June 29, 1863 - Corbit's Charge / Hancock at Uniontown
June 29, 1863
Corbit's Charge
Westminster, Maryland
1st Delaware Cavalry, Company C & D (less than 100 men), commanded by Maj. Napoleon B. Knight with Capt. Charles Corbit and Lt. Caleb Churchman; a detachment of the 150th NY Infantry already occupied as Provost Guard
vs.
Gen J.E.B. Stuart's Cavalry
* Corbit leads charge against an unexpected cavalry intrusion through the city streets; his green troops over-run trying to defend Westminster; Corbit and Churchman captured, 2 killed; 2 Confederate officers killed, 10 wounded.
* Stuart spent the night in Westminster, but was delayed bringing essential information to Lee at Gettysburg
Reprinted from here with pictures added: https://carrollcountytourism.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/CCT-CorbitsCharge.pdf
“Old Commons”
Now the campus of McDaniel College. For many years before the Civil War, the site for July 4th celebrations, picnics, and political rallies. Site of the camp of the 1st Delaware cavalry. It was selected because of the commanding view of the surrounding countryside to detect the approach of Rebel forces.
The Western Maryland R.R. connected Baltimore with Westminster and had just been extended to the area in 1861. Stuart dispatched Horse Artillery and the 3rd Virginia cavalry units to this point to “cut off the retreat” of the Delaware cavalry
Now Westminster Union Bank. Site of the Abner Neal home. His sons, Henry and Frank, returned with Stuart’s advance guard. This was the last time they would return home because of their Southern sentiments. A plaque is located on the side of the building noting this event.
140 East Main
The “Odd Fellows Hall”, circa. 1854. Headquarters of Lt. Bowman, Provost Guard, Co. F, 150th New York Infantry and his detachment of 16 men
East Main & Court Streets
Now a service station. Site of the Westminster Hotel & Tavern. “Headquarters” of Major Napoleon B. Knight, 1st Delaware cavalry prior to the engagement
206 East Main
Shellman House, circa. 1807. The Historical Society of Carroll Count
East Main & North Bishop Streets
Site of Michael Baughman Blacksmith Shop. Delaware cavalrymen were having horses shod here just prior to the engagement. They were surprised, and men and horses were captured by the Rebels.
297 East Main Trumbo/Chrest House, circa. 1830.
This home was in the line of fire of the charging Confederate cavalrymen on the Washington Road to East Main Street. The side of this home has bullet marks from the battle.
This home was used as a temporary hospital.
East Main Street & Washington Road
Location of the Historical Marker commemorating “Corbit’s Charge.” Opposite, now a seafood carry-out, is the site of the undertaking establishment of F.A. Sharrer & Son. Union and Confederate casualties fell near his establishment and were carried in to be prepared for burial.
North Church Street Westminster Cemetery
Site of the Union Meeting House used as a hospital. The wounded of both sides were treated here by local physicians. The site is marked by an iron urn near the flag pole
23 North Court Street Ascension
Episcopal Church, circa. 1844. In the cemetery is the grave of 1st Lt. John William Murray, Co. E, 4th Virginia cavalry, C.S.A. killed in the engagement.
Court Square Carroll County Court House, circa. 1838.
A large Union flag flew from the cupola. The flag was torn down and carried away by Stuart’s men following the engagement. Thirteen ladies of the town of Westminster had sewn the flag and signed their names on the stars.
Information compiled by G. Thomas LeGore, co-author of Just South of Gettysburg, Carroll County, Maryland in the Civil War, published by the Historical Society of Carroll County
* * *
Meanwhile...just twelve miles to the West, down the Uniontown Rd...
"On June 27, 1863, Union Gen. Winfield S. Hancock’s II Corps, Army of the Potomac camped at Monocacy Junction near Frederick. The next day, Gen. George G. Meade assumed command of the army and devised a plan to march it through Frederick and Carroll County to positions along Pipe Creek. There he planned to engage Gen. Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia which had marched through Maryland into Pennsylvania.
Hancock was ordered to march northeast toward Frizzelburg at 4 a.m. on June 29, but did not put his corps in motion until four hours later because the orders were misplaced. After a 32-mile march under a broiling sun, II Corps arrived here at 10 p.m., several miles short of its objective. A New Yorker observed that “Uniontown is a pretty secluded village, patriotic, but paralyzed just now by the nearness of the rebel army.”
When residents told Hancock that Gen. J. E. B. Stuart and his Confederate cavalry were camped four miles away in Westminster, he informed Meade so that an attack could be launched. Union cavalry commander Gen. Alfred Pleasonton, however, persuaded Meade that the report was wrong and two of his brigades occupied the town. In fact, it was Hancock who was correct, and Stuart, unaware of the Federal infantry in Uniontown, might have been defeated had the Federals attacked on the morning of June 30."
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