South Mountain State Battlefield

South Mountain State Battlefield preserves and commemorates the various sites associated with the Battle of South Mountain, fought on September 14, 1862.

The Battle of South Mountain was the first major Civil War battle in Maryland.  The Confederate Army under General Robert E. Lee crossed the Potomac River in early September 1862.  Lee established a base in Frederick, and when the Union Army under General George McClellan advanced from the east, Lee devised a bold but risky plan to divide his army and move westward.  In one of the oddest breaks in military history, a Union soldier found a discarded copy of Lee’s orders (the famous Special Orders 191) and the usually overly-cautious McClellan led his army in pursuit.  Caught off-guard by McClellan’s movement, the Confederates were forced to fight a delaying action on the top of South Mountain to give the divided army time to regroup.  The battle, on October 24, 1862, was actually fought in three places – Turner’s and Fox’s Gaps between Middletown and Boonsboro, and Crampton’s Gap to the west of Burkittsville.  The battle was a Union victory, but not before Confederate General Stonewall Jackson had captured Harpers Ferry and 12,000 Union soldiers, and the Confederate Army had reconsolidated itself in preparation for what would become the Battle of Antietam.