Civil War Sunday - From Monocacy to Ben-Hur

It's such a peaceful place now, the Monocacy Civil War battlefield near Frederick, Maryland.

But the area was anything but peaceful in July of 1864.


Maryland was a slave state, a border state, that did not secede.  It would pay for its decision.  And, like in all border states, residents fought for both sides.

The Sharpsburg Fire Department logo shows the Civil War connection

Maryland was invaded by Confederates in 1862 and 1863.  In 1862 the Battle of Antietam at Sharpsburg, Maryland resulted in a Union victory and a retreat back to Virginia for the rebels.  In 1863, the Confederates reached as far as Gettysburg, Pennsylvania,and were beaten at the three day July Battle of Gettysburg.

But the Confederates were not finished yet.  In 1864, their plan was to capture Washington DC, the capital of the United States, a capital that lay one river (the Potomac) away from the Confederate border.  They would do this by approaching from Maryland.

And who was there to defend the Capital?  Washington, DC was heavily fortified, but, as it turned out, not heavily enough.  And not only that, but:

Things were not going well in the Civil War.  It had been going on for three bloody years.  Hundreds of thousands of people killed, wounded, missing, held prisoner, dying from disease, wounds, and starvation.  And, it was an election year.  It may see a certainty to us in 2014 that Abraham Lincoln would be reelected, but it wasn't certain in July of 2014.

The Union was stalemated on several fronts.  And now, the Confederates had invaded.
Who was standing in their way?

Some Union troops, led by a previously disgraced general, General Lew Wallace. Wallace, a former governor of Indiana, had seen battle at Ft Donelson and at Shiloh, in Tennessee (another border state) in 1862.  At Shiloh, some of his actions were controversial.  He was removed from command and reassigned in disgrace.  Eventually, he ended up at Monocacy Junction, facing a much larger, and more experienced, Confederate Army.


Washington, DC needed some time, enough time to get more troops into the area to defend it.  Would they get it?

On July 9,1864, the Confederates, under the command of Jubal Early, won the Battle of Monocacy. (Monocacy is named after a river that is a tributary of the Potomac River.) The Union suffered some 1300 casualties in this battle that many have never heard of.    There is a wonderful description of the background of the battle, and the battle itself, here.

This is part of the battlefield today.

Wildflowers, in September of 2012.

The battlefield itself is free, and well worth the visit.

A display in the Visitors Center.

The Confederates were delayed a day.  They lost at Ft. Stevens, inside the District of Columbia (the "DC" of Washington, DC, which is not technically in any state) on July 11-12, a battle witnessed by Abraham Lincoln. After their loss, the Confederates retreated still again.  It can safely be said that the delay at Monocacy Junction saved our nation's capital from falling into Confederate hands.

General Grant later wrote in his memoirs:

"If Early had been but one day earlier, he might have entered the capital before the arrival of the reinforcements I had sent. ... General Wallace contributed on this occasion by the defeat of the troops under him, a greater benefit to the cause than often falls to the lot of a commander of an equal force to render by means of a victory."

So, what did this all have to do with Ben-Hur?

 In 1880, the disgraced General Lew Wallace finished a book called "Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ."  It became a best seller, topping even the sales of a novel that influenced the country in the years before the Civil War, "Uncle Tom's Cabin". Ben-Hur remained the all time best selling American novel until replaced by a Civil War epic novel, "Gone with the Wind".

In 1959, Ben-Hur was made into an epic movie, starring Charleston Heston as Ben-Hur.  It has been seen, and loved, by millions.  I read the book a very long time ago.  I've seen the movie many times.

From disgrace to helping to save our Nation's capital to Ben-Hur. Not bad as a legacy.

Civil War Sunday - Just A Piece of Paper

It was just a piece of paper.

A 150 year old lost piece of paper, returned to near where it was found 150 years ago.  Big deal.  Well, to some of us, it is a big deal.

The losing and the finding may have changed history, although historians of the Civil War still debate that.

This piece of paper was written on around September 9, 1862, during Robert E. Lee's invasion of Maryland in what is now known as the Maryland campaign.  General Lee's decision to move the war into Federal territory was a gamble.  His goal was to move north, enlist the support of the people of state of Maryland (many of which had Confederate sympathies), and eventually capture Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

With Harrisburg captured, Lee planned to use the capture as a bargaining chip to end the war, with the Confederacy granted the status of a separate country. 

So, around September 9, 1862, Lee formulated plans to split his army, the Army of Northern Virginia, into various parts.  Each part was given a goal.  Lee's adjunct, Robert Chilton, wrote the order, Lee endorsed it, and the orders were distributed to the various generals under Lee's command in this campaign.  Several copies of the order, each handwritten with Lee's plans.

There was just one tiny problem.

An extra copy was made.  There is some confusion concerning why, and who was responsible for losing it, but history records that on September 13, 1862, a corporal of the 27th Indiana Volunteers discovered this piece of paper, wrapped around two cigars (some accounts say three, but it is immaterial), near the Best Farm near Frederick, Maryland.  At first, no doubt the soldier and his companion thought they was greatly in luck in finding some cigars.

Then they started to read the paper.

That is the piece of paper, containing what is known as Special Orders, No. 191, that was quickly moved up the chain of Federal command and finally into the hands of Major General George McClellan, the head of the Army of the Potomac.

McClellan held the dream of any commanding general - the plans of his opponent.

Oops.  (and what happened after that is another story I will not get into today....but the end result was the bloodiest one day in the history of our country, the Battle of Antietam.)

But then, as a famous commentator of the 20th century liked to say, there is the Rest of the Story, the part I really like.

General McClellan kept what historians now call the Lost Order, in his own private collection. After he died, his son donated it to the Library of Congress.

And, this past September, I was privileged to see the Lost Order, on a rare public exhibit, at the Monocacy Battlefield.

You see, that Best Farm ended up in the midst of an 1864 battle, the Battle of Monocacy (named after a nearby river), a small battle that is sometimes overlooked, but although a Confederate victory, prevented a Confederate invasion of Washington, DC.

Photography of the Lost Order was not permitted but if you go to both Monocacy and to Antietam, you will see plaques with pictures of the order.  The handwriting is hard to read, but it is worth the time to decipher it.

I still get goosebumps over the fact that I was able to view this piece of Civil War history.

You can see it, too, but you need to get to Monocacy before October 31.  (I highly recommend a visit to Monocacy and the best part it - admission is free.)

If you can't make it to this Maryland battefield, this is a copy of the Special Order.

What if......