Battle of South Mountain
|
|
The Battle of South Mountain (known in several early Southern accounts as the Battle of Boonsboro Gap) was fought September 14, 1862, as part of the Maryland Campaign of the American Civil War.
South Mountain is the name given to the continuation of the Blue Ridge Mountains after they enter Maryland. It is a natural obstacle that separates the Shenandoah Valley and Cumberland Valley from the eastern part of Maryland.
On September 14, pitched battles were fought for possession of three South Mountain passes: Crampton's, Turner's, and Fox's Gaps. Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan, commanding the Union Army of the Potomac, needed to pass through these gaps in his pursuit of Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia.
Confederate generals D.H. Hill and James Longstreet defended Turner's Gap against Joseph Hooker's I Corps. The Union Iron Brigade attacked Alfred H. Colquitt's small brigade along the National Road, driving it back up the mountain. To the north, George G. Meade's division and the rest of the corps steadily advanced, but at nightfall, the Confederates still held the gap. Hill and Longstreet withdrew under cover of darkness.
Just to the south, other elements of Hill's division defended Fox's Gap against Jesse Reno's IX Corps. An attack in the morning by Union General Jacob Cox secured much of the land south of the gap, but Cox failed to capitalize on his gains as his men were exhausted, allowing Confederate reinforcements to deploy in the gap around the Daniel Wise farm. Reno sent forward the rest of his corps and finally cleared Fox's Gap in the late evening, despite the timely arrival of Southern reinforcements under John Bell Hood. Union general Jesse Reno and Confederate general Samuel Garland, Jr., were killed at Fox's Gap. Union soldiers allegedly dumped 58 Confederate bodies down farmer Wise's well.
Still further south, Southern cavalry and a small portion of Lafayette McLaws's division defended Brownsville Pass and Crampton's Gap near Burkittsville. William B. Franklin's VI Corps carried Crampton's Gap after a series of determined attacks.
By dusk, the Confederate defenders were driven back from South Mountain, suffering severe casualties, and McClellan was in position to destroy Lee's army before it could concentrate. McClellan's limited activity on September 15 after his victory at South Mountain, however, condemned the garrison at Harpers Ferry to capture and gave Lee time to unite his scattered divisions at Sharpsburg.
References
- National Park Service battle description (http://www.cr.nps.gov/hps/abpp/battles/md002.htm)