A running cavalry fight that began in Barnesville in the late afternoon of September 9, 1862, came to a halt at Sugarloaf Mountain. By the next morning, the 7th and 9th Virginia Cavalry had been brought to bay at the mountain’s southern base by the 8th Illinois and 3rd Indiana Cavalry. Both sides received reinforcements and brought up artillery, while dismounted sharpshooters of the 2nd Virginia Cavalry looked down on the Federals from trees and rocks on the slopes. Fighting and heavy cannon fire continued throughout the day, but by evening neither side had budged; one Union cavalryman had been killed and one wounded. Early on September 11, the Confederates slipped away after brief exchanges of gunfire and abandoned a signal station atop the mountain. As the Army of Northern Virginia marched northwest out of Frederick, the action at Sugarloaf Mountain served as a successful rear guard action. At the time of the Civil War, the Comus Inn was the Benjamin Johnson family farm and the crossroads was known as Mt. Ephraim. The family’s log cabin was enlarged in the 1890s. The name Comus, taken from the Roman god of revelry and son of Bacchus, was not used until a post office was established there in 1930. In the 1930s, President Franklin D. Roosevelt sought to acquire Sugarloaf Mountain as his presidential retreat, but owner Gordon Strong refused to sell, and the president instead went north to Shangri-La, now Camp David.
