Desperate Engagement: How a Little-Known Civil War Battle Saved Washington, D.C., and Changed American History
By Marc Leepson
4/5
()
About this ebook
The Battle of Monocacy, which took place on the blisteringly hot day of July 9, 1864, is one of the Civil War's most significant yet little-known battles. What played out that day in the corn and wheat fields four miles south of Frederick, Maryland., was a full-field engagement between some 12,000 battle-hardened Confederate troops led by the controversial Jubal Anderson Early, and some 5,800 Union troops, many of them untested in battle, under the mercurial Lew Wallace, the future author of Ben-Hur. When the fighting ended, some 1,300 Union troops were dead, wounded or missing or had been taken prisoner, and Early---who suffered some 800 casualties---had routed Wallace in the northernmost Confederate victory of the war.
Two days later, on another brutally hot afternoon, Monday, July 11, 1864, the foul-mouthed, hard-drinking Early sat astride his horse outside the gates of Fort Stevens in the upper northwestern fringe of Washington, D.C. He was about to make one of the war's most fateful, portentous decisions: whether or not to order his men to invade the nation's capital.
Early had been on the march since June 13, when Robert E. Lee ordered him to take an entire corps of men from their Richmond-area encampment and wreak havoc on Yankee troops in the Shenandoah Valley, then to move north and invade Maryland. If Early found the conditions right, Lee said, he was to take the war for the first time into President Lincoln's front yard. Also on Lee's agenda: forcing the Yankees to release a good number of troops from the stranglehold that Gen. U.S. Grant had built around Richmond.
Once manned by tens of thousands of experienced troops, Washington's ring of forts and fortifications that day were in the hands of a ragtag collection of walking wounded Union soldiers, the Veteran Reserve Corps, along with what were known as hundred days' men---raw recruits who had joined the Union Army to serve as temporary, rear-echelon troops. It was with great shock, then, that the city received news of the impending rebel attack. With near panic filling the streets, Union leaders scrambled to coordinate a force of volunteers.
But Early did not pull the trigger. Because his men were exhausted from the fight at Monocacy and the ensuing march, Early paused before attacking the feebly manned Fort Stevens, giving Grant just enough time to bring thousands of veteran troops up from Richmond. The men arrived at the eleventh hour, just as Early was contemplating whether or not to move into Washington. No invasion was launched, but Early did engage Union forces outside Fort Stevens. During the fighting, President Lincoln paid a visit to the fort, becoming the only sitting president in American history to come under fire in a military engagement.
Historian Marc Leepson shows that had Early arrived in Washington one day earlier, the ensuing havoc easily could have brought about a different conclusion to the war. Leepson uses a vast amount of primary material, including memoirs, official records, newspaper accounts, diary entries and eyewitness reports in a reader-friendly and engaging description of the events surrounding what became known as "the Battle That Saved Washington."
Marc Leepson
Marc Leepson has written features and book reviews for many publications, including The New York Times, Preservation, Smithsonian, The Washington Post, and The Sun (Baltimore) and is a contributor to the Encyclopedia Americana. He lives with his family in Middleburg, Virginia.
Read more from Marc Leepson
Saving Monticello: The Levy Family's Epic Quest to Rescue the House that Jefferson Built Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5What So Proudly We Hailed: Francis Scott Key, A Life Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFlag: An American Biography Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Related to Desperate Engagement
Related ebooks
Army at Home: Women and the Civil War on the Northern Home Front Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Yankee Plague: Escaped Union Prisoners and the Collapse of the Confederacy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Imagined Civil War: Popular Literature of the North and South, 1861-1865 Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Confederate Minds: The Struggle for Intellectual Independence in the Civil War South Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRites of Retaliation: Civilization, Soldiers, and Campaigns in the American Civil War Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Children's Civil War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Spectacle of Grief: Public Funerals and Memory in the Civil War Era Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHood’s Tennessee Campaign Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNorthern Character: College-Educated New Englanders, Honor, Nationalism, and Leadership in the Civil War Era Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsReading Confederate Monuments Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings"Happiness Is Not My Companion": The Life of General G. K. Warren Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Civil War in Mississippi: Major Campaigns and Battles Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Loyalty on the Line: Civil War Maryland in American Memory Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBonds of Union: Religion, Race, and Politics in a Civil War Borderland Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRecollections of War Times: By An Old Veteran while under Stonewall Jackson and Lieutenant General James Longstreet Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsVisions of Glory: The Civil War in Word and Image Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe 1865 Stoneman's Raid Begins: Leave Nothing for the Rebellion to Stand Upon Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Story Of A Common Soldier Of Army Life In The Civil War, 1861-1865 [Illustrated Edition] Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Battle of Hubbardton: The Rear Guard Action that Saved America Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Civil War Battles of the Western Theatre Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hood's Defeat Near Fox's Gap: Prelude to Emancipation Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsYear of Desperate Struggle: Jeb Stuart and His Cavalry, from Gettysburg to Yellow Tavern, 1863–1864 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Summer of '63: Vicksburg & Tullahoma: Favorite Stories and Fresh Perspectives from the Historians at Emerging Civil War Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFight Like the Devil: The First Day at Gettysburg, July 1, 1863 Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Gettysburg: Memory, Market, and an American Shrine Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Historical sketch of the Fifteenth Regiment, New Jersey Volunteers First Brigade, First Division, Sixth Corps Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBetween Home and the Front: Civil War Letters of the Walters Family Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsUnion County Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings"Dear Darling Loulie" Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The St. Albans Raid: Confederate Attack on Vermont Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
United States History For You
A People's History of the United States Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Fourth Turning Is Here: What the Seasons of History Tell Us about How and When This Crisis Will End Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Slouching Towards Bethlehem: Essays Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Library Book Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Master Slave Husband Wife: An Epic Journey from Slavery to Freedom Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Book of Charlie: Wisdom from the Remarkable American Life of a 109-Year-Old Man Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/51776 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Great Reset: And the War for the World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Devil's Chessboard: Allen Dulles, the CIA, and the Rise of America's Secret Government Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Indifferent Stars Above: The Harrowing Saga of the Donner Party Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Killing the Guys Who Killed the Guy Who Killed Lincoln: A Nutty Story About Edwin Booth and Boston Corbett Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Vanderbilt: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Pioneers: The Heroic Story of the Settlers Who Brought the American Ideal West Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bowling Alone: Revised and Updated: The Collapse and Revival of American Community Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer: An Edgar Award Winner Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Masters of the Air: America's Bomber Boys Who Fought the Air War Against Nazi Germany Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Twelve Years a Slave (Illustrated) (Two Pence books) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Fifties Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Killing England: The Brutal Struggle for American Independence Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The White Album: Essays Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5White Too Long: The Legacy of White Supremacy in American Christianity Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Great Awakening: Defeating the Globalists and Launching the Next Great Renaissance Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Desperate Engagement
15 ratings2 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The book was well written and easy to read. It presented a good overview of the events leading up to the battle and the advance on Washington. Coverage of the engagement however is rather superficial and comprises a relatively small portion of the book. A very good survey of Early's invasion, but if one wishes a detailed account of the engagement at Monocacy, then this volume will not suffice.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How amazing is it to live within a 50 mile radius of an area and never know the historical impact that it holds? We've all heard of Bull Run, Gettysburg, Appomattox but how many of you have ever heard of the Battle of Monocacy? I hadn't and I've lived in the area for nearly 40 years. How many of you knew that the Confederate Army ever threatened to invade Washington D.C.? Did you know that Abraham Lincoln was actually fired upon by a hostile army?This book told the tale of the Confederate invasion of the state of Maryland in 1864 by Jubal Early and his regiments. They marched through most of the far northern suburbs of Washington D.C. - Frederick, Hagerstown, Urbana and were confronted by a small contingency of union soldiers led by Lewis Wallace (author of Ben-Hur) who knew that Washington was undermanned and also realized that for there to be enough time for reinforcements to arrive to man the fortifications of the capital, his men would have to engage and prevent Early's army from progressing beyond the Monocacy River for at least a day - 5,800 men against 16,000 - not promising but somehow the union soldiers held their ground for the necessary time before their retreat. Early moved on to Rockville, Silver Spring, Tenleytown - and were "knocking at the door of a nation's capital when the reinforcements from General Grant arrived in the night.I found this book to be terribly engrossing probably because it told me facts about the Civil War that I never knew as well as about an area that I have lived in and never fully realized its impact in history. Definitely a book that should receive more exposure.