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It is well known that Maryland's State Forests and Parks are home
to a rich variety of cultural and historical resources. But did you
know that one of the areas managed by the Department of Natural Resources
was actually the site of a Civil War battle? Gathland State Park,
nestled in the first ridge of the Appalachians just west of historic
Frederick, was the scene of a little known yet quite noteworthy conflict,
the Battle of South Mountain.
South Mountain is often overlooked by the Civil War novice, overshadowed
by the atrocities of the Battle of Antietam (near Sharpsburg), which
took place three days later and resulted in a loss of 23,000 men.
As battles go, it was not one of the larger ones, with approximately
13,000 Confederates and 36,000 Federals involved. Nor was it one
of the costliest, with about 2,900 casualties for the South versus
2,340 for the North -- roughly the same number as the Battle of
First Manassas. The battle's significance is in the fact that the
Army of Northern Virginia's first campaign north was stopped not
at Antietam, but here in the rugged mountain gaps of South Mountain.
It was the late summer of 1862. Following a shocking Federal defeat
at Second Manassas, General Robert E. Lee felt the time was right
to carry the war into the North, hoping to take advantage of the
region's waning sentiment toward the war and possibly influencing
Northerners to pressure their government to sue for peace.
Virginia had been ravaged by the conflict and Lee, desperate to
feed and outfit his poorly supplied army, found the ripening crops
in neighboring Maryland a strong lure. Further, he knew that if
he was able to sustain a campaign in the North, perhaps even gaining
a major victory there, the foreign powers of England and France
might finally recognize the Confederacy as an independent nation.
The stakes were high on September 4 as General Lee and his army
crossed the Potomac into Maryland, proceeding north. They eventually
camped in and around the small town of Frederick, where Lee prepared
and issued Special Order 191 detailing his plan to divide his army
into five parts.
Major
Generals Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson and Lafayette
McLaws, along with Brigadier General John G. Walker, were to surround
and contain a 12,000 man Union garrison at Harper's Ferry, preventing
any interference to Lee's supply and communication lines.
At the same time, Major General James Longstreet would lead a
supply mission through Boonsboro and Hagerstown, while Major General
Daniel Harvey Hill's command was left to guard the rear of the
army along the South Mountain passes.
As the Confederate plan went into effect, the Army of the Potomac,
under the command of General George B. McClellan, moved into the
area around Frederick that the rebel army had just vacated. In
one of the war's more memorable twists, Union soldiers stumbled
upon a copy of Lee's Special Order 191 wrapped around a bundle
of cigars in a field on the neighboring Best Farm. This discovery
allowed McClellan to move with uncharacteristic speed to catch
Lee while the Confederate army was still divided.
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