A. J. Bennett, private , First Massachusetts Light Battery, The story of the First Massachusetts Light Battery , attached to the Sixth Army Corps : glance at events in the armies of the Potomac and Shenandoah, from the summer of 1861 to the autumn of 1864.

[76] Burkittsville and thence over the mountain through Crampton's Gap. The farms seem not to have been plundered. Indeed, except the wear and tear of the roads, there is little to denote that an army has recently passed through. It was doubtless the policy of the southern commander to prevent the least act of devastation in pursuance of his avowed purpose of awakening the slumbering patriotism of Maryland, and of winning the state to the Confederacy. The people of western Maryland seem not to have been in the least attracted by the ‘pomp and circumstance’ of the Confederate troops during their brief visit. The effect of this movement of the Sixth Corps, and of other movements of the army made in conjunction with it, was the hasty departure of Lee from Frederick on this day, the 12th, he crossing the mountain by the pass opposite that place.

On the 14th of September, Sunday morning, we were again in motion. A portion of our army under Burnside was known to be in front of Turner's Gap near Frederick. All the troops in the vicinity of the Potomac except those at Harper's Ferry, are in Pleasant Valley.

The Sixth Corps, about mid-day, moved through the little hamlet of Burkittsville abreast of Crampton's Gap. There on the crest, holding the pass, was a Confederate force of uncertain number but occupying a position that seemed impregnable. On reaching the base of the mountain, lines of infantry, ranged across the road which winds up the declivity through the gap, were pushed up the side.

Bartlett's brigade of Slocum's division, comprising the Fifth Maine, Sixteenth and Twenty-seventh New York, and Ninety-sixth Pennsylvania, was upon the right of the road, companies from these regiments supporting two batteries, one of which was the First Massachusetts. We moved steadily over the rising, uneven ground, brush and stones impeding the way. Perhaps one third of the distance up the side we were met by a solid line of grays, and a murderous discharge of muskets. They receive an equally cruel return, backed by a broadside from the batteries. Their gaps are closed, their dead lying at their feet. They pour forth another volley; this is met by one from our lines, and more artillery fire. Their line wavers. Our right now presses hard their left, and turns it in and upward. A bevy of grays in our front