The Gap Must Be Held at All Hazards

0n Saturday night, 13 September, 1862, General Lee received intelligence that McClellan had been handed a lost copy of Lee's Order 191 detailing the plans for his Maryland Campaign. Lee soberly received reports that at least 2 brigades of Yanks were on the move toward the thinly screened South Mountain gaps that he needed to hold in order to shield the dispersed elements of his army. The Army of Northern Virginia was spread out over 300 square miles, from Harpers Ferry to Hagerstown. Lee bitterly acknowledged that Little Mac had wrested the initiative from him.

Lee asked Maj. Gen. Longstreet's opinion of Lee's plan to advance Longstreet's forces located in and around Boonsboro and Hagerstown to the South Mountain gaps. Longstreet thought the troops would arrive in too poor a condition after the necessary forced marches to be of much use.

After thinking for a moment, Lee ordered D. Harvey Hill to hold Turner's and Fox's gaps at all costs and he ordered Longstreet to march on South Mountain. Longstreet would try again later in the evening to convince Lee to concentrate the army at Sharpsburg rather than attempt to hold South Mountain. Lee never responded.

Before sunrise on Sunday morning, September 14, 1862, Harvey Hill rode up from Boonsboro to make his reconnaissance: From the heights around Mountain House, Hill was surprised to see not the campfires of two brigades, but "the vast army of McClellan spread out before me. The marching columns extended back as far as (the) eye could see... It was a grand and glorious spectacle," Hill said, "It was impossible to look at it without admiration. I had never seen so tremendous an army before, and I did not see one like it afterward."

Until Longstreet's reinforcements could arrive from Hagerstown, the fate of the Army of Northern Virginia rested with Hill. Of his division, only Colquitt's brigade was in position. It was deployed on the forward slope straddling the National Road. Garland's brigade arrived just after sunrise and quickly marched along the Wood Road to Fox's Gap. It would be a couple of hours before the next units arrived.

As his brother-in-law, Thomas Jackson, had done 17 days ago at Second Manassas, Harvey Hill would hold his position. This would prove to be D. H. Hill's finest hour. From 9 AM until 3 PM his troops held the northern gaps unaided against the combined assault of elements from two Union army corps. Then, with the help of Longstreet's exhausted troops, the Confederates held the gaps into the night. For one long, vital day an enemy drive that could have spelled disaster to Lee's army was blocked by the sacrifices of Hill's and Loh~str6et's men.

At 9:00 AM on September 14, 1862, the Kanawha division opened the attack on Garland's brigade of North Carolinians at Fox's Gap. The attack scattered the brigade's right wing and claimed the life of its promising young Brigadier. But timely reinforcing units allowed the Rebs to hold at Wise's farm. There was a lull in the fighting as the rest of the IX Corps arrived. Burnside ordered Reno's IX Corps to renew the attack when Hooker's I Corps began their attack on the Confederate left. Burnside envisioned the Union's left and right wings converging on Turner's Gap. Gibbon's brigade was ordered to deploy along the National Road until ordered forward toward Turner's Gap. Gibbon's brigade was to be a diversion to the Rebs holding Turner's Gap as the pincers closed in their flanks.

Around 4:00 PM, Hooker's attack commenced as Meade advanced up the mountain from Frosttown. Reno renewed his assault on Fox's Gap. The dark blue lines could be seen slowly advancing, awash in great clouds of battle smoke.

Gibbon's brigade was ordered forward as the sun began to set behind the mountain. The Westerners from Wisconsin and Michigan had given a good account of themselves at Second, 17 days ago.

CONFEDERATE DEAD AT THE CROSS-ROADS BY WISE'S HOUSE AT FOX'S GAP. BATTLES & LEADERS

Inspired by their practical commander, this evening they would earn the nickname "Iron Brigade" by volleying with Colquitt's men until well past dark. The angry red and yellow muzzle flashes on the mountain were visible from McClellan's headquarters, a couple of miles to the rear. Colquitt held. As night fell, the men dropped where they were, some using the dead as pillows, and stopped fighting. The wind carried the cries of the wounded and dying. From a distance, the lament of the wounded was muted and fireflies seemed to cover the slope of South Mountain as the medics sought to aid the wounded by lantern light.

At 10 PM the weary Confederates stealthily left the mountain. Lee felt that the day had gone against him. He concentrated his army at Sharpsburg where Hill's men had another appointment with destiny. On the eastern outskirts of Sharpsburg they would occupy a sunken lane, grateful for not having to entrench, On 17 September this bucolic scene would be christened "Bloody Lane".

A Glorious Victory

McClellan's forces had achieved "a glorious victory". But Harper's Ferry would fall on the 15th (with the capture of 13,000 Union soldiers) and only skirmishing would occur between the two massive armies until the 17th of September. McClellan's (and Pleasonton's lack of vigor allowed the dangerous Army of Northern Virginia to concentrate and fortuitously set the table for A.P. Hill's late afternoon counter-attack that restored the Confederate right flank at Sharpsburg.

Approximately 25,000 Union and 13,000 Confederate troops fought at South Mountain. Casualties at the northern gaps of South Mountain were 4,856 killed, wounded, and missing. In terms of these casualties, losses at South Mountain were slightly greater than the war's first major battle at Bull Run. In terms of its strategic results and repercussions, it ranks as one of the most important battles of the Civil War.

The fighting claimed the lives of Union Major General Reno and Confederate Brigadier General Garland. Brigadier General Rufus King of the I Corps' 1st Division was relieved on 14 September, leaving the attack to Brigadier General Hatch. Hatch was wounded in the attack and transferred divisional command to Brigadier General Abner Doubleday. Two future presidents, Lt. Col. Rutherford B. Hayes and Sgt. William McKinley served in the 23rd Ohio in Scammon's brigade. Hayes was severely wounded and taken to Middletown, where he recovered from his wounds. McKinley survived, only to die by an assassin's bullet on September 14, 1901; thirty-nine years to the day of the Battle of South Mountain.

On Sunday the 14th, as Hood's Texas brigade marched by Lee in Boonsboro toward South Mountain, the men demanded their leader be restored to command. Hood was then at the rear of the column under arrest from an affair of honor at 2nd Manassas. Lee peremptorily restored General Hood to command, an order heartily cheered by his men. Hood at the head of his division would pay great dividends to the Confederacy this day and three days later at Sharpsburg.

The full impact of the South Mountain battles is only now being fully appreciated. Brought about largely by the serendipitous finding of the "Lost Order No. 191 "which prompted McClellan to write to Lincoln "will send you trophies."

McClellan knew that the order was genuine because one of his generals confirmed the signature of the Adjutant General to Lee, R.H. Chilton. This battle enabled General George B. McClellan to thwart the first invasion of the North by the Confederacy. It was The Battle of South Mountain that prohibited Lee from taking his army into Pennsylvania, as most historians agree was his plan. This battle robbed Gen. Lee of the victory on northern soil that the South desperately needed for foreign recognition by England and France.

Ultimately the Maryland Campaign was the Confederacy's best and last hope for that foreign recognition and intervention, and thereby southern independence. It was the Battle of South Mountain that wrested the initiative from Lee, brought about the end of the Maryland Campaign and dashed southern hopes for independence.

If your travels take you near South Mountain, take a few minutes to view the panorama and reflect on the soldiers' sacrifices. The Central Maryland Heritage League is seeking donations to acquire additional battlefield real estate. Their URL is listed in the Bibliography.

I hope you have fun with South Mountain, the Northern Battles. It was a lot of fun to make.

Tom Faulkner is a CPA and a student of America's Civil War He is part of an informal but learned gaming group in the DC Metro area. A proud supporter of DC United & the USA National Team, he is also known as the Grillmaster by his friends in the Screaming Eagles (www.screamingeagles.com) & Sam's Army. If you're interested, check him out in Sam's Army regalia at www.screamingeagles.com/jamaica.htm. Tom's email address is tfaul@erols.com and his website is www.erols.com/tfaul.

More South Mountain

Battle of South Mountain: September 14, 1862
Lee's Special Order No. 191
South Mountain Special Rules
South Mountain: Scenario and OOB
South Mountain: Large Map (slow: 257K)
South Mountain: Jumbo Map (extremely slow: 613K)