At the south end of this park, the road from Urbana to Buckeystown crossed the Monocacy River on a stone bridge. Some Confederate troops camped here on September 6, 1862, while others crossed the bridge to bivouac on a knoll overlooking the river on the south side of the road on William Graff’s farm. On September 13, Union Gen. William B. Franklin’s VI Corps passed by on the march from Urbana and halted for an hour at the apple and peach orchards near Dalaplaine (Michael’s) Mill before continuing west toward Burkittsville and South Mountain, where it fought the next day. Buckeystown, a mile west, was founded in 1775 by George and Michael Buckey and by the 1860s had become a thriving town with a large milling and tanning industry and several stores. Buckey’s tavern and many old houses from that period still stand along Buckeystown’s tree-lined main street. The town’s largest gristmill, Delaplaine Mill, now Michael’s Mill, stood on the hill in front, and because the Confederates had stopped Baltimore and Ohio Railroad traffic, the mill had a thousand barrels of flour in its warehouse, guarded against pilfering. William J. Grove later recalled that his father, the railroad agent, opened the warehouse for the troops and told the Confederates they would bake as much bread as they could to feed the troops, and that his mother’s enslaved cooks baked for the soldiers day and night, generally shortcake without lard or salt, which the hungry soldiers ate eagerly.