Bartlett Leads the Way

Colonel Joseph J. Bartlett, commander of the Second Brigade of Franklin’s First Division, selected both the field over which Franklin’s Corps would attack and the formation for the assault, proposing three brigades in six lines with the 27th New York deployed as skirmishers and an advance aimed at the mountain crest by the shortest line. With Franklin’s approval, Bartlett was ordered to attack in that manner, seize the crest, and throw out a picket line for the night. At 4:30 p.m., Bartlett sent forward the 27th New York, followed by the 5th Maine and 16th New York, and the troops crossed the field to a stone wall along the “Forest” farm about 250 yards from the Confederate line. Realizing his men could not hold there long without exhausting their ammunition, Bartlett rode back to find Newton’s Brigade and ordered it forward as relief. Franklin then directed Major General William F. “Baldy” Smith to anchor the Federal left by placing a brigade south of the road, and Smith sent the Vermont Brigade forward with five regiments while Colonel Alfred Torbert’s New Jersey Brigade filled the gap between the Vermonters and Bartlett. At 5:30 p.m., the Federal lines surged ahead, broke the badly outnumbered Confederates, and drove them in headlong retreat toward Crampton’s Gap.

Maryland · United States