BGuthrie Photos: MD -- Fox's Gap (Reno Monument, South Mountain)

MD -- Fox's Gap (Reno Monument, South Mountain):

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[1] FOXGAP_060903_03.JPG	[2] FOXGAP_060903_04.JPG	[3] FOXGAP_060903_08.JPG
[4] FOXGAP_060903_13.JPG	[5] FOXGAP_060903_19.JPG	[6] FOXGAP_060903_28.JPG
[7] FOXGAP_060903_32.JPG	[8] FOXGAP_060903_42.JPG	[9] FOXGAP_060903_50.JPG
[10] FOXGAP_060903_57.JPG	[11] FOXGAP_060903_64.JPG

Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. FOXGAP_060903_03.JPG: The Battle for Fox's Gap: "Hell is empty and all the devils are here": As Confederate Gen. D.H. Hill's division struggled to hold the gaps of South Mountain on September 14, 1862, the fighting here at Fox's Gap raged throughout the day. About 9am, Gen. Jesse L. Reno's corps attacked Confederate Gen. Samuel Garland's line approximately 3/4 of a mile south of here and began pushing the men north toward Fox's Gap. Sometime around midmorning, Garland fell mortally wounded and the Confederates scattered into the gap. The fighting died down at midday as both sides delivered more men to the contest. Hill sent two regiments of Gen. George B. Anderson's brigade to replace Garland's scattered forces. Union Gen. Jacob D. Cox posted his regiments south of here along the edge of Daniel Wise's field and waited for the remainder of Reno's corps to reinforce him. As more units arrived, Hill sent Gen. Thomas F. Drayton's and Col. George T. Anderson's brigades along the "wood road" to attack the Federals. They formed in the Sharpsburg Road and attacked about 4pm. B this time, the rest of Reno's corps had pulled itself up onto the mountain. As Draytons' men moved through Wise's open field, well-aimed Union volleys struck them from behind stone walls. The Federals then counterattacked, and some Georgia troops sheltering in the sunken road soon found themselves trapped. Outnumbered four to one and suffering 51 percent casualties, Draytons' brigade broke and fled down the mountain. Fox's Gap was in Union hands by 5:30pm.
2. FOXGAP_060903_04.JPG: Deaths of Two Generals: "Hello, Sam, I'm dead!" The fight for Fox's Gap on September 14, 1862, claimed the lives of two generals, one from each side. Confederate Gen. Samuel Garland, a Lynchburg, Virginia native, attended the Virginia Military Institute at Lexington and later obtained his law degree. Married in 1856, he suffered tragedy early in the war when both his wife and four-year-old son died in an influenza epidemic. Grief-stricken, he left Lynchburg as captain of the Lynchburg Home Guard, excelled during the Peninsula Campaign and Seven Days' Battles, and soon attained a general's rank. Charged with defending Fox's Gap, he fell mortally wounded y a bullet through his chest while rallying his men about 3/4 of a mile south of here. As evening fell and the Confederates fell back through the gap and off to the north, Union Gen. Jesse L. Reno rode by here and into the field across from Wise's cabin to investigate what he believed was a delay in the push for Turner's Gap. Just then, Gen. John Bell Hood's Texans arrived on the field and fired the final Confederate volley, mortally wounding Reno. Carried on a stretcher to his friend Gen. Samuel D. Sturgis's headquarters, Reno called to him, "Hallo, Sam, I'm dead!" A few minutes later he died, the first Union Corps commander killed during the war. His monument is the second oldest one erected for the Maryland Campaign.
3. FOXGAP_060903_08.JPG: The Maryland Campaign of 1862: On September 4, 1862, General Robert E. Lee, hoping to shorten the war by winning a decisive victory on Northern soil, crossed the Potomac River into Maryland. Lee planned to draw the Army of the Potomac through South Mountain into Pennsylvania and fight on ground of his choosing. His plan depending on securing his supply line down the Shenandoah Valley past Harpers Ferry -- then garrisoned by nearly 13,000 Federal troops. When the Federals did not withdraw, Lee decided to attack them. From his camp near Frederick, Maryland, he divided his army into five parts. Lee gambled he could take Harpers Ferry and regroup before the Federals realized what he had done. He sent three units under the command of General T. J. "Stonewall" Jackson from Frederick to Harpers Ferry. A fourth marched into Hagerstown to guard against a rumored movement of Union troops from Pennsylvania. A fifth unit formed the rear guard at Boonsboro. General George B. McClellan organized the Army of the Potomac into three wings and marched out of Washington along a twenty-five mile front. Learning that Lee's army was divided and marching in opposite directions well to the west, McClellan began his pursuit into western Maryland of September 11. Moving faster than Lee expected, he entered Catoctin Valley on the 13th and reached the foot of South Mountain on the 14th. The Battle of South Mountain smashed Lee's plan to invade Pennsylvania but did buy him time to concentrate his scattered army. Lee assembled his army at Sharpsburg and set up a defensive position behind Antietam Creek on the 15th. The Harpers Ferry garrison surrendered that morning. This event allowed Jackson to rejoin Lee. The Battle of Antietam was fought two days later.
4. FOXGAP_060903_13.JPG: The Lost Orders: No other document of the Civil War has generated so much controversy as Lee's Special Orders No. 191. These "Lost Orders" detailed the movements of Lee's army for the operation against Harpers Ferry. On September 9, Lee sent copies of the order to his subordinate commanders. The copy that General George B. McClellan read on September 13 was found by three Federal soldiers in an abandoned campsite near Frederick in an envelope wrapped around three cigars. The envelope was addressed to General. D. H. Hill. Due to confusion between General Lee's and General T.J. Jackson's headquarters over HIll's place in the chain of command, two copies of Special Orders No. 191 were sent to Hill. Hill received his copy from Jackson while the copy from Lee was lost. McClellan's good fortune permitted him to move with a certainty he had never before displayed. Lee was puzzled by McClellan's uncharacteristic speed and took actions to protect his army until it could be concentrated. Later, McClellan was criticized for not destroying Lee's army. Whatever criticism was due, it is unfair to argue that McClellan lost an opportunity presented to him by S.O. No. 191. By the time the Federals found the orders, they were already dated. Jackson was safely on the Confederate side of the Potomac and General James Longstreet could easily have crossed the Potomac at Williamsport. Had Lee chosen to seek safety across the Potomac, the Union troops in the Catoctin Valley could not have prevented him from doing so. On September 12, even before learning of S.O. No. 191, McClellan issued orders that would lead to the Battle of South Mountain. These orders placed the vanguard of General. Ambrose F. Burnside's troops in the Catoctin Valley on the 13th. McClellan's main force did not arrive at the foot of South Mountain until the 14th.
5. FOXGAP_060903_19.JPG: Confederate Brigadier General Samuel Garland's marker
6. FOXGAP_060903_28.JPG: The Reno monument
7. FOXGAP_060903_57.JPG: Stonewall Regiment: The 17th Michigan Volunteer Infantry Regiment was among the units of General Ambrose E. Burnside's 9th army corps that were engaged in battle here on September 14, 1862. The fighting began around 9am just south of this site. Around noon, a Confederate battery opened fire on the regiment, which was supporting Cook's Massachusetts Battery. The 17th held its position for several hours. At 4pm, the command was given for an assault along the entire Union line. The Confederates came out of the woods to meet the charge at a fence line in the middle of the field., then moved back to the stone walls along the crest of the hill. The 17th advanced and captured the stone walls. Of the 500 men of the "Stonewall Regiment" engaged in battle here, 27 were killed and 114 wounded, many mortally.
Wikipedia Description: Battle of South Mountain
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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. Three 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 Confederate General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. Despite being significantly outnumbered, Lee's army delayed McClellan's advance for a day before withdrawing.

Background:

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.

After Lee invaded Maryland, a copy of an order, known as order 191, detailing troop movements that he wrote fell into the hands of McClellan. From this, McClellan learned that Lee had split his forces and the Union general hoped to attack and defeat some of these isolated forces before they could concentrate against him. To reach Lee, McClellan had to move across South Mountain. Lee learned of McClellan's intelligence coup and quickly sent forces to reinforce the passes to block his advance.

McClellan temporarily organized his army into three wings for the attacks on the passes. Maj. Gen. Ambrose Burnside, the Right Wing, commanded the I Corps (Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker) and IX Corps (Maj. Gen. Jesse L. Reno). The Right Wing was sent to Turner's Gap and Fox's Gap in the north. The Left Wing, commanded by Maj. Gen. William B. Franklin, consisting of his own VI Corps and Maj. Gen. Darius N. Couch's division of the IV Corps, was sent to Crampton's Gap in the south. The Center Wing (II Corps and XII Corps), under Maj. Gen. Edwin V. Sumner, was in reserve.

Battles:

Crampton's Gap:

At the southernmost point of the battle, near Burkittsville, Confederate cavalry and a small portion of Maj. Gen. Lafayette McLaws's division defended Brownsville Pass and Crampton's Gap. McLaws was unaware of the approach of 12,000 Federals and had only 500 men under Col. William A. Parham thinly deployed behind a three quarter-mile-long stone wall at the eastern base of Crampton's Gap. Franklin spent three hours deploying his forces. A Confederate later wrote of a "lion making exceedingly careful preparations to spring on a plucky little mouse." Franklin deployed the division of Maj. Gen. Henry W. Slocum on the right and Maj. Gen. William F. "Baldy" Smith on the left. They seized the gap and captured 400 prisoners, mostly men who were arriving as late reinforcements from Brig. Gen. Howell Cobb's brigade.

Turner's Gap:

Confederate Maj. Gen. D.H. Hill, deploying 5,000 men over more than 2 miles, defended both Turner's Gap and Fox's Gap. Burnside sent Hooker's I Corps to the right and Turner's Gap. The Union Iron Brigade attacked Colonel Alfred H. Colquitt's small brigade along the National Road, driving it back up the mountain, but it refused to yield the pass. Hooker positioned three divisions opposite two peaks located one mile north of the gap. The Alabama Brigade of Brig. Gen. Robert E. Rodes was forced to withdraw because of his isolated position, despite the arrival of reinforcements from Brig. Gen. David R. Jones's division and Brig. Gen. Nathan G. Evans's brigade. Darkness and the difficult terrain prevented the complete collapse of Lee's line. At nightfall, the Confederates still held the gap.

Fox's Gap:

Just to the south, other elements of Hill's division defended Fox's Gap against Reno's IX Corps. A 9 a.m. attack by Union Brig. Gen. Jacob D. Cox's Kanawha Division secured much of the land south of the gap. In the movement, Lt. Col. Rutherford B. Hayes of the 23rd Ohio led a flank attack and was seriously wounded. Cox pushed through the North Carolinians positioned behind a stone wall at the gap's crest, but he 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, but due to the timely arrival of Southern reinforcements under Confederate Brig. Gen. John Bell Hood, they failed to dislodge the defenders. Union Maj. Gen. Jesse Reno and Confederate Brig. Gen. Samuel Garland, Jr., were killed at Fox's Gap. Union soldiers dumped 60 Confederate bodies down Farmer Wise's well, paying him $60 in compensation.

Aftermath:

By dusk, with Crampton's Gap lost and his position at Fox's and Turner's Gaps precarious, Lee ordered his outnumbered forces to withdraw from South Mountain. McClellan was now in position to destroy Lee's army before it could concentrate. Union casualties of 28,000 engaged were 2,325 (443 killed, 1,807 wounded, and 75 missing); Confederates lost 2,685 (325 killed, 1560 wounded, and 800 missing) of 18,000. 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.
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