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Copyrights: All pictures were taken by amateur photographer Bruce Guthrie (me!) who retains copyright on them. Free for non-commercial use with attribution. See the [Creative Commons] definition of what this means. "Photos (c) Bruce Guthrie" is fine for attribution. (Commercial use folks can of course contact me.) Feel free to use in publications and pages with attribution but you don't have permission to sell the photos themselves. A free copy of any printed publication using any photographs is requested. Descriptive text, if any, is from a mixture of sources, quite frequently from signs at the location or from official web sites; copyrights, if any, are retained by their original owners.
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MONOGM_120115_003.JPG: Gambrill Mill
Mill owner James H. Gambrill used his wits to survive the turmoil. A Southern sympathizer, he sold flour to Northern troops as they set up their line of defense on his land. During the battle he took refuge inside the mill with Samuel S. Thomas and two friends who had escaped their four-day impressment in the Union army. The Federals turned the mill into a makeshift field hospital even though it was under near-constant fire. When the fighting ended, the four men emerged from their hiding place under the waterwheel. Gambrill and his mill had survived the Battle of Monocacy.
The neat, well-appointed mill was up-to-the-minute, and its output was greatly appreciated in the homes of a considerable radius. It was pleasure to accompany the big wagon team...to Gambrill's."
-- J.W. Dixon.
MONOGM_120115_006.JPG: Monocacy National Battlefield
Here on farmlands bordering the Monocacy River, the fate of the nation's capital was decided July 9, 1864, when Union troops confronted Confederate soldiers marching toward Washington. Though the Confederates won this battle on Northern soil, they lost an opportunity to attack the capital city while it was lightly defended.
This National Park System site preserves the Maryland countryside where this crucial engagement took place. Wayside exhibits interpreting the sequence of major events in the day-long battle are located at key sites. Further information about touring the historic landscape by car and foot is available in the visitor center.
MONOGM_120115_009.JPG: Monocacy National Battlefield
The Battle that Saved Washington
In the summer of 1864, Confederate Lieutenant General Jubal Early launched a campaign down the Shenandoah Valley with a corps of approximately 15,000 troops. The campaign was a last attempt to carry the war to the north and relieve some pressure from General Robert E. Lee in the south. Early's ultimate objective was to march down the Valley, to swing to the east into Maryland, and to attack and capture Washington, D.C. from the north.
Learning of the advance of Early's troops, Union Major General Lew Wallace hastily organized a force of 5,800 men here at Monocacy Junction in an attempt to delay Early's advance on the Capital. On July 9, 1864 Confederate and Union forces met here on the battlefield. After a series of attacks throughout the day, the Confederates prevailed and drove the Federal troops back toward Baltimore.
Although this battle was a victory for the Confederates, it was also in a key respect a defeat. Time spent at the battle cost the Confederates a day's delay in marching on the Federal Capital, exhausted Early's troops, and provided time for the Union to reinforce Washington's defenses. Lieutenant General Early's raid was thus thwarted and the remainder of the war took place in the south. Because of Major General Wallace's valiant delaying action, the Battle of Monocacy has come to be known as the "Battle that Saved Washington."
Things to See and Do in the Park:
Please enjoy a self-guided auto tour of the battlefield – about 6 miles round trip. The auto tour takes about 30 minutes with waysides at each of 5 stops. These waysides provide an overview of the battle in the order in which events unfolded. Here at Gambrill Mill, and at stops 3 and 4 on the auto tour, are walking trails to enhance your visit.
MONOGM_120115_042.JPG: Burning of the Bridge
12:00 noon July 9, 1864
Confederates wearing captured blue uniforms had killed or wounded several Union skirmishers who had been sent across the Monocacy River to hold the Georgetown Turnpike and B&O Railroad bridges "at all hazards."
The two sides traded shots all morning, but about noon Union Maj. Gen. Lew Wallace could see that the Confederates were about to overwhelm his troops. He ordered the wooden covered bridge set ablaze. Wallace had delayed the enemy, but he also had trapped his own men across the river.
Previously, men of the company had gathered sheaves of wheat from the nearby field, and had stacked them under the bridge's southeast corner. The combustibles were fired ...and the bridge was soon engulfed in flames.
-- Pvt. Alfred S. Roe, New York Heavy Artillery
MONOGM_120115_044.JPG: Fleeing for Their Lives
8:30 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. July 9, 1864
Distressed that their main escape route had been burned, the stranded Federal skirmishers fought on as they faced periodic Confederate attacks. Late in the afternoon, they gradually fell back towards the Baltimore & Ohio bridge.
About 5:00 p.m., they noticed their compatriots retreating across the Gambrill Mill property toward the Baltimore Pike and fled across the railroad bridge to join them. The skirmishers had protected the Union center and the escape route toward Baltimore. "Your people," Maj. Gen. Lew Wallace wrote 1st Lt. George E. Davis, "held their position with great tenacity."
... we kept together and crossed the railroad bridge, stepping upon the ties, there being no floor. The enemy were at our heels, and before we could get away...[took some] prisoners. One man fell through the bridge to the river, forty feet below, and was taken to Andersonville.
-- 1st Lt. George E. Davis
MONOGM_120115_064.JPG: Gambrill House
James H. Gambrill prospered as a miller after the Civil War, and the family moved up in the world - from a modest dwelling on the lowlands near the mill to this 17-room house on the hill. The three-story frame structure, built about 1872, has mansard roof and central tower distinctive of Second Empire mansions. From their elegant new home, called Edgewood, the Gambrills had excellent views of their milling and farming operations, the City of Frederick, and the Catoctin Mountains.
Historic Preservation Training Center
The Gambrill building now houses the National Park Service's Historic Preservation Training Center. The center is dedicated to the preservation and maintenance of historic structures of the National Park Service and its partners by demonstrating outstanding leadership in preservation education and skills and crafts development.
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I still have them though. If you want me to email them to you, please send an email to guthrie.bruce@gmail.com
and I can email them to you, or, depending on the number of images, just repost the page again will the full-sized images.
Directly Related Pages: Other pages with content (MD -- Monocacy Natl Battlefield -- Gambrill's Mill) directly related to this one:
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2012 photos: Equipment this year: My mainstays were the Fuji S100fs, Nikon D7000, and the new Fuji X-S1. I also used an underwater Fuji XP50 and a Nikon D600. The first three cameras all broke this year and had to be repaired.
Trips this year:
three Civil War Trust conferences (Shepherdstown, WV, Richmond, VA, and Williamsburg, VA),
a week-long family reunion cruise of the Caribbean,
another week-long family reunion in the Wisconsin Dells (with lots of in-transit time in Ohio and Indiana), and
my 7th consecutive San Diego Comic-Con trip (including side trips to Zion, Bryce, the Grand Canyon, etc).
Ego strokes: I had a picture of Miss DC, Ashley Boalch, published in the Washington Post. I had a photograph of the George Segal San Francisco Holocaust memorial used as the cover of Quebec Francais (issue 165). Not being able to read French, I'm not entirely sure what the article is about but, hey! And I guess what could be considered to be a positive thing, my site is now established enough that spammers have noticed it and I had to block 17,000 file description postings for Viagra and whatever else..
Number of photos taken this year: just below 410,000.
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