June 29, 1863 - Gettysburg Campaign: Dawn Skirmish at Cooksville; Gen. Fitzhugh Lee's brigade at Hood's Mill; Hancock's Second Corps moves; Hooker's Close Call

June 29, 1863 <was a busy day! It starts before dawn with a>

Skirmish at Cooksville

Cooksville, MD

"Captain Duvall's Company" (Maryland Militia from the Eastern Shore) w/ a section of the 3rd PA Artillery commanded by Captain William D. Rank 

vs.

JEB Stuart's Cavalry 

* Duvall retires against Stuart's 15,000 troops, but sends messengers to inform Gen. Meade of the army of  Stuart's flank movement

https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=936

"Site of a skirmish between confederate cavalry commanded by General J.E.B. Stuart, and Maryland militia on June 29, 1863. The Confederates easily defeated their opposition and continued northwardly towards Hood’s Mill and Westminster."

https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=251933
https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=937

Cooksville

Saving the Guns

— Gettysburg Campaign —

When Confederate Gen. J.E.B. Stuart led his cavalry division north across the Potomac River into Maryland in June 1863, about 400 Federals and civilians were captured and then paroled in Brookeville. At the same time, Confederate Gen. Fitzhugh Lee’s brigade continued its march north toward Hood’s Mill.

Near Cooksville, meanwhile, Capt. R.E. Duvall’s Co. A, Purnell Legion Md. Cavalry, had bivouacked on the National Road with two ordnance rifles of Capt. W.D. Rank’s Battery H, 3rd Pa. Artillery. Duvall was escorting the guns to Relay in Baltimore County, where they were to be used in the defense of the Thomas Viaduct on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad.

When Stuart’s advance drove in the Union pickets before dawn on June 29, Duvall sent Sgt. Andrew Duncan and Pvt. Jonathan Norris back to Frederick to warn Gen. George G. Meade of the Confederate presence, then beat a hasty retreat under cover of darkness. He lost some camp equipment and four horses but saved his men and Rank’s guns. Near Poplar Springs he encountered Col. John B. Mclntosh’s cavalry brigade, which was hunting for Stuart and offered protection. When Duvall’s company and the two guns did not reach Relay as expected, area commander Gen. Robert Schenck reported them captured. It was two days before he learned their true status."

Historical markers at the Park and Ride lot. The other Civil War Trails marker is the "Gettysburg Campaign" one that I've read about a million times now.

https://hococivilwar.org/cooksville

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Then the Rebel cavalry rode on, North to Hood's Mill

June 29, 1863

Hood's Mill

Sykesville, MD

https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=133800

Meanwhile...a mere 25 or so miles away....

https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=4017

"On June 29, 1863, the Army of the Potomac's II Corps, commanded by Gen. Winfield S. Hancock, broke camp south of Frederick near the Monocacy River, marched into Frederick, and turned eastward on the road to Liberty (Libertytown). The men perspired as the sun rose, and the heat caused "the salty liquid to get into the eyes, causing them to burn and smart, and it ran from down under the cap, through the dust and down the sides of the face which was soon covered with muddy streaks, the result of repeated wipings upon the sleeves of the blouse."

Gen. John Gibbon, commanding the corps' Second Division, was a tough regular army officer, but he realized that his volunteers were faltering. The 19th Massachusetts Infantry had a glee club, and Gibbon wanted it to sing rousing, morale-raising songs. Col. Arthur F. Devereux ordered his his singers to the front, where they broke into a stirring marching son. "The effect was magical," remembered one Bay Stater. Although they hoped to bivouac in Liberty, some reinvigorated soldiers made it all the way to Uniontown in Carroll County before they halted for the night. Gibbon's division was heavily engaged at Gettysburg on July 2-3, suffering 1,651 casualties. The 19th Massachusetts lost 77 killed, wounded, and missing, likely including several members of the glee club that sang so lustily on that hot June day."

So, also...

"On and about the nearby Babylon Farm Major General Winfield Scott Hancock rested his corps June 29, 1863. On July 1, the corps marched through Taneytown to take part in the Battle of Gettysburg."

https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=3013



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Meanwhile on the army's right flank...

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oh and BTW also on June 29, 1863

A sacked Hooker almost gets kidnapped on this way back to Washington

Sykesville, MD

"Sykesville

Joe Hooker's Close Call

— Maryland Civil War Trails —

In late June 1863, Gen. J.E.B. Stuart's Confederate cavalry pounded through this area on a raid while, to the west, Gen. Robert E. Lee and the main body of the Army of Northern Virginia marched northward. Before dawn on June 29, several former area residents guided Stuart's column north from Cooksville. At Old Frederick Road (present-day State Rte. 99) the force divided, and elements range east to Sykesville and Marriottsville. Gen. Fitzhugh Lee's brigade continued north on Washington Road to Hood's Mill and occupied the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad there, cutting telegraph lines to disrupt communications between Frederick and Washington. Stuart soon learned that Gen. Joseph Hooker has been relieved of command of the Army of the Potomac the day before at Frederick and might return to Washington on a special train about 10:30 A.M. that day. The Confederates burned a small wooden bridge over Piney Branch about half a mile east of Hood's Mill and tore up several sections of tracks to stop the train and capture the Union General. An alert engineer on an earlier train spotted them, however, and backed up to Frederick to warn Hooker, thereby thwarting the scheme."

Welcome to Sykesville