History

1862 Antietam Campaign: Lee Invades Maryland starts in Virginia and winds 90 miles north and west through Montgomery, Frederick and Washington Counties. From Sharpsburg, the trail tracks Lee’s retreat into Shepherdstown.

Swatting swarms of gnats and mosquitoes—a minor annoyance compared to hardships endured by soldiers, some shoeless, clothed in wool, marching beneath a blazing sun or through a muddy downpour—I set out from White’s Ferry, skirting along the C & O Canal towpath to White’s Ford where Lee and his army of 40,000 men crossed the Potomac on September 5 and 6.

While Lee marched toward Frederick, Confederate Cavalry General James Ewell Brown “JEB” Stuart swung his mounted troopers north, creating a protective arc that stretched from Poolesville to New Market. From Poolesville, I follow Stuart’s ride into Beallsville and Barnesville. These small western Montgomery County towns, as well as the surrounding pastoral landscape—part of Montgomery County’s 91,000 acre Agricultural Reserve—have remained relatively unchanged since the days when Stuart successfully drove off the Union Cavalry in a series of running horse-back skirmishes up and down present day Route 109.

With his dark cinnamon beard and plumed feathered hat, Stuart was the epitome of the dashing Southern cavalier. Although a teetotaler who abstained from tobacco use, JEB Stuart loved a good party. The Landon House along Route 355 in Urbana was the site of the Sabers and Roses Ball, a soiree hosted by Stuart.

"What a capital place for us to give a ball in honor of our arrival in Maryland!" he declared. Reports of Union Cavalry in the area, however, cut short the festivities. Following a skirmish in Hyattstown, Stuart, undeterred, returned to the Landon House where the party resumed.

If characters like JEB Stuart had not been committed to the pages of history, they most certainly would fall off the pages of fiction.

“It’s the ultimate American novel,” says Don Pierce, editor of the Virginia based newspaper, Civil War Traveler. “It becomes better and better the more you know the characters and the more you know the outline of events.”

Pierce adds, “I’m interested in the stories of the soldiers and how these things came to be—which is one thing I think is great about the trail system. How did they come to meet at a place like Sharpsburg? I think those are the questions the trail system, at least partially, answers.”

When traveling the Civil War trails in central and western Maryland, Frederick and Hagerstown serve as nice staging areas. The Antietam and Gettysburg trails overlap, and there are multiple trail sites in the historic districts of both cities.

Antietam continues west along the Historic National Road through Middletown. That’s where I head south on Route 17 along the trail’s “alternative” path to rustic Burkittsville and onto Crampton’s Gap, one of three mountain passes along the Appalachian Trail that served as the rugged fighting grounds for the Battle of South Mountain, a day long battle fought on September 14. Although overshadowed by the Battle of Antietam three days later, the Battle of South Mountain would mark the first major engagement between the two armies on Northern soil.

“There’s a lot of history between where Lee crossed the Potomac into Maryland and where he re-crossed it back into Shepherdstown,” says John Howard, superintendent of Antietam National Battlefield. “The trail maps provide an opportunity for folks to see not only the historical route but what towns and communities are nearby. There are some great stories of the war, not to mention a lot of services that are available to visitors. Man does not live by history alone. You got to have a hamburger every once in a while.”

Antietam National Battlefield is sublime with its pristine landscapes, solitary monuments, sunken road, and overwhelming silence. It has become the model in the on-going struggle to preserve hallowed ground throughout the country.

“It’s a simple place to come back to and forget your emails and everything else, and sort of step back in time and allow yourself to remember the type of sacrifice that kept us together as a nation,” Howard says.

On September 17, 1862, 40,000 Confederates squared-off with a Union Army twice their size in the bloodiest single day in American history. In twelve hours, over 23,000 troops were killed or wounded. Five days after the battle, Lincoln issued the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, which went into effect January 1, 1863, freeing slaves in the Southern states.

“From when this battle started,” Howard says, “the nation, whether it knew it or not, was beginning an even greater revolution.”

To read the introduction to this series of On the Path of Remembrance - click here.