Maryland Campaign  "Struggle At South Mountain"  September 3 - 22, 1862

On the night of September 13, 1862, a mysterious spy informed Confederate Gen. Jeb Stuart that Union army commander Gen. George B. McClellan had a copy of the orders that detailed the disposition of Gen. Robert E. Lee's divided Confederate army. The spy had been at Union army headquarters in Frederick, MD, and had seen McClellan exultantly wave the orders and exclaim, "Here is a paper with which if I cannot whip Bobby Lee, I will be willing to go home." Lee's army, which was making its first grand invasion of Northern territory, was split into five forces and widely scattered over a 30-mile area from Harpers Ferry, VA, to Hagerstown, MD. Lee, whom Stuart had quickly informed of the spy's report, knew he faced the piecemeal destruction of his army if it were not promptly brought together.

Lee sent messages to the three forces besieging Harpers Ferry, urging them to capture that Union post and return to Maryland as soon as possible. To his two divisions near Hagerstown, Lee sent a message to march southward at first light to Turner's Gap in South Mountain, which was the path McClellan's army would have to travel from Frederick. To hold Turner's Gap until reinforcements could arrive, Lee had only Stuart's cavalry and one infantry division.

At 9:00 A.M. on Sunday, September 14, the Battle of South Mountain began. The vastly outnumbered Confederate forces suffered tremendous casualties, but reinforced in the late afternoon by the two divisions from Hagerstown, they held the strategic position throughout the day. Only at nightfall, after both of their flanks had been enveloped, did they retreat. Farther to the south, at Crampton's Gap, Union forces broke through the Rebel defenses, but their commander did not push on to attack the rear of the Confederates besieging Harpers Ferry. The hard fighting had bought Lee the time he needed to pull together part of his army. He made plans to retreat back into Virginia, but changed them the next morning when he received word that Harpers Ferry had been captured.

Fascinating Fact:  The capture of Harpers Ferry gained the Confederacy 13,000 small arms, 73 cannon, 10,000 Union prisoners, and vast amounts of much-needed supplies.


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