Existing comment:
Poolesville
Warm Reception
Antietam Campaign 1862
Located at the intersection of the two main roads, mid-19th century Poolesville was Montgomery County's second-largest town. Its residents had decidedly secessionist tendencies and many sons fighting for the South. In the fall of 1862, as the Confederates approached, the town was still recovering from a 15,000-man Union occupation one year before. A large group of inhabitants rushed to White's Ford, about five miles northwest, to welcome the Confederate liberators.
The first military action here took place on September 5, 1862. The advance of Brig. Gen. Fitzhugh Lee's Confederate cavalry brigade, fresh from the Potomac River crossing at Edward's Ferry, engaged a Union cavalry picket force. The running fight through the middle of town here left 43 dead and 4 wounded on the Confederate side and 48 Union troopers captured. Gen. Wade Hampton's Confederate cavalry brigade passed by here later that day without incident.
On September 8, a skirmish began a mile north between Illinois, Indiana, and Virginia cavalry units and continued to Beallsville. The Union lost one killed and 10 wounded, the Confederates 2 killed and 6 wounded.
Federal infantry soon arrived here. Couch's division, attached to the VI Corps, arrived in Poolesville from Seneca on September 10, and proceeded the next day to Barnesville.
Maj. Heros von Borcke reported that Poolesville residents gave their liberators an enthusiastic reception. Several young men, two of whom operated general stores, immediately sprang to horse and joined the army. The two shopkeepers first opened their stores and invited the soldiers to clean them out, accepting Confederate scrip for goods. |