MD -- Monocacy Natl Battlefield -- Thomas Farm ("Araby") (incl VT and PA monuments):
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MONOTH_121021_008.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_121021_011.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_121021_016.JPG: Thick of the Battle
4:00 - 4:30 p.m. July 9, 1864
The Battle of Monocacy changed from a stalemate to a rout as the final lines of Maj. Gen. John B. Gordon's three Confederate brigades swept down Brooks Hill onto the fields of Thomas farm. Both sides traded blistering gunfire around the Thomas house and outbuildings and along the ridge toward the Monocacy River. Numerous soldiers and officers lay dead or wounded on the fields and in the streams. Running low on ammunition, Union troops fell back to the Georgetown Pike (today's Route 355) and toward the Gambrill Mill area as Maj. Gen. Lew Wallace gave the order to retreat. Meanwhile, across the river, Confederate Lt. Gen. Jubal A. Early's troops under Maj. Gen. Stephen D. Ramseur drove back a small Federal force across the railroad bridge.
MONOTH_121021_062.JPG: 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 1864 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
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2019_MD_Mono_Thomas: MD -- Monocacy Natl Battlefield -- Thomas Farm ("Araby") (incl VT and PA monuments) (3 photos from 2019)
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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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