Battle of South Mountain

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Fire on the Mountain
The slopes of South Mountain at Turner's Gap, Boonsborough, MD.

Battle at Turner's Gap
Union forces of Gen. Fighting Joe Hooker's First Corps moved along the National Road, through the fields and up the slopes at Turner's Gap to fight Confederate defenders under Gen. D.H. Hill.

On Saturday I volunteered at Antietam National battlefield. Just on the west side of Frederick I get off of Interstate 70 and take alternate 40 west through Middletown and over South Mountain through Turner's Gap to Boonsborough and then left on 34 to Antietam. It had been raining the night before and scattered showers were still moving through the area. The low clouds, fog and mists were stirring along the mountain side and looked much like the smoke of the battle that was fought here on September 14th, 1861 - three days before Antietam. The Battle of South Mountain was a fight for the possession of the three gaps along the Sounth Mountain range; Turner's (pictured above), Fox's and Crampton's. The Confederate defenders fought a delaying action from the crest that allowed Robert E. Lee the time he needed to reassemble his Army of Northern Virgina along the Antietam Creek and give battle three days latter to General McClellan's Army of the Potomac in the single bloodiest day in American history. Locals who witnessed the Battle of South Mountain said it looked like there was "...fire on the mountain" as smoke from thousands of black powder weapons curled along the crest. Yesterday's swirling mist took me back for a few moments to that September day. It was easy to imagine the masses of troops fighting in the woods and fields along the slopes and the mists rose and drifted along. A few minutes after I arrived and started taking photographs the mists had blown away and the sun started to appear. The time warp to the past had ended.