When Gen. Robert E. Lee and part of the Army of Northern Virginia passed through Middletown on September 10–11, 1862, they met a chilly reception from the inhabitants of this single-street hamlet on the National Road, who loved the Union and viewed the ragged Confederates marching west as the embodiment of rebellion. Faced with openly defiant residents, the Confederates considered Middletown the most Union place they saw during their first trek into Maryland. A few days later, when part of Gen. George B. McClellan's Army of the Potomac marched through town, the citizens were more welcoming. After the Battle of South Mountain on September 14, Middletown's churches and homes became hospitals for Union casualties. Future President of the United States Rutherford B. Hayes, then a lieutenant colonel of the 23rd Ohio Infantry, was wounded at Fox's Gap, and his wife Lucy nursed him back to health at Jacob Rudy's home at 504 West Main Street. As Gen. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson rode through town on September 10, two girls wearing red, white, and blue ribbons and carrying small Union flags ran to the curbstone and waved them defiantly at him, prompting Jackson to bow, lift his cap with a quiet smile, and remark that they evidently had no friends in the town.