Gordon’s Decisive Attack

The first Confederate troops to cross the Monocacy River were repulsed by Federals massing across the Thomas farm. Then Maj. Gen. John B. Gordon's infantry emerged over the crest of Brooks Hill and, with rebel yells and flying banners, swept down the hill toward the farm. Gordon ordered his three brigades to attack sequentially from right to left. Union volleys ravaged the first brigade and bloodied the second, but the third brigade and other Confederate units drove the Federals off the Thomas farm and forced them into a general retreat toward Gambrill Mill. So much blood from the killed and wounded of both sides flowed into the stream on the Thomas farm that it reddened the water for more than one hundred yards below.

Maryland · United States