Existing comment:
Confederates Invade Maryland
7:00 a.m, July 9, 1864
Confederate troops under Lt. Gen. Jubal A. Early streamed through the gaps of South Mountain and the Catoctins and headed south past Frederick. Bound for Washington, D.C., they were stopped here at the Best family farm by Union troops defending the bridges over the Monocacy River.
General Early decided a head-on attack would be too costly and spread his men across these farmlands. While Maj. Gen. Stephen D. Ramseur pinned down the Union center, Early sent Brig. Gen. John McCausland and Maj. Gen. John C. Breckinridge around to the southwest, hoping to find a place to ford the river and attack the Union's left flank.
"The men took off blankets, oilcloths, etc., and stretched them in fence corners, on muskets and rails, to make a shelter from the sun...in the road and on a hill which overlooked the battle that was about to be fought in our front."
-- 1st Sgt. John H. Worsham, 21st Virgina. |