MD -- Monocacy Natl Battlefield -- Thomas Farm ("Araby") (incl VT and PA monuments):
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- Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
- MONOTH_030628_10.JPG: This is a monument to the Vermont troops who fought here. The plaque says "This monument was erected by the State of Vermont to designate the position of the Tenth Vermont Infantry during the battle fought here on the ninth day of July 1884 to save Washington 'and we saved it,' seven companies occupied the Washington Pike, while three companies occupied the Buckeystown Road opposite the Thomas house. 1915" Behind the monument is the Thomas farm itself.
- MONOTH_030628_17.JPG: This is a useful map because it shows you the entire battle scene on July 9 1864. Locate the three main farms -- Best, Worthington, and Thomas. Now, put I-270 just to the left of the Thomas Farm and to the right of the Worthington Farm and you'll see how the battlefield's modern-day appearance has totally destroyed the view of the place.
- MONOTH_030628_22.JPG: Thomas Farm
Col. C. Keefer Thomas, a businessman, should have stayed in Baltimore. He was so sure a war eventually would rage around that city that he moved his family to this 240-acre farm, called Araby. Soon troops were marching through or camping here in the fields where the Thomases raised corn, wheat, and other crops with slave labor. During the Battle of Monocacy, the family fled to the cellar as artillery shells and rifle shots tore up the house.
"There was not a moment for four years when there were not from 4,000 to 14,000 soldiers camped on or near my farm. At the end of the war I had hardly a fence on my place, but I was glad to get a little of the quiet for which I had left the city.
-- C. Keefer Thomas
A Meeting Place
In June 1863, a year before the battle, Union Maj. Gen. Winfield S. Hancock established his headquarters here at the Thomas farm for three days while his troops were heading north to Gettysburg.
In August 1864, a month after the battle, Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant met with Maj. Gen. Philip H. Sheridan and other military leaders at Araby to map plans for the Shenandoah Valley campaign.
- MONOTH_030628_27.JPG: Federal Retreat
4:30-5:00 p.m. July 9, 1864
The Northerners held, then lost, then retook the Thomas house grounds as the fighting ebbed and flowed in the stifling heat. Casualties mounted quickly on both sides. Union Maj. Gen. Lew Wallace could see that his numbers were dwindling and that the Confederates were coming in waves. Wallace gave the order to retreat.
"Under a raking of fire of both musketry and artillery," his troops pulled back and fled to the northeast past Gambrill Mill to the road to Baltimore. The Confederates had won the battle, but the Union had won a critical one-day delay in Lt. Gen. Jubal A. Early's attempted raid on Washington.
Total Casualties
Estimates vary greatly for troops and casualties in the Battle of Monocacy. The Union had approximately 5,800 men and suffered 1,294 killed, wounded, or missing. The Confederates had 15,000 to 16,000 troops and 700 to 900 casualties.
- MONOTH_030628_32.JPG: This is the Thomas farm, also known as Araby. In 1860, C Keefer Thomas moved his family from Baltimore to here because he was sure that Baltimore was going to erupt in fighting. During the battle here, they were forced to hide in the basement. A quote from Thomas is on one of the markers there: "There was not a moment for four years when there were not from 4,000 to 14,000 soldiers camped on or neat my farm. At the end of the war, I had hardly a fence on my place, but I was glad to get a little of the quiet for which I had left the city." In 1862, Winfield Hancock, a Union general, had used this house as his headquarters on the way to Antietam. In 1864, a month after the Monocacy battle, Grant and Sheridan met here to discuss how Sheridan would destroy Early's troops once and for all.
- MONOTH_030628_34.JPG: Gordon's Decisive Attack
3:00-4:30 p.m. July 9, 1864
So profuse was the flow of blood from the killed and wounded of both sides of these forces that it reddened the stream [on the Thomas Farm] for more than 100 yards below.
Maj. Gen. John B. Gordon
The first Confederate troops to cross the Monocacy River had been repulsed by the Federals massing across the Thomas farm. Then Maj. Gen. John B. Gordon's infantry emerged over the crest of Brooks Hill and with rebel yells and flying banners, swept down the hill toward the farm.
Gordon ordered his three brigades to attack sequentially from right to left. Union volleys ravaged the first brigade and bloodied the second. But the third brigade and other Confederate units drove the Federals off the Thomas farm and forced them into a general retreat toward Gambrill Mill.
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