Eight thousand Confederates under Gen. Lafayette McLaws marched by Christ Reformed Church on September 10-11, 1862, heading south to Harper’s Ferry. Because no Federals were in the area, McLaws expected no encounter with the enemy. Unknown to him, Union Gen. George B. McClellan had obtained a copy of Gen. Robert E. Lee’s Special Order 191 containing the Confederate plans, and the rear of McLaws’ column was soon in danger. Most of McClellan’s Army of the Potomac marched west on the National Road, present-day Alt. U.S. Rte. 40, on September 14, en route to the gaps of South Mountain. During the battle that followed, the steeple of the Reformed Church served as a Union observation station. A soldier of the 35th Massachusetts Infantry recalled waking stiff and sore on the morning of September 14, seeking breakfast, trying to broil fresh beef on ramrods, watching a comrade named Walsh boil cabbage in a tea kettle, and then hearing artillery fire begin before the afternoon order to fall in interrupted the meal.