Ambush

On the morning of July 9, 1864, John T. Worthington sent his family to safety in the cellar and watched from an upstairs window as Confederate General John McCausland led a cavalry brigade of 1,400 men into an ambush at Worthington Farm. Concealed behind a fence and waist-high corn, 1,400 Union troops under Brigadier General James B. Ricketts awaited the dismounted cavalrymen and opened fire as they approached, decimating the Confederates and forcing them to fall back. Later that afternoon, McCausland launched a second attack and took the Thomas House, but the outflanked Union line fell back to the Georgetown Pike, counterattacked, and drove the Confederates back once more to Worthington Farm. Corporal Alexandria St. Clair of the 16th Virginia Cavalry recalled, "We remained under the terrific fire about one hour, in which time we lost one-third of the command killed and wounded." The Worthington family had purchased the farm and settled there in 1862.

Maryland · United States