On this day in 1864, the Battle of Monocacy was fought just outside of Frederick, MD.
It is not a well-known battle, certainly not compared to that of Gettysburg 40 miles to the north or Antietam 25 miles to the west. In fact the thousands of commuters who pass the battlefield marker on I-270 probably don’t give it a second thought. Yet it was one of the pivotal battles of the Civil War.
In June 1864, Confederate General Jubal Early’s army of 18,000 men marched north down the Shenandoah Valley, invading first Maryland and then Pennsylvania. After burning Chambersburg and holding Frederick (MD) for ransom, Early turned southeast toward Washington, DC.
Washington lay undefended. Grant had pulled the garrison weeks earlier in order to make good losses the Army of the Potomac had suffered during the murderous Overland Campaign. Grant was now rushing forces back to reinforce the capital but he needed time as Early was only two days’ march from DC.
One of the mistakes of Civil War history is that we look back at the Battles of Vicksburg and Gettysburg as not only the turning point of the war, but the point at which the South could no longer win.