After a stunning victory at Chancellorsville in May 1863, Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee led the Army of Northern Virginia through Maryland into Pennsylvania, threatening Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C., while the Army of the Potomac marched north searching for Lee. On July 1-3, the armies collided at Gettysburg in one of the pivotal battles of the Civil War, and after a bloody defeat the Confederates retraced their steps toward Virginia. During the Battle of Gettysburg, detachments of Lee's army occupied key roads and gaps in South Mountain behind the Confederate line, including Monterey Pass just north of here. On the night of July 3, Lee ordered his supply and ambulance trains through the gaps to clear the roads for the army's retreat. The next night, probing between the Confederate army and South Mountain, Union Gen. H. Judson Kilpatrick's cavalry division caught up with the Confederate wagon train and its defenders at Monterey Pass and attacked Capt. George H. Emack's Co. B, 1st Maryland Battalion, reinforced by Gen. William E. "Grumble" Jones with two cavalry regiments and an artillery battery. In pitch dark and pouring rain, a chaotic, vicious fight began around 9 P.M., illuminated by cannon fire, small-arms fire, and lightning, and raged for more than five hours until Kilpatrick's force broke through the defenders and continued in this direction while the Confederates kept retreating. Kilpatrick then ordered the 1st Vermont Cavalry to pursue the wagon trains along the western base of South Mountain in the valley below, and local resident C.H. Burman guided the regiment through Raven Rock Pass to Smithsburg. After capturing several wagons at Leitersburg, the Vermonters rejoined Kilpatrick at Ringgold and rode south to Smithsburg, where the division soon fought part of Confederate Gen. J.E.B. Stuart's cavalry corps. The Confederate ambulances, supply wagons, artillery caravans, and herds of cattle, sheep, and hogs stretched for more than 50 miles along Pennsylvania roads as rain turned the dirt roads to mud and added to the misery of thousands of wounded men being carried away.

Photo: Devry Becker Jones (CC0)

Photo: Craig Swain

Photo: Craig Swain

Photo: Craig Swain

Photo: Craig Swain

Photo: Craig Swain

Fort Ritchie, Maryland · USA