This isn’t a story about trains (I know you are upset) but they do play a major role.
On June 29, 1864 news came of a Confederate invasion of Maryland. It was news that came from the station officers to the president of the B&O railroad.
That man, John W. Garrett, then tried to lobby Washington for support and protection of the railroad between Frederick, where the confederates were, and Washington DC, which was possibly where they were going.
General Grant had moved almost all of the garrisons out of DC to help support his campaign through Virginia. This left DC unguarded from the north. Lee had split his army, as we was wont to do from time to time. Lee and much of his army would be fighting off Grant’s advance in Virginia, while he tasked Jubal Early to secure the Shenandoah valley, cross into Maryland, and take DC from the North.
You may remember Jubal Early as the namesake of the boat at White’s Ferry.
While nobody in Washington could help Garrett, his notice did serve as a warning for Grant to move troops back north to protect the district. Meanwhile, Garrett did attract the attention of Lew Wallace, the Union General who was situated in Baltimore at the time. Wallace moved his troops westward between Jubal Early in Frederick and his otherwise completely open path to DC.
He settled at a place called Monocacy Junction. The monocacy river has been pictured so many times on this website that it should have its own category. So if you are wondering if there’s a connection, there is. Monocacy junction was a point just south of Frederick and along the Monocacy river. At this place there was crucial railroad junction of tracks moving to Frederick and to the west as well as a bridge moving the tracks over the river and east to Baltimore. This was a part of the B&O main line.
Just as the confederates previously attempted to destroy the aqueduct where the C&O canal crossed the Monocacy river, they frequently chose the railroad bridge over the Monocacy as another favorite target. From this junction, Wallace could protect the critical bridge but he could also safely assume that the confederates would pass by on their way to either Baltimore or DC. It was a good place to make a nuisance for the invaders and it was a place from which he could also the move to defend either city.
At the junction there was also a covered bridge to take a roadway over the river. It was the only practical means of getting across the river if you weren’t on a train. Wallace’s 2,800 troops set in to protect the junction and the nearby bridges over the Monocacy river. Most of his troops were on the south bank of the river and Early was coming from the North.
By the morning of July 9, Early brought the first of his 15,000 confederate troops to within a mile of the junction and the bridges. He laid his artillery out between what is today the north end of the battlefield park, and an area to the southwest known as Best Farm, after the family that owned it. This picture is taken from Best farm. The canon you see is in the position that one of those confederate cannons would have been just after the first shots were fired. To the right of this picture, trees obscure the railroad tracks that run directly behind them and the river that runs just 100 feet or so beyond the tracks.
Lew Wallace, his men, and their 7 cannons would spend the day fighting off 15,000 confederates and 40 cannons. (only 19 of which were used) Outnumbered from the start, they had little chance of protecting the railroad assets. What they could do was use the geography of the area to delay Early as long as possible while Union troops continued to move from Petersburg up to DC, hoping to be in position to defend the city before Early could get there.
1 response so far ↓
1 shelly // Aug 24, 2010 at 10:30 AM
Pretty.
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