On July 5, 1864,
Gen. Lewis Wallace (q. v.), in command of the Middle Department, with his headquarters at
Baltimore, received information that
Gen. Jubal A. Early (
q. v.), with 15,000 or 20,000 Confederates, who had invaded
Maryland, was marching on
Baltimore.
Already
General Grant had been informed of the invasion, and had sent
General Wright, with the 6th Corps, to protect the capital.
Gen. E. B. Tyler was at
Frederick with about 1,000 troops, and
Wallace gathered there, on the 6th, all the available troops in his department that could be spared from the duties of watching the railways leading into
Baltimore from the
North.
He sent
Colonel Clendennin to search for positive information with 400 men and a section of artillery, and at
Middletown he encountered 1,000 Confederates under
Bradley Johnson, a Marylander, who pushed him steadily back towards
Frederick.
There was a sharp fight near
Frederick that day (July 7, 1864), and, at 6 P. M.
Gilpin's regiment charged the
Confederates and drove them back to the mountains.
Satisfied that the destination of the invaders was
Washington, and knowing it was then too weak in troops to resist the
Confederates successfully,
Wallace threw his little force in front of them to impede their march.
He withdrew his troops from
Frederick to a chosen position on the left bank of the
Monocacy, and on the 9th fought the invaders desperately for eight hours.
Wallace had been joined by the brigade of
Ricketts, the advance of the oncoming 6th Corps.
Although finally defeated, this little band of Nationals had kept the invading host at bay long enough to allow the remainder of the 6th Corps to reach
Washington.
Wallace's troops had thus gained a real victory that saved the capital.
So declared the
Secretary of War and the
lieutenant-general.
The check to the Con-
 |
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Plan of the battle of Monocacy. |
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federates, altogether, was over thirty hours. The number of National troops engaged in the battle was about 5,500; the
Confederates numbered about 20,000.
The
Nationals lost 1,959 men, of whom 98 were killed, 579 wounded, and 1,282 missing.
