Explore Significant Leadership Lessons
Since 2004, the NJ State Association of Chiefs of Police has presented Staff Rides for Law Enforcement
Leaders. These programs were predicated upon adapting the military staff ride concept for the needs of police
professionals. Our Staff Rides to Gettysburg, Antietam, Washington’s Crossing and Monmouth Courthouse have
been among our most popular programs of any type or form.
This year, we return to Sharpsburg, MD, the site of the battle
of
Antietam.
What
contemporary
leadership
and
administrative lessons can today’s law enforcement profes-
sionals bring home from a Civil War battlefield? If we examine
the leadership and management challenges—then and now—
we will find many striking parallels. There are the pressures of
limited resources—people, supplies and equipment. There are
also pressures from those above to perform at a peak level,
despite these limited resources. There are personnel
challenges from those who bring with them emotional issues
and then cannot perform with clear minds. There are those
driven by political concerns—the drive for recognition or the
fear of risking too much. And there are others who are set in
their ways—the “old” ways that do not fit today’s
circumstances. The communications issues, as always, are
there: from unclear communications to lack of information.
These challenges are with the contemporary police leader as they were with the leaders at the Battle of Antietam.
Not only is the Antietam Staff Ride for Law Enforcement Leaders immensely popular with chiefs and other
police executives around New Jersey, but it also caught the attention of association leaders outside the law
enforcement community. NJSACOP received the 2005 Positive Impact Award from the New Jersey Society of
Association Executives for the Antietam Staff Ride. The program was chosen for this honor as an example of
“original thinking to successfully implement a project that produced a positive impact on the organization, its
membership, and its vital communities….NJSACOP looked for an innovative approach to broaden the horizons of
law enforcement leaders. [The] ‘Staff Ride’ is a certified program that helps police commanders learn from the
past by analyzing the Civil War battle of Antietam through the eyes of those who were there. This 3-day
experience focuses on strategies, command structures and battlefield leadership and helps professionals evolve
their own decision making skills.”
The Battle of Antietam (or Sharpsburg, as it is called in the South)
took place just 18 days after the Confederate victory at Second
Manassas, 40 miles to the southeast in Virginia. Our program begins
by exploring the strategic dilemma facing Confederate General Robert
E. Lee following his stunning success at Second Manassas. He could
attack Washington, DC, he could put his army in camp or he could set
them on the march. If he chooses to move his army, why would he
choose to go North instead of East, West or South? How does Union
General George McClellan react to Lee’s decision to invade Maryland?
What choices do Lee and McClellan make that force the battles at
South Mountain and Sharpsburg?
At the Pry House, McClellan’s headquarters, we’ll discuss what “Little Mac” was planning for September 17, 1862
and analysis of Lee’s Strategy for that fateful morning. We’ll follow General Hooker’s flank march toward the north
end of the field with stops at the North Woods and the Bloody Cornfield, sites of furious fighting by, among
others, the Iron Brigade and Hood’s Texas Brigade. Following Sumner’s Second Corps to the Dunker Church, one
of the most noted landmarks on this great field of combat. The Dunker Church ranks as perhaps one of the most
famous churches in American military history.
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