24. Monocacy National Battlefield, Maryland

               Hello and welcome back to our blog.  In this post, we return to western Maryland to another Civil War locale, Monocacy National Battlefield.

Entrance Sign

BACKGROUND:

               In the summer of 1864, with General Ulysses S. Grant continuing to push to take the Confederate capital of Richmond, the Confederates hoped to turn the tables on the Union by risking a bold lightning attack on the now lightly defended District of Columbia.  A Confederate army under the command of Jubal Early, swept out of the Shenandoah Valley to attack the national capital from the northwest.  Most of the garrison of Washington D.C. had been stripped from the city’s fortifications and sent to the front, leaving the capital dangerously unguarded.  As Early’s army came over the mountains of western Maryland, panic gripped the Union command as they desperately moved to counter the threat.  A small force cobbled together from available units was put under the command of Union General Lew Wallace, who would gain post-war fame as the author of the epic novel Ben-Hur, assembled ready to stall the Confederates along the banks of the Monocacy river south of the town of Frederick, Maryland.

Personal items belonging to General Lew Wallace, on display in the visitor center.

               On the morning of July 9^th, 1864, the Confederates marched south from Frederick to seize two bridges, one a vital railroad bridge, across the Monocacy river on the road to Washington.  Union troops skirmished north of the river before falling back across the river and burning the two bridges to prevent their use by the Confederates.  However, Confederate cavalry were able to find a shallow crossing to the west of the bridges and forded the river.  Fortunately for the Union, they detected the Confederates and ambushed them, forcing them back.  More Confederates arrived pushing the Union troops further back and threatening to flank them.  At this point, Wallace ordered his men to retreat.  While the Union had been defeated, Wallace’s scratch force had accomplished their mission of buying time for Union reinforcements to secure Washington.

The modern road bridge over the Monocacy river at the same location as the original covered bridge that was burned by Union troops during the battle.

               The Monocacy battlefield lay mostly forgotten until a bill for its creation as a National Park Service unit passed Congress in 1934.  Even then, the battlefield sat there mostly empty until the 1970s when a more active campaign to preserve the area was waged following the decision to construct Interstate 270 right across the middle of the battlefield.

THE BATTLEFIELD:

A view of the northern half of the battlefield from the visitor center.

               Monocacy National Battlefield lies at the southern edge of the town of Frederick, Maryland, on both the north and south banks of the Monocacy river.  The area along the north bank has been encroached upon the city development, but the area around the southern bank retains the rural look the area had in 1864.  The battlefield preserves several historic houses that existed on the land at the time of the battle, as well as a handful of monuments erected following the war.  The railroad line and the road to Washington D.C. still cross the battlefield in the exact same locations as in 1864.  The park also contains several trails across the battlefield, and the visitor center is located on the northern edge of the battlefield just off of Maryland Route 355.  The visitor center contains exhibits and artifacts from the battle as well as a topographical light-board which demonstrates the positions of the armies during the course of the battle.

 

A photo of the topographical light board in the visitor center.  The red lights represent Confederate units, blue Union.

TRAVEL TIPS:

               Monocacy National Battlefield is open year-round with holiday exceptions from 9am to 5pm.  The battlefield is within a short drive from the nearby NPS units of Antietam NB and Harpers Ferry NHP, and is roughly a little over an hour’s drive outside of Washington D.C.  The visitor center and some of the trails are handicapped accessible.  Passport stamps can be found in the visitor center.

ADDITIONAL PHOTOS:

The monument at the battlefield to Union troops from Pennsylvania.

The Thomas Farm at the center of the battlefield's southern half where most of the fighting took place.

A view from the Thomas farm looking west in the direction from which the Confederates attacked.

The Worthington House, near the western edge of the battlefield.  Confederate Cavalry forded to the river to the rear of the house and were ambushed by Union troops in the vicinity of the house.