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expedition_retirement On Friday morning, we checked out of our accommodations and hit the road, headed to Albany, NY. There we had lunch with a cousin and spent a relaxing afternoon visiting with her. Eventually, it was time to continue on our way and we drove a little further to our motel for the night in Pennsylvania.
Saturday morning, we started early, with the intention of stopping at the Monocacy National Battlefield, just outside Frederick, Maryland. I have been driving across this park for decades on I-270, but had never taken the time to stop and visit it. At the visitor's center, we listened to a Ranger presentation about the battle here on July 9, 1864. This battle was the result of a desperate plan by General Robert E. Lee to attack Washington, DC in an attempt to take some of the pressure off of the Union efforts around Richmond and Petersburg, in Virginia. General Jubal Early had taken his Corps down the Shenandoah Valley, largely undetected, and managed to get into Maryland, in an effort to attack Washington from the north. Alerted by officials from the B&O Railroad, Union forces under General Wallace made a stand at the rail junction here on the banks of the Monocacy River. Outnumbered almost 3-1, General Wallace knew he was unlikely to win the battle, but knew he needed delay the Confederate advance on Washington long enough for reinforcements to shore up the city's defenses. In this, he was successful, and Lee's plan to attack Washington was thwarted.
After eating lunch at a picnic table near the visitor's center, we set off on a self-guided driving tour of the battlefield. We visited the Worthington home, where the Confederate cavalry launched repeated assaults on what they thought, wrongly, were unseasoned militia troops. From there, we stopped at the Thomas Farm, site of some of the fiercest fighting of the battle, and finally the Gambrill Mill, the point from which the Union Forces ultimately withdrew when it became clear that the battle had been lost.
It was a sobering reminder of how close the Confederate Army had come to capturing the Union Capitol, and of the bloody cost of that war. The landscape here is now relatively peaceful (except for the constant stream of traffic on the interstate highway cutting through the middle of the park), which allows for contemplation of the horrors of war.
Saturday morning, we started early, with the intention of stopping at the Monocacy National Battlefield, just outside Frederick, Maryland. I have been driving across this park for decades on I-270, but had never taken the time to stop and visit it. At the visitor's center, we listened to a Ranger presentation about the battle here on July 9, 1864. This battle was the result of a desperate plan by General Robert E. Lee to attack Washington, DC in an attempt to take some of the pressure off of the Union efforts around Richmond and Petersburg, in Virginia. General Jubal Early had taken his Corps down the Shenandoah Valley, largely undetected, and managed to get into Maryland, in an effort to attack Washington from the north. Alerted by officials from the B&O Railroad, Union forces under General Wallace made a stand at the rail junction here on the banks of the Monocacy River. Outnumbered almost 3-1, General Wallace knew he was unlikely to win the battle, but knew he needed delay the Confederate advance on Washington long enough for reinforcements to shore up the city's defenses. In this, he was successful, and Lee's plan to attack Washington was thwarted.
After eating lunch at a picnic table near the visitor's center, we set off on a self-guided driving tour of the battlefield. We visited the Worthington home, where the Confederate cavalry launched repeated assaults on what they thought, wrongly, were unseasoned militia troops. From there, we stopped at the Thomas Farm, site of some of the fiercest fighting of the battle, and finally the Gambrill Mill, the point from which the Union Forces ultimately withdrew when it became clear that the battle had been lost.