Sept. 14, 1862 - Battle of South Mountain
Sept. 14, 1862
The Battle of South Mountain:
Crampton's Gap, Turner's Gap, and Fox's Gap
Frederick County and Washington County, Maryland
George B. McClellan (Gen. Jacob D. Cox Kanawha Division of the Union IX Corps; Hooker's I Corps; Meade; Hatch; Maj Gen. Franklin's VIC Crops, Maj Gen. Slocum: Col. Torbert, Bartlett @ Compton's Gap - NY and PA reserves; plus Baldy Smith!)
VS.
Robert E. Lee (Longstreet's Division: D.H. Hill @ Fox's Gap and Turner's Gap; Brid Gen. Cobb - Georgians, Cobb's Legion, 15th NC, Troup Light Art; JEB Stuart was around as were Anderson, McLaws, and Semmes near Crampton's Gap)
* Union Victory over Confederates trying to block the mountain passes, though Lee regroups at Antietam two days later.
* Jesse L. Reno is killed on the road to Fox's Gap, the highest ranking Union office killed up to that point.
This is a big one! And as a Marylander, I am a fan. However, there really is no South Mountain Battlefield. A large portion of the South Mountain "battlefield" is privately owned, with residential housing on it. A lot of it is still just wild woods and mountains. Preservation efforts are ongoing. My GPS took me to Washington Monument State Park first, which was appropriate since that was the first and most Northern gap in the mountain to see action. From there I could at least get a map with three other points of interest related to the battle, and I drove to all of them. First, Washington Monument itself is near Turner's Gap in the mountain, but it also played a role in the war.
One 4th of July 1827 at 7am the patriotic citizens of Boonsboro, where troops were later stationed defending the South Mountain passes, marched up to the top of South Mountain behind fife, drums, and flags and spent the whole holiday erecting what is supposed to be America's first ever monument to our first President; don't tell Baltimore that. They got half-way done, decided to call it a day, and didn't come back to finish it until the fall of that year. Since then it has fallen into disrepair and been rebuilt several times, but it is at the top of a great trail and park now and you can go all the way up it and look out from the top of South Mountain. Washington Monument was briefly used as a lookout by both sides coming and going to Antietam. which is visible in the distance.
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The view from atop Washington Monument. "During the Antietam Campaign, the U.S. Signal Corps used the stone structure...as a signal station. On July 4, 1827, citizens of the town of Boonsboro paraded to the top of the mountain here and began building this first monument in the country completed in honor of George Washington. On September 14, 1862, as Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee and his staff entered Boonsboro during the Battle of South Mountain, Lt. Col. E.P. Alexander observed “a small party of people on what seemed to be some sort of tower on the mountain top.” Thinking they were Union signalers, Alexander led a squad of eight men up to investigate, but found them to be only some local citizens trying to get a better view of the combat. Federal signalmen did use the monument afterward, however, and during the Battle of Antietam three days later. The two armies revisited this valley in 1863 during the Confederate retreat after the Battle of Gettysburg. They sparred across Washington County, July 5-14, fighting at Boonsboro, Funkstown, and Hagerstown." |
The Old South Mountain Inn, continuously in operation for a really long time, is ostensibly in the photo below. It sits at a summit on a mountain pass where the Rebs tried to keep the Feds from coming through at Turner's Gap. The famous Westerners in the Iron Brigade, later distinguished at Gettysburg, did their thing here first; proportionately, they suffered the most casualties of any brigade in the Civil War. [While I was taking this pic the only cash I had fell out of my back pocket. A hiker on the Appalachian Trail circled back to return it to me.]
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| Crossing and re-crossing the AT |
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| https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=1297 |
"This chapel was built around 1881 by Madeline Vinton Dahlgren, widow of Admiral John A. Dahlgren, USN, inventor of the Dahlgren gun, the armament used by the USS Monitor against the CSS Virginia, formerly the steam frigate USS Merrimack."
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You know me- I try to read every word on every historical maker, but I quickly learned that the signs looking like this (from the War Department) contain a level of details that is beyond even my needs. It turns out the military would use these battlefields for actual battlefield strategy training, so they needed/wanted all the details about who was where when. Apparently they still do that. There are SO many at places like Gettysburg and Vicksburg. Read all six of them from Turner's Pass in their entirety here: https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=1594 https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=1595 https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=1596 https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=1597 https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=1598 https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=1599 Reno was either killed by friendly fire ("a rookie soldier from the 35th MA who mistook him for Confederate cavalry at dusk") while commanding corps at Fox's Gap OR he was killed by John Bell Hood's men, depending on who you ask. Born in Wheeling, WV, Reno served in the Mexican-American War, and the city in Nevada is named for him, as are others in Kansas, Ohio, Oklahoma, and Pennsylvania. Not to mention Fort Reno Park in D.C. - where the Discord folks and others played. (opps, wrong blog). Also, Reno's son invented the first working escalator. "Reno actively opposed his friend and classmate Stonewall Jackson during the Second Battle of Bull Run and the Battle of Chantilly."
It took the use of an actual physical map to locate the second pass in South Mountain that saw action. And here the Union lost a General for the first time in the war. The Confederacy lost one too. The Reno Memorial at Fox's Gap was isolated and worth finding.
 https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=4325 I hiked deep into the woods to see this often-missed memorial at the old fence line, further from the mountain summit. I'm glad it was out of sight of the Reno monument. Guess they should have stayed in North Carolina. "In Memory of the North Carolinians who fought at or near here September 14, 1862. The 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 12th, 13th, 14th, 15th, 20th, 23rd, 30th Infantry and Manly's and Reilly's Battery, 1st NC Artillery" "Driven back from the front, the enemy falling back through Wise's garden, were met by out line coming up from the rear in the flank, and a terrific fight ensued. The color bearer of a Confederate regiment jumped up on the rear wall of the garden, and defiantly waving his flag, refused the many calls to surrender which he received, was shot and fell inside the garden wall. Private Hoagland of my company jumped over the fence and secured the flag. Lt. Col. Coleman of the 11th, who was present, and who had called upon the man to surrender, ordered Hoagland to deliver the flag to him, and afterwards claimed credit of its capture."—R.B. Wilson, 12th Ohio Letter to Gen. E.A. Carmen, Antietam Board, July 22, 1889 (from the back of the monument) Also at Fox's Gap: "A few hundred feet north of this site, the 50th Georgia Infantry Regiment, of Brig. Gen. Thomas F. Drayton's Brigade, was decimated by elements of Gen. Orlando B. Willcox's 3,600-man Federal division on the late afternoon of September 14, 1862. The dead and wounded piled up in the sunken road as volley after volley raked the huddled 50th Georgians. After about thirty minutes of horrific enemy fire, the Georgians' resistance broke and the survivors retreated out of the road to the west through the gauntlet of enemy rifles. Of the estimated 225 officers and enlisted men engaged, 47 were killed, and 112 wounded, 22 mortally. Many of the wounded had to be left on the field and were captured." And also at this gap: "On the morning of September 14, 1862, Brig. General Samuel Garland deployed his troops along the Ridge Rd. (Lamb's Knoll Rd.). The 13th North Carolina under the command of Lt. Col. Thomas Ruffin, Jr. in his report describes the morning action: "We (13th NC) were directed to take position in an open field upon the brow of a high hill. The enemy was directly in our front, and on our left under cover of a rail fence. We directed our fire to the left and drove them off the field, while still receiving fire from the front. It was then that Brigadier General Samuel Garland fell. We then moved about 50 yards from brow of hill with the enemy advancing and firing, heavy fire was opened upon us front the right. The enemy had obtained the road on our right and were coming down upon us. An order was given to charge the front and the enemy gave way. We then charged those on our right and drove them back. While engaged, the enemy appeared upon our left. The regiment about faced, charged and repulsed them, thus removed to the Sharpsburg Road and found Gen. Anderson's brigade. We remained with him the rest of the day." - Lt. Col. Thomas Ruffian J., 13th NC Troop. Brigadier General Samuel Garland was with the 13th NC Regiment as it began to waver under pressure. Lt. Col. Thomas Ruffin, Jr. shouted, "General, why are you here?" Garland replied, "I may as well be here as yourself." Ruffin answered, "No, it is my duty, but you should lead your brigade from a safer position." At that moment Ruffin was hit in the hip, and Garland also fell, hit in the center of the back and exited 2" above his right breast. His last words, "I am killed, send for the senior colonel." "The 13th NC was totally surrounded after the mortal wounding of Brig. Gen. Samuel Garland just a few yards from here. Two days after the battle, 58 Confederate dead were dumped down the well of Daniel Wise located NW. In 1874, they were reinterred in Hagerstown, MD." So two generals killed here. [I wasn't taking pics of all the signs at this very early stage in my journey.] "The fight for Fox’s Gap on September 14, 1862, claimed the lives of two generals, one from each side. Confederate Gen. Samuel Garland, a Lynchburg, Virginia native, attended the Virginia Military Institute at Lexington and later obtained his law degree. Married in 1856, he suffered tragedy early in the war when both his wife and four-year-old son died in an influenza epidemic. Grief-stricken, he left Lynchburg as captain of the Lynchburg Home Guard, excelled during the Peninsula Campaign and Seven Days’ Battles, and soon attained general’s rank. Charged with defending Fox’s Gap, he fell mortally wounded by a bullet through his chest while rallying his men. As evening fell and the Confederates fell back through the gap and off to the north, Union Gen. Jesse L. Reno rode by here and into the field across from Wise’s cabin to investigate what he believed was a delay in the push for Turner’s Gap. Just then, Gen. John Bell Hood’s Texans arrived on the field and fired the final Confederate volley, mortally wounding Reno. While carried Reno away on a stretcher to his friend Gen. Samuel D. Sturgis’s headquarters, Reno called to him, “Hallo, Sam, I’m dead!” A few minutes later he died, the first Union Corps commander killed during the war. His monument is the second oldest one erected for the Maryland Campaign" Which is the first!? Well, that one was erected in 1889 by the survivors of the 9th Army Corps ("to their commander and comrade"). But the first monument went up at Antietam a few years earlier in 1877, by Veterans of the 51st PA. You're welcome.  https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=144954  An important part of the Battle of South Mountain was fought here September 14-15, 1862, when the Federal forces pressed back the Confederate troops into Pleasant Valley and to Sharpsburg.  .jpg) Driven from Crampton’s Gap on Sept. 14, 1862, by Gen. Franklin’s Sixth Corps, elements of McLaws’ Confederates formed across Pleasant Valley to bar Union advance on Maryland Heights and Harper’s Ferry. Later these Confederates joined Lee about Sharpsburg. * Next, here's the Arnold Farm, on the South Mountain Battlefield. This badly damaged sign isn't in the database (and I can't read it well enough to add it - some brave soul since has!), but I read elsewhere that "during the Battle of South Mountain, the Arnold Farm became a staging area for the United States Army's units as they prepared to ascend the mountainside and push the Confederate forces out of Crampton's Gap. Sharpshooters used the farm's large bank barn for cover. The house may have also been used to shelter wounded soldiers in the weeks after the battle." *It has since been added!  https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=261928 The Arnold Farm South Mountain Battlefield The Arnold Farm tract dates to the mid-1750's, when it was laid out by German immigrant Johannis Peter Gaver, who named it "Gaver's Discovery". He built the stone house and improved the property in the 1790's. After passing through the hands of others over the years, the property became home to John and Lydia Biser in the 1820s and 1830s; their household included two enslaved female servants and four free black men who worked the fields. In 1853, David Arnold and his brother, John, purchased the 170-acre parcel and enlarged the main house in the 1870s. Peaceful farm life was thrown into turmoil on September 14, 1862, when Union troops from the 6th Pennsylvania Cavalry, 96th Pennsylvania Infantry, and 2nd and 4th Vermont fought the Confederate 16th Virginia for control of the Arnold land. While the Confederates took position behind the stone wall to the west, Union troops used a barn as shelter. The outnumbered Confederate troops soon retreated up the mountain resulting in a Union victory. The Arnold family took shelter in their cellar during the fighting. Troops then used the Arnold Farm fields as a campsite for the next six months. Maryland Department of Transportation archaeologists surveyed the property and found evidence of the skirmish and camps. They also learned that the Union troops approached from the southeast and effectively held the Confederates off until they retreated. Hardware and 19th-century nails in the middle of the field suggest that the barn once used as shelter by the Union troops is no longer standing. An analysis of bullets and shell casings helped to determine troop movements, while personal artifacts like buckles and buttons represent the men who fought here. The Arnold Farm was a key battle site during the Crampton's Gap engagement in 1862.  * The third and final pass through South Mountain (Crampton's) is now Gathland State Park, which is a whole other crazy thing - the former mountain retreat and unused mausoleum of writer and Civil War correspondent George Alfred Townsend. Before he went broke later in life, he built the giant War Correspondents Memorial. I really liked the "interpretative trail" here that brought me deep into the woods on a 1.3 mile exploration of the ravines and ridges of the Crampton's Gap battle area. The battle story is an exciting one involving Rebel cannons showing up at just the right moment and getting off a few good shots down the road...before everybody runs down the mountain all crazy. The Union army gets through the next day, aiming to stop the Confederate invasion. Lee is about to quit and go home since he can't get up to PA quickly like he wants to, but when he hears that Harpers Ferry has fallen he decides to take his stand at Antietam. It makes all prior Civil War battles look like tiny fights.  "Towards evening, as Jennings settled into his bivouac, orders arrived instructing them to “make all speed” for Crampton’s Gap. Arriving in the gap just as the Federals were coming up, Jennings deployed his guns in the intersection to the front of you. The “Jennie” aimed down the road to your left while the “Sallie Craig” covered the road on your right. Both guns blasted the approaching Federals with canister, getting off five rounds into the faces of the Federals less than 50 yards away. He then hastily withdrew his guns, leaving several of his dead or wounded crew behind. Escape was not possible for the “Jennie,” as her carriage, damaged by Federal infantry fire, broke in two as she was being withdrawn. The Courage of Jennings’ crew and the skill with which they handled their guns was not lost on Colonel Joseph Bartlett: “Here I cannot help giving my testimony to the skill and great bravery with which a section of the enemy’s artillery was retired down the road.... Their infantry had ceased firing and was nowhere in sight, but as I emerged from the woods I saw the flash of a cannon, which was within 50 yards of me and trained toward us, the cannister bursting in our very faces. It was limbered to the rear in an instance, and at 20 paces had passed the other gun of the section, which delivered its fire, limbered up, and went scurrying down the road before any but a scattering fire could be brought against it. The last gun was, however, slightly disabled, and abandoned a little further down the mountain.” "At noon the 96th Pennsylvania Infantry, at the head of Franklin’s column, turned left into Distillery Lane about a quarter of a mile east of Burkittsville. Sending skirmishers forward, the 96th crossed a fence line into a field behind the town. Within minutes Confederate artillery fire from Brownsville Pass force the Federals back. Confederate skirmishers advanced into the village, but were forced back by Union skirmishers. By the time the rest of the VI Corps arrived, the Confederates had retreated. The Federals stopped and cooked their rations while Franklin pondered his next move."  https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=60905 On the Crampton's Gap Trail: "The 15th North Carolina of Cobb's Brigade was directed down the Arnoldstown Road to cover the Confederate left. Taking shelter behind the stone wall along the road, they soon realized their position's strength and waited for the battle to come to them. As the mass of Union troops advanced up the mountain, led by the 96th Pennsylvania, the 15th North Carolina engaged them from the shelter of the stone wall. The Union advance was temporarily stalled. However, as the units of the Georgia regiments to the right of the 15th North Carolina gave way, Union troops began to approach the summit of the gap. Now, behind the North Carolinians, these Union troops began firing into their right flank and rear. In danger of being surrounded, the North Carolinians had no choice but to abandon their position and retreat up the mountainside. The 96th Pennsylvania pursued the Confederates, collecting prisoners, to the summit of the mountain where they were joined by other Union troops. But with darkness coming on, the Federals withdrew back to Arnoldstown Road for the night."
https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=2145 This explains my subsequent visit to Rose Hill cemetery, fascinating in it's own right, and I suppose deserving of it's own entry in 1874 - though I do like the blog ending with Juneteenth. [Don't worry- after waiting the entire length of the pandemic for them to send me a physical map in the mail, I just went for it eventually.]  https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=65351 "This stone Arch, the culmination of Townsend's architectural endeavors, was built in 1896 as a permanent memorial to newspaper correspondents, artists, and photographers of the Civil War. Standing 50 feet tall and 40 feet wide, the Arch's unusual design was inspired by two Hagerstown structures: the former B&O Railroad passenger depot which utilized a horseshoe-shaped arch, and the Antietam Fire Co. Station No. 2 which incorporated a crenellated tower. Names of 157 men from North and South, who documented the Civil War, are inscribed on tablets embedded in the east facade. Biblical and classical references to the skills of the war correspondent are incorporated into the design. The central sculpture bears symbols of war, speed, and storytelling. The Arch's symbolic decoration reflects Townsend's whimsical taste in art, further illustrated by Townsend's verse: and letters only vex. Write then in stone, ye minds of men! And live as architects!""  Padgett's Field: Confederate Last Stand "On September 14, 1862, this area was an open field belonging to George W. Padgett. A wooden, rail fence lined the road on the east. A low, stone wall bordered the field to the west. As the shattered remnants of Brigadier General Howell Cobb’s force streamed up Whipp’s Ravine and through the gap toward the safety of Pleasant Valley, Cobb attempted to check the retreat. He would put up a “last ditch” defense here on the summit of Crampton's Gap. With most of his troops in headlong retreat, Cobb stopped as many as he could and threw up a hastily formed line behind the stone wall. The 24th Georgia still held a position southeast of the gap along Gapland Road. They concentrated their fire on the Federals, who were pursuing the Confederates up the ravine. Suddenly the New Jersey troops, charging up the road from the southeast, hurled a deadly volley on the 24th's right flank. The Georgians broke under pressure. Cobb, taking their colors, ordered them to make a stand. Some ignored him and continued their flight. Others stopped and formed behind the wall to wait for the Federals. They didn’t have to wait long. As the head of the Union column turned the corner and approached the gap, the Federals were met by fire from Confederate muskets and two guns of the Troup Light Artillery. The artillery had just arrived on the field. The blast caught the Federals off guard. The column briefly recoiled and then moved forward again. The New Jersey Brigade’s blood was up, and they were not to be denied. As the Federal tide moved inexorably forward, the New Jersey troops again turned the right flank of the Confederate line. Resistance collapsed and the remaining Confederate troops joined their comrades in headlong retreat into the valley below." And finally, let's get specific and also give some credit where credit is due: "In July 1862 Congress authorized the president to present medals to soldiers of the United States Army for gallant and meritorious service. On September 14, 1862, two soldiers so distinguished themselves during the fighting at Crampton’s Gap that they would later be awarded this “Congressional Medal of Honor.” The 4th Vermont pursued Munford’s retreating Virginians from the stone wall near the foot of South Mountain to an unused wagon track on the eastern slope of the mountain. Once there, First Lieutenant George W. Hooker led four companies south to silence the Confederate guns still firing from Brownsville Pass. Hooker, riding ahead of his men, came upon a gathering of Confederate soldiers. Acting alone, he confronted 116 men of the 16th Virginia. He told the Confederates that a large force was near and convinced them to surrender. Hooker received the Medal of Honor in 1891. To the north, at Whipp’s Ravine, Privates James Allen and James Richards, 16th New York, became separated from their unit. As they neared the foot of the mountain, a bullet struck Richards’ left leg. Allen found a comfortable spot for Richards and followed the retreating Confederates. “By this time...the only thing for me to do was climb also. As I drew myself up, I was met by another volley, but was only slightly wounded. Putting on a bold face, and waving my arms, I said to my imaginary company, ‘Up men, up!’ The Rebels [of the 16th Georgia] thinking they were cornered, stacked their arms.... I made haste to get between them and the guns and found I had fourteen prisoners and a flag from the color guard.” Allen became a corporal that day and received the Medal of Honor in 1890." * There's a bit more on the near side of Compton's Gap. Burkittsville is very interesting small town in Maryland on the east side of South Mountain. It is incredibly well-preserved and they seem intent on keeping it that way. Fascinatingly though, the community seems to be dominated by artisans and semi-progressives. Everywhere I went on the 4th of July weekend [in 2025] I saw sings that said, "Support Veterans, not Billionaires." I guess it's a certain kind of conservatives.  https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=190155 Burkittsville Houses of Worship Become Houses of Misery —Antietam Campaign 1862— Union surgeons turned Burkittsville, a quiet rural village of some 200 people, into a hospital complex after the September 14, 1862, Battle of Crampton’s Gap. The building in front of you, the German Reformed Church, was Hospital D. Twenty-year-old Henrietta Biser gasped when she saw the church pews strewn in the front yard and “a pile of amputated limbs lying just inside the door of the church. Blood was running...over the floor...and things were torn to pieces.” Henry M. Wiener remembered amputations being conducted in the church and “seeing blood on...the walls of the church.” Wounded Union and Confederate soldiers lay on the floor, their seeping blood ruining the carpet, until straw was brought in. When it became soaked, it was pitched outside and replaced with cots. The red brick St. Paul’s Lutheran Church also served as a hospital, and the Reformed Church parsonage, which stood between the churches, may also have served a medical function. The Henry McDuell farm north of town was Hospital A. The hospitals operated until January 1863, when the remaining patients were transferred to Frederick. The soldiers who died in Burkittsville were temporarily interred in the town cemetery. The Federals were removed to the Antietam National Cemetery in 1867 and the Confederates to Hagerstown’s Washington Confederate Cemetery in the 1870s. Hospital D stands as a reminder of the misery and destruction the Antietam Campaign brought into the heart of this quiet town. The Henry McDull farm, north of Burkittsville, served as Hospital "A". Union wounded filled the main house and several out buildings, and Confederate injured were kept on the large porch of the main house. Courtesy Melvin J. Berman via Timothy J. Reese.   *  https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=261927 The Shafer Farm South Mountain Battlefield What is today known as the Shafer Farm was part of a 298-parcel of land known as "The Forest of Needwood" in the late 18th century. The house was built by John Garrott III in the early 1830s. In addition to several generations of the Garrott family, the property was occupied by over a dozen enslaved African Americans who worked in the home and fields. By the 1850s, the Garrotts rented the property to Martin Shafer who lived in the house and ran the farmstead. During the Civil War, the Shafer Farm served as Union General William B. Franklin's headquarters. Soon after they set camp, General Franklin ordered his troops west to defend South Mountain. After the Civil War, the Shafers continued to live on the property where they operated a wagon shop and blacksmith shop along Gapland Road leading into Burkittsville. They finally purchased the parcel in 1889, four decades after moving onto the land. The Schafer family owned the property until 2016, when it was given to the Burkittsville Preservation Association, Inc. Today, the Shafer Farm includes the original home, a detached kitchen/workshop, smokehouse, well, shed, and barn. Maryland Department of Transportation archaeologists surveyed the farm and found artifacts reflecting 19th-century farm life as well as occupation by Union troops. Some of the artifacts found included Minie balls (pictured here) a harness buckle, and horseshoes.   https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=173630 The house served as Union Gen. William B. Franklin's 6th Corps Headquarters on the afternoon of September 14th, 1862 during the Battle of Crampton's Gap.   Side note: The South Mountain Creamery has a cult following like you wouldn't believe. Everywhere I went in the area, strangers would be like, "Excuse me, sir, do you have a moment to talk about the wonders of the South Mountain Creamery?" Whatever. Too many people in there. But if you want to get ice cream and see cows...  https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=1879 Meanwhile in Boonsboro...."Lee established his headquarter here on Sept. 14 during the Battle of South Mountain."  https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=122154 After Gen. Robert E. Lee issued Special Order 191 near Frederick dividing the Army of Northern Virginia into four columns, Gen. Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson’s command marched across South Mountain on September 10, 1862. His column passed through Turner’s Gap and Boonsboro en route to compel the surrender of the Federal garrison at Harpers Ferry. Gen. James Longstreet’s and Gen. D.H. Hill’s columns also passed by here, and Gen. J.E.B. Stuart established his headquarters here temporarily on the evening of September 13. Here Stuart learned of the march of the Army of the Potomac under Gen. George B. McClellan from Frederick toward the eastern side of South Mountain and sent word to Lee near Hagerstown. Lee consulted with Longstreet, who recommended that he and Hill withdraw west of Antietam Creek to Sharpsburg, but Lee decided that the South Mountain gaps must be held to buy time for Jackson's attack at Harpers Ferry. Longstreet later complained, “The hallucination that McClellan was not capable of serious work seemed to pervade our army even to this moment of dreadful threatening.” Lee established his headquarters here on September 14 during the Battle of South Mountain. The next day a rearguard cavalry engagement occurred here, during which some of this Unionist town’s citizens sniped at the Confederates. Part of the Union army marched through here on its way to attack Lee’s army, which had withdrawn to a ridge near Sharpsburg after accomplishing its mission at South Mountain." ************************************* Middletown on the way to and from...
Sources: https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=1161 |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesse_L._Reno
https://www.battlefields.org/learn/civil-war/battles/south-mountain
https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=4325
https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=159933
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