November 28, 2023 • 27 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, on July 9, 1864, the Union army suffered a loss... that just so happened to save the United States and help solidify Lincoln's re-election.
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,
and we tell stories about everything here on this show,
including yours. Send them to our American Stories dot com.
They're some of our favorites. Previously on our show, Mark
Leipson told the story of the Battle of Baltimore and
the writing of our national Anthem. Today, Mark's back to
tell the story of the Battle of Monocacy, the Civil
(00:33):
War battle that was a Union loss and saved Washington,
d C.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
The July ninth, eighteen sixty four Battle of Monocacy is
one of the most important, little known battles of the
Civil War, mainly because it's known as the Battle that saved.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
Washington, d C.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Because after which the Confederates attacked nation's capital for the
first and only time during.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
The Civil War.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
It took place four miles south of Frederick, Maryland, about
forty five miles west of Washington, d C. This was
a time when Lee was surrounded at Richmond and Petersburg
by Grant. Following the bloody of six weeks of the
Civil War, Grant's Wilderness Campaign aka the Overland Campaign, the
(01:27):
last three huge battles of the Civil War. The Battles
of Wilderness Spotsylvania Courthouse and Cold Harbor. These were mammoth
battles that hundreds of thousands of troops took part in
Wilderness May fifth through the seventh. This is over one
hundred and one thousand Union troops alone, sixty one thousand
Confederates twenty five thousand, four hundred casualties killed, wounded and
(01:50):
taken prisoner. Followed by Spotsylvania Courthouse coming east toward Fredericksburg
again one Union troops over fifty thousand Confederate troops thirty
thousand combined casualties.
Speaker 3 (02:05):
I mean these were.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
Slaughters, as was a Battle of Cold Harbor right near
Richmond that dragged on for two weeks May thirty first
to June twelfth, about seventeen thousand casualties. And the other
thing to keep in mind about this whole thing is
hovering over It is the eighteen sixty four presidential election,
the only presidential election ever held in a country during
(02:28):
a fighting civil war, a democratic national election held during
the fighting Civil war. And of course Lincoln was running
for reelection, and he was going against the Democrat General McClellan,
the disgraced Union general. It was not a great time
for Lincoln. They didn't have gallup polls then, but everybody
knew it was going to be a really uphill struggle
(02:51):
to get that victory. In November. In fact, he almost
didn't get the Republican nomination. He had to choose a Democrat.
That would be Andrew Johnson, Senator of Tennessee, a Southern
Democrat at that to be his running mate. Because his
Republican party was divided.
Speaker 3 (03:06):
You know, War Republicans and peace.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
Republicans were at odds. Lincoln was trying to navigate that.
The Democrats, they were slightly divided, but they were united
in their opposition to Lincoln. In the midst of all this,
Roberty League comes up with his bold four part plan
to thwart Grant's plan to end the war. Part one,
to drive Union forces from out of the Shenandoah Valley.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
The Union had Shenandoah.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
Valley the Confederate's bread basket. They were desperately needing food.
They were desperately needing supplies to get through. Second, free
the Confederate prisoners at Point Lookout Pow Camp, which was
on the southern point, still there today on the south
the museum on the southern tip of southern Maryland, not
far from Washington DCS. The crowflies probably twelve thousand Confederate
(03:56):
prisoners held there if they had been freed, that would
have been the equivalent of a corps of troops. For
Roberty Lee desperately needed a third to threaten Washington d
C if possible. And fourth and most important in Lee's mind,
was to force Grant to move those troops away from
Richmond and Petersburg so that Lee could have some breathing room.
(04:19):
So who did Roberty Lee choose on this dangerous and
important mission is Lieutenant General Jubilee Anderson Early, who was
one of the most colorful and controversial characters in the
Civil War. He was a Virginian from Rocky Mount, Virginia.
He went to West Point. He wasn't a great student,
graduated at the bottom of his class, just about served
(04:39):
briefly in the Seminole War, although nothing was going on
when he got down to Florida.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
He served in the Mexican War. Same thing.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
Fighting was over by the time he got out there.
He went back to Virginia practice law.
Speaker 3 (04:51):
He was a member of.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
The Virginia Secession Convention, actually voted against secession at first,
but when the tide turned, he voted for a secession.
And he was the most ty hard Confederates during the
war and afterward. He was wounded at the Battle of
Williamsburg in sixty two. He fought in every battle in
the Eastern Theater.
Speaker 3 (05:08):
He was an.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
Aggressive general, although he did not judge terrain well, he
did not judge. He wasn't a great tactician. He had
a love hate relationship with the men. He was very abrasive,
didn't get along very well with the other officers. Robert E.
Lee called him my bad old man, even though Lee
was older than Early. Early had contracted arthritis, and he
(05:30):
was hunched over, and he was straggly beard, and he
was just a kind of a mean, cantankerous, you know, misogynistic,
racist guy. But he was aggressive, which is probably why
Lee chose him, although you know, he didn't have much
choice at that point in the war with what generals
were available.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
So on the early morning hours.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
Of June thirteenth, Early marched eight thousand Confederate troops away
from Richmond and Petersburg. They snuck out. The Union troops
did not have a clue that this happened. They marched
seventy miles due west to Charlottesvihilly got on rickety trains
on June seventeenth, and on June nineteenth came the Battle
of Lynchburgh, which is even less well known because there
(06:13):
wasn't much of a battle because when the Union generals
heard that Early was there with the corps of troops,
they fled.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
And you're listening to Mark leips and tell the story
of the Battle of Monocacy and it's the battle that
saved Washington, d C. More of the story here on
our American Stories. Here are to our American Stories. We
(07:32):
bring you inspiring stories of history, sports, business, faith and love.
Stories from a great and beautiful country that need to
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and click the donate button. Give a little, give a lot,
(07:53):
help us keep the great American stories coming. That's our
American Stories dot com. And we're back with Mark Leapson
here on our American Stories and the story of the
(08:14):
Battle of Monocacy. A little known battle that saved Washington,
d C. When we last left off, Union troops were
fleeing north from Confederate General Jubile early in June of
eighteen sixty four.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
They went west, they went over the mountain into what
is now West Virginia. That was led by General David
Hunter aka Black Dave Hunter, who was not one of
the top Union generals. He had just finished what was
known as Hunter's raid up and down the valley, the
Shenandoah Valley, Stanton Lexington Natural Bridge, that area Lynchburg, and
(08:52):
he had, you know, was living off the land, which
meant confiscating people's farm, animals and crops, and just up
to General no Good and so he fled, and with him,
one of Lee's goals was accomplished. The Union troops had
left the Shenandoah Valley not to come back. So then
(09:14):
the Confederate troops they started their march up north, which
we call going down the valley because how the Shenandoah flows.
So in other words, when you go north through going
down the valley because of the way the Shenandoah flows.
The last Union general in their way was General Franz Siegel,
who again was not one of the great Union generals.
(09:34):
In fact, he was probably one of the worst.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
He had.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
He was a political general, he was German. He came
here with no battlefield experience. Lincoln was trying to influence
German Americans and Germans to come on the Union side,
and that was the reason Siegel got this command. And
you know, his low point came during the Battle of
Newmarket earlier that spring, when his superior for verses were
(10:00):
routed by Confederate troops there in the Shenandoah Valley, aided
by cadets from Virginia Military Institute, some as young as
fifteen years old. So Siegel fled. He went way up
into Maryland to the Maryland Heights over at Harper's Ferry,
West Virginia, right across the river. Early and his men,
(10:21):
you know, marched. You know, it was very hot that summer.
About a third of the men did not have shoes,
but they kept going. And when Early got across the
Potomac River. This is the third time that the Confederates, said,
if you want to call it that way, invaded the North,
the first time being for the Battle of Antietam and
sixty two, and the second time in sixty.
Speaker 3 (10:43):
Three for Gettysburg.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
Everybody heard of that, but not very many people know
about this third move into the north, and they camped
for two days outside Antietam, which is not far from
hart Ropers Ferry where they rested. Also, that's when Early
(11:06):
got the order from Rob Lee, Robert y Lee's son.
They sent him on horse guy I didn't want to
put this order out on the telegraph. They sent him
on horseback up from Richmond, and he delivered this important,
crucial order to go after those imprisoned Confederates at point
lookout if they could. So let's back up just a
(11:26):
quick minute and talk about Washington, d C.
Speaker 3 (11:28):
At this point in the war.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
You know, you think about it, Washington's just you know,
across the Potomac River from Virginia. It was ninety miles.
It is ninety miles from Richmond, the capitol of the Confederacy. So,
especially after the first Battle of Manasses in the summer
of sixty one, people were worried about a Confederate invasion
of the national capital. So soon after that the Union
(11:51):
army went around went and built the what was known
as the Defenses of Washington.
Speaker 3 (11:56):
When they finished, which was this time in.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
The Civil War, there were something like sixty eight forts
surrounding Washington d C. And of course they went into
Virginia because the Union took over northern Virginia soon after
the war started. Now, these were defensive forts. They weren't extensive,
but they did bristle with artillery. They were out facing,
and the forts were basically all tied together by a
(12:20):
series of berms and embankments.
Speaker 3 (12:26):
There's only one.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
Fort left today that you can see, and that's Fort Stevens,
which is if you think of Washington d C. As
shaped like a diamond, it's at the very tip of
the diamond near Silver Spring, Maryland, and it's a national park. Now,
I mean, the fort has been rebuilt, but you can
see what they.
Speaker 3 (12:41):
Were like if you go there.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
They had cannons facing out. Of course, inside it was
like a horseshoe. And the forts were designed to be
manned by about fifty to sixty thousand troops, but at
this point in the war there weren't a lot of
spare able bodied Union troops.
Speaker 3 (13:02):
Washington d C.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
Was kind of like a hospital during the war. Hospital
you know, schools, government buildings were turned into hospitals. Men
recovering from these vicious battles that had kept accumulating, and
so we don't know how many people were defending Washington
at this time, but we think it was maybe around
ten thousand, if that. And not only that, but most
(13:25):
of them were members of what was known as the
Veteran Reserve Corps. Now the Veteran Reserve Corps had recently
changed its name in eighteen sixty four. It had been
known as the Invalid Corps. The Invalid Corps were men
who were recuperating from their wounds, but well enough to
you know, walk and man the barricades. So we had
(13:47):
about ten thousand invalids defending Washington, d C. At this
point in the war, and we had Jewbra early on
the March, so they crossed the Potomac. Like I said
on Live fifth, this was actually the first time the
Union intelligence realized that Lee had just sent an entire
core of troops away from Richmond. They started moving toward Washington,
(14:11):
D C. Now we're just getting back to Washington now
that Lee has sent a corps of troops out there,
and the Union intelligence, which was not great in general
during the war, was not good here either. At first,
the reports said it was general Yule, who.
Speaker 3 (14:27):
Was in the hospital at the time.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
It was actually early and they kept getting the numbers wrong.
You know, twenty thousand was mentioned, twenty five thousand was mentioned.
Grant heard about it. He saw these dispatches and he
figured out what Lee was up to, and he decided
he wasn't going to send any troops. He had his
plan in place and that's what he was going to do.
But one Union Army general did figure it out and
(14:53):
did take action, and that is Leu Wallace, another colorful
character who later became famous as a novelist. You know,
he wrote the second best selling novel of the nineteenth century,
Ben Hurk. He wasn't a military man, although he did
form a local militia unit, but it.
Speaker 3 (15:10):
Was a Zoov unit.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
Those were the zoovs where guys who dressed up in
these interesting uniforms that with pantaloons and vests and mostly
did close order drill. They were very popular, but they
certainly didn't have any battlefield experience. So Leu Wallace started
his own regiment when the war started. He quickly rose
(15:33):
in the ranks as he had success in an early
battle in Romney, West Virginia.
Speaker 3 (15:37):
When the Union press was looking for heroes, and they
played him up.
Speaker 2 (15:41):
And then he also fought very well in February sixty
two at the Battles of Forts Henry Hymen and Donaldson
out there in Tennessee, and he was promoted to major
general at thirty four, one of the youngest Union generals.
His low point came at the Battle of Shiloh April
sixth seventh, eighteen sixty two, when he managed to get
his men lost in the woods before the first They
(16:03):
missed the first day. Grant was commanding, as was General Halleck.
Henry Halleck, and they both were not very happy with Wallace,
and they relieved him of his command. He was out
of the war for two years. He begged to get
back in. He finally was, but he got a terrible assignment.
Speaker 3 (16:20):
He was.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
In March sixty four he was appointed commander of the
eighth Army Corps of the Middle Department. Basically he was
military governor of Baltimore, which was kind of a hotbed
of a Confederate sentiment, but it wasn't anything like what
he wanted. He was itching to get back in the fight,
so without orders on his own, on July third, Wallas
(16:42):
started gathering up troops to send down to Monocracy Junction,
which is four miles south of Frederick, Maryland, and he
arrived on July fifth. At the end of the day
July sixth, all the troops he could muster, who were
mostly one hundred days men who hadn't had any experience
in battle, one gun, one piece of artillery, and he
(17:05):
had about fifteen hundred men.
Speaker 1 (17:07):
And you're listening to Mark Leipsen tell the story of
the Battle of Monocacy. And by the way, picture in
your mind Richmond being the capital, Montgomery also a capital
in the Confederacy, and Richmond and d C two capitals
of opposing armies within about a two hours drive, if
you know that area of the country. So they're right
(17:27):
next to each other, these two capitals. And here is
Lee trying to strike in our current nation's capital, Washington,
d C. The story of the Battle of Monocacy continues
here on our American Stories. And we're back with the
(18:09):
final portion of Mark Leipsin's retelling the eighteen sixty four
Battle of Monocacy. Here on our American Stories it's also
known as the Battle to Save Washington, d C. We
returned to Mark Leipsen and the Union General lou Wallace.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
At the end of the day July sixth, all the
troops he could muster, who were mostly one hundred days
men who hadn't had any experience in battle, one gun,
one piece of artillery, and he had about fifteen hundred men. Meanwhile,
Early had picked up more troops. He's got about fourteen
thousand men, and he's bearing down on monocacy. So finally
(18:52):
Grant finally relents when he hears when all this word
gets to him, and he releases the sixth Corps from
City Point outside of Richmond. They get hunt They wake
them up early in the morning. They get on ships.
They go down to James River, out into the Chesapeake.
Speaker 3 (19:10):
And up up to Baltimore.
Speaker 2 (19:13):
They get on trains at the old Camden station, and
they arrived there on early after and July seventh. Trains
left at four o'clock. They arrived the next dawn the
next day at Frederick Junction. And now Wallace has about
sixty five hundred troops. Again, he's over two to one
out manned, but he at least has sixty five hundred.
(19:34):
He has one gun. The Confederates have something like twenty
four guns. So it's inevitable that the Confederates are going
to win this, but Wallace puts up a full day fight.
One of the Confederate commanders was John Brown Gordon, who
had fought in every battle in the Eastern Theater, was
wounded five times at Antietam. He said that later that
(19:55):
Monocracy was the sharpest fight he was in. The first
shots were fired at six am Saturday, July ninth. Those
three artillery battalions really won the day for the Southerners,
and Wallas was forced to retreat at about four o'clock
in the afternoon. So this little known battle, No, it
(20:16):
wasn't Antietam, it wasn't Wilderness, but we did have about
thirteen hundred Union casualties killed, wounded, taken prisoner, and about
eight hundred Confederates.
Speaker 3 (20:26):
So some people call this a skirmish, but you.
Speaker 2 (20:28):
Know it was a battle. The river ran red with blood,
and I know people say about other battles, but in
this case it was true because a lot of the
fighting took place right on both sides of the river.
Speaker 3 (20:39):
The Confederates.
Speaker 2 (20:40):
When Halleck and Grant found out what happened, they relieved
Wallace of his command although he was soon reinstated. Early
and the troops spent the night on the battlefield at
July ninth, and then the next morning they marched east toward.
Speaker 3 (20:54):
Washington, d C.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
He sent his cavalry north toward Baltimore for two reasons.
One ain't to make people believe that he was going
to Baltimore rather than Washington, and two to cut the
railroad in telegraph lines, which he did.
Speaker 3 (21:07):
So Washington was.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
In communicata lest they heard Early was either on his
way to Baltimore or Washington, probably Washington, and there was
panic in the streets. The Navy Secretary Gideon Wells wrote
in his diary, the rebels are upon us. They readied
a ship. They provisioned a ship in the Potomac to
spirit Lincoln out of town if this invasion of the.
Speaker 3 (21:28):
City should take place and be successful.
Speaker 2 (21:30):
And Lincoln did not know about it, and when he
found out about it, he was angry. But still it
wouldn't have helped Lincoln very much in his election campaign
if he had had to flee Washington, d C.
Speaker 3 (21:42):
There was also the.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
US Treasury to be raided, desperately needed Confederate supplies to
be looted, possibly burning Washington if those Confederate troops got
loose in the streets, and it certainly would have had
an impact on the election.
Speaker 3 (21:56):
So what happened.
Speaker 2 (21:58):
A call went out for all able bodied men to
get to the barricades, and so we had civilians, government
workers on the battle, you know, came up to those sports,
those defensive forts and to help the invalid corps defend
Washington against all these seasoned troops. Again, finally, at the
(22:19):
last minute, Grant relented down in Petersburg and he sent
the rest of the sixth Corps up to Washington. And
again they did the same thing. They got on ships,
they went down the James River, but this time they
came up to Potomac. They landed at the docks downtown Washington,
d C. About noontime on July eleventh, and they went
(22:40):
up to Fort Stevens, which was the northernmost part of Washington,
d C. The citizens were gleeful. They greeted them with
ice cream and sandwiches. So on July eleventh, early, he
was one of those generals who was on his horse
with the men right out in front of the troops.
And they arrived outside Fort Stevens, and you know from
(23:01):
his horse with his binoculars he could see the capital dome.
Speaker 3 (23:06):
He had it in his sites.
Speaker 2 (23:07):
You know, the South's most aggressive generals had the capital
Dome in his sites. And he could have given the
order to attack, but he didn't. And for several reasons. One,
he didn't have very many troops. He had to leave
troops back on the battlefield to take care of the
wounded and the prisoners, and the men were all strung out,
you know, between Frederick and Washington.
Speaker 3 (23:28):
He only had the lead elements of his troops.
Speaker 2 (23:31):
And also it was really really hot, and they had
been on the march now it's July eleventh, since June thirteenth,
and you know, there were wool uniforms. They had to
have been exhausted. Now, the men wanted to go, but
Early decided not to. However, being jewbile, Early and he
had his artillery, there was skirmishing. There was artillery going
back and forth. And that night Early took his generals
(23:53):
for a council of war into Silver Spring at the
Blair mansion, owned by the prominent Blair family had fled.
They had gone to Pennsylvania and Early in his generals
had this Council of War. They raided the Blairs wine cellar,
and they decided that they would decide what they would
do the next morning, on July twelfth. So Early goes
(24:15):
back early in the morning.
Speaker 3 (24:17):
Of July twelfth.
Speaker 2 (24:18):
He looks up in front of him and he sees
six Core troops on the parapet at Fort Stevens. They
had a distinctive cross as their regimental or as their
core cross, and so he knew he was facing experienced troops.
He had thought he might be facing these invalids. And
(24:39):
so again there was skirmishing and fighting on.
Speaker 3 (24:42):
You know.
Speaker 2 (24:42):
Famously, Abraham Lincoln and some of the citizens of Washington
came out. Lincoln came out, was standing on the parapet
at Fort Stevens, all six feet five of them, in
a stovepipe hat, when a Union surgeon standing next to
him was shot and wounded by a Confederate sharpshooter in
the trees far away, at which point Lincoln was urged
(25:03):
to get down from the barricades. So there's two days
of skirmishing, about three hundred Union dead and wounded. We
don't know how many Confederates, but it was probably in
that ballpark it never made the official records of the
Civil War. July thirteenth, Early snuck out of Washington, retreated
back through Montgomery County, Silver Spring to Poolsville, Maryland, and
(25:26):
then crossed the Potomac River at White's Ferry and came
back into Virginia. So did monocracy save Washington, d C.
You know, I think it did. Grant rights in his
memoirs that had Lew Wallace not held up Early for
most of one day and you know, probably two days
because they rested on the battlefield the next day, that
(25:46):
he Grant would not have had time to get the
sixth Corps up to Washington, d C. What impact did
it have on the sixty four presidential election.
Speaker 3 (25:56):
Well, we know that Lincoln won. We also know that
he was at a very very very low point.
Speaker 2 (26:01):
You know, he wrote a letter to his cabinet said
not to be unsealed until after the election, and the
letter said please cooperate with the new administration. He didn't
think he was going to win, but he did. And
one of the reasons had to have been that Washington,
d C. Escaped a Confederate attack. There are other factors,
(26:22):
believe me, there were certainly what happened at Monocracy had
a strong impact on the presidential election.
Speaker 1 (26:34):
And a special thanks to Robbie Davis for the production
on that piece and the storytelling. And also a special
thanks to Mark Leipsen his book Desperate Engagement How a
little known Civil War battle saved Washington d C. And
changed American history. And there is no doubt if Washington
d C. Had been sacked, it would have been a
(26:55):
death blow to the Lincoln presidency. And that's what indeed,
Gettysburg was all about, getting that big victory to harm
Lincoln's chances of getting re elected in eighteen sixty four
and the Union calling it quits in the greatest war
of our country's history, actually perhaps more consequential even than
the American Revolution. The story of the Battle of Monocacy
(27:17):
here on our American Stories
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,
and we tell stories about everything here on this show,
including yours. Send them to our American Stories dot com.
They're some of our favorites. Previously on our show, Mark
Leipson told the story of the Battle of Baltimore and
the writing of our national Anthem. Today, Mark's back to
tell the story of the Battle of Monocacy, the Civil
(00:33):
War battle that was a Union loss and saved Washington,
d C.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
The July ninth, eighteen sixty four Battle of Monocacy is
one of the most important, little known battles of the
Civil War, mainly because it's known as the Battle that saved.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
Washington, d C.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Because after which the Confederates attacked nation's capital for the
first and only time during.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
The Civil War.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
It took place four miles south of Frederick, Maryland, about
forty five miles west of Washington, d C. This was
a time when Lee was surrounded at Richmond and Petersburg
by Grant. Following the bloody of six weeks of the
Civil War, Grant's Wilderness Campaign aka the Overland Campaign, the
(01:27):
last three huge battles of the Civil War. The Battles
of Wilderness Spotsylvania Courthouse and Cold Harbor. These were mammoth
battles that hundreds of thousands of troops took part in
Wilderness May fifth through the seventh. This is over one
hundred and one thousand Union troops alone, sixty one thousand
Confederates twenty five thousand, four hundred casualties killed, wounded and
(01:50):
taken prisoner. Followed by Spotsylvania Courthouse coming east toward Fredericksburg
again one Union troops over fifty thousand Confederate troops thirty
thousand combined casualties.
Speaker 3 (02:05):
I mean these were.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
Slaughters, as was a Battle of Cold Harbor right near
Richmond that dragged on for two weeks May thirty first
to June twelfth, about seventeen thousand casualties. And the other
thing to keep in mind about this whole thing is
hovering over It is the eighteen sixty four presidential election,
the only presidential election ever held in a country during
(02:28):
a fighting civil war, a democratic national election held during
the fighting Civil war. And of course Lincoln was running
for reelection, and he was going against the Democrat General McClellan,
the disgraced Union general. It was not a great time
for Lincoln. They didn't have gallup polls then, but everybody
knew it was going to be a really uphill struggle
(02:51):
to get that victory. In November. In fact, he almost
didn't get the Republican nomination. He had to choose a Democrat.
That would be Andrew Johnson, Senator of Tennessee, a Southern
Democrat at that to be his running mate. Because his
Republican party was divided.
Speaker 3 (03:06):
You know, War Republicans and peace.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
Republicans were at odds. Lincoln was trying to navigate that.
The Democrats, they were slightly divided, but they were united
in their opposition to Lincoln. In the midst of all this,
Roberty League comes up with his bold four part plan
to thwart Grant's plan to end the war. Part one,
to drive Union forces from out of the Shenandoah Valley.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
The Union had Shenandoah.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
Valley the Confederate's bread basket. They were desperately needing food.
They were desperately needing supplies to get through. Second, free
the Confederate prisoners at Point Lookout Pow Camp, which was
on the southern point, still there today on the south
the museum on the southern tip of southern Maryland, not
far from Washington DCS. The crowflies probably twelve thousand Confederate
(03:56):
prisoners held there if they had been freed, that would
have been the equivalent of a corps of troops. For
Roberty Lee desperately needed a third to threaten Washington d
C if possible. And fourth and most important in Lee's mind,
was to force Grant to move those troops away from
Richmond and Petersburg so that Lee could have some breathing room.
(04:19):
So who did Roberty Lee choose on this dangerous and
important mission is Lieutenant General Jubilee Anderson Early, who was
one of the most colorful and controversial characters in the
Civil War. He was a Virginian from Rocky Mount, Virginia.
He went to West Point. He wasn't a great student,
graduated at the bottom of his class, just about served
(04:39):
briefly in the Seminole War, although nothing was going on
when he got down to Florida.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
He served in the Mexican War. Same thing.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
Fighting was over by the time he got out there.
He went back to Virginia practice law.
Speaker 3 (04:51):
He was a member of.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
The Virginia Secession Convention, actually voted against secession at first,
but when the tide turned, he voted for a secession.
And he was the most ty hard Confederates during the
war and afterward. He was wounded at the Battle of
Williamsburg in sixty two. He fought in every battle in
the Eastern Theater.
Speaker 3 (05:08):
He was an.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
Aggressive general, although he did not judge terrain well, he
did not judge. He wasn't a great tactician. He had
a love hate relationship with the men. He was very abrasive,
didn't get along very well with the other officers. Robert E.
Lee called him my bad old man, even though Lee
was older than Early. Early had contracted arthritis, and he
(05:30):
was hunched over, and he was straggly beard, and he
was just a kind of a mean, cantankerous, you know, misogynistic,
racist guy. But he was aggressive, which is probably why
Lee chose him, although you know, he didn't have much
choice at that point in the war with what generals
were available.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
So on the early morning hours.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
Of June thirteenth, Early marched eight thousand Confederate troops away
from Richmond and Petersburg. They snuck out. The Union troops
did not have a clue that this happened. They marched
seventy miles due west to Charlottesvihilly got on rickety trains
on June seventeenth, and on June nineteenth came the Battle
of Lynchburgh, which is even less well known because there
(06:13):
wasn't much of a battle because when the Union generals
heard that Early was there with the corps of troops,
they fled.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
And you're listening to Mark leips and tell the story
of the Battle of Monocacy and it's the battle that
saved Washington, d C. More of the story here on
our American Stories. Here are to our American Stories. We
(07:32):
bring you inspiring stories of history, sports, business, faith and love.
Stories from a great and beautiful country that need to
be told. But we can't do it without you. Our
stories are free to listen to, but they're not free
to make. If you love our stories in America like
we do, please go to Our American Stories dot com
and click the donate button. Give a little, give a lot,
(07:53):
help us keep the great American stories coming. That's our
American Stories dot com. And we're back with Mark Leapson
here on our American Stories and the story of the
(08:14):
Battle of Monocacy. A little known battle that saved Washington,
d C. When we last left off, Union troops were
fleeing north from Confederate General Jubile early in June of
eighteen sixty four.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
They went west, they went over the mountain into what
is now West Virginia. That was led by General David
Hunter aka Black Dave Hunter, who was not one of
the top Union generals. He had just finished what was
known as Hunter's raid up and down the valley, the
Shenandoah Valley, Stanton Lexington Natural Bridge, that area Lynchburg, and
(08:52):
he had, you know, was living off the land, which
meant confiscating people's farm, animals and crops, and just up
to General no Good and so he fled, and with him,
one of Lee's goals was accomplished. The Union troops had
left the Shenandoah Valley not to come back. So then
(09:14):
the Confederate troops they started their march up north, which
we call going down the valley because how the Shenandoah flows.
So in other words, when you go north through going
down the valley because of the way the Shenandoah flows.
The last Union general in their way was General Franz Siegel,
who again was not one of the great Union generals.
(09:34):
In fact, he was probably one of the worst.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
He had.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
He was a political general, he was German. He came
here with no battlefield experience. Lincoln was trying to influence
German Americans and Germans to come on the Union side,
and that was the reason Siegel got this command. And
you know, his low point came during the Battle of
Newmarket earlier that spring, when his superior for verses were
(10:00):
routed by Confederate troops there in the Shenandoah Valley, aided
by cadets from Virginia Military Institute, some as young as
fifteen years old. So Siegel fled. He went way up
into Maryland to the Maryland Heights over at Harper's Ferry,
West Virginia, right across the river. Early and his men,
(10:21):
you know, marched. You know, it was very hot that summer.
About a third of the men did not have shoes,
but they kept going. And when Early got across the
Potomac River. This is the third time that the Confederates, said,
if you want to call it that way, invaded the North,
the first time being for the Battle of Antietam and
sixty two, and the second time in sixty.
Speaker 3 (10:43):
Three for Gettysburg.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
Everybody heard of that, but not very many people know
about this third move into the north, and they camped
for two days outside Antietam, which is not far from
hart Ropers Ferry where they rested. Also, that's when Early
(11:06):
got the order from Rob Lee, Robert y Lee's son.
They sent him on horse guy I didn't want to
put this order out on the telegraph. They sent him
on horseback up from Richmond, and he delivered this important,
crucial order to go after those imprisoned Confederates at point
lookout if they could. So let's back up just a
(11:26):
quick minute and talk about Washington, d C.
Speaker 3 (11:28):
At this point in the war.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
You know, you think about it, Washington's just you know,
across the Potomac River from Virginia. It was ninety miles.
It is ninety miles from Richmond, the capitol of the Confederacy. So,
especially after the first Battle of Manasses in the summer
of sixty one, people were worried about a Confederate invasion
of the national capital. So soon after that the Union
(11:51):
army went around went and built the what was known
as the Defenses of Washington.
Speaker 3 (11:56):
When they finished, which was this time in.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
The Civil War, there were something like sixty eight forts
surrounding Washington d C. And of course they went into
Virginia because the Union took over northern Virginia soon after
the war started. Now, these were defensive forts. They weren't extensive,
but they did bristle with artillery. They were out facing,
and the forts were basically all tied together by a
(12:20):
series of berms and embankments.
Speaker 3 (12:26):
There's only one.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
Fort left today that you can see, and that's Fort Stevens,
which is if you think of Washington d C. As
shaped like a diamond, it's at the very tip of
the diamond near Silver Spring, Maryland, and it's a national park. Now,
I mean, the fort has been rebuilt, but you can
see what they.
Speaker 3 (12:41):
Were like if you go there.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
They had cannons facing out. Of course, inside it was
like a horseshoe. And the forts were designed to be
manned by about fifty to sixty thousand troops, but at
this point in the war there weren't a lot of
spare able bodied Union troops.
Speaker 3 (13:02):
Washington d C.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
Was kind of like a hospital during the war. Hospital
you know, schools, government buildings were turned into hospitals. Men
recovering from these vicious battles that had kept accumulating, and
so we don't know how many people were defending Washington
at this time, but we think it was maybe around
ten thousand, if that. And not only that, but most
(13:25):
of them were members of what was known as the
Veteran Reserve Corps. Now the Veteran Reserve Corps had recently
changed its name in eighteen sixty four. It had been
known as the Invalid Corps. The Invalid Corps were men
who were recuperating from their wounds, but well enough to
you know, walk and man the barricades. So we had
(13:47):
about ten thousand invalids defending Washington, d C. At this
point in the war, and we had Jewbra early on
the March, so they crossed the Potomac. Like I said
on Live fifth, this was actually the first time the
Union intelligence realized that Lee had just sent an entire
core of troops away from Richmond. They started moving toward Washington,
(14:11):
D C. Now we're just getting back to Washington now
that Lee has sent a corps of troops out there,
and the Union intelligence, which was not great in general
during the war, was not good here either. At first,
the reports said it was general Yule, who.
Speaker 3 (14:27):
Was in the hospital at the time.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
It was actually early and they kept getting the numbers wrong.
You know, twenty thousand was mentioned, twenty five thousand was mentioned.
Grant heard about it. He saw these dispatches and he
figured out what Lee was up to, and he decided
he wasn't going to send any troops. He had his
plan in place and that's what he was going to do.
But one Union Army general did figure it out and
(14:53):
did take action, and that is Leu Wallace, another colorful
character who later became famous as a novelist. You know,
he wrote the second best selling novel of the nineteenth century,
Ben Hurk. He wasn't a military man, although he did
form a local militia unit, but it.
Speaker 3 (15:10):
Was a Zoov unit.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
Those were the zoovs where guys who dressed up in
these interesting uniforms that with pantaloons and vests and mostly
did close order drill. They were very popular, but they
certainly didn't have any battlefield experience. So Leu Wallace started
his own regiment when the war started. He quickly rose
(15:33):
in the ranks as he had success in an early
battle in Romney, West Virginia.
Speaker 3 (15:37):
When the Union press was looking for heroes, and they
played him up.
Speaker 2 (15:41):
And then he also fought very well in February sixty
two at the Battles of Forts Henry Hymen and Donaldson
out there in Tennessee, and he was promoted to major
general at thirty four, one of the youngest Union generals.
His low point came at the Battle of Shiloh April
sixth seventh, eighteen sixty two, when he managed to get
his men lost in the woods before the first They
(16:03):
missed the first day. Grant was commanding, as was General Halleck.
Henry Halleck, and they both were not very happy with Wallace,
and they relieved him of his command. He was out
of the war for two years. He begged to get
back in. He finally was, but he got a terrible assignment.
Speaker 3 (16:20):
He was.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
In March sixty four he was appointed commander of the
eighth Army Corps of the Middle Department. Basically he was
military governor of Baltimore, which was kind of a hotbed
of a Confederate sentiment, but it wasn't anything like what
he wanted. He was itching to get back in the fight,
so without orders on his own, on July third, Wallas
(16:42):
started gathering up troops to send down to Monocracy Junction,
which is four miles south of Frederick, Maryland, and he
arrived on July fifth. At the end of the day
July sixth, all the troops he could muster, who were
mostly one hundred days men who hadn't had any experience
in battle, one gun, one piece of artillery, and he
(17:05):
had about fifteen hundred men.
Speaker 1 (17:07):
And you're listening to Mark Leipsen tell the story of
the Battle of Monocacy. And by the way, picture in
your mind Richmond being the capital, Montgomery also a capital
in the Confederacy, and Richmond and d C two capitals
of opposing armies within about a two hours drive, if
you know that area of the country. So they're right
(17:27):
next to each other, these two capitals. And here is
Lee trying to strike in our current nation's capital, Washington,
d C. The story of the Battle of Monocacy continues
here on our American Stories. And we're back with the
(18:09):
final portion of Mark Leipsin's retelling the eighteen sixty four
Battle of Monocacy. Here on our American Stories it's also
known as the Battle to Save Washington, d C. We
returned to Mark Leipsen and the Union General lou Wallace.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
At the end of the day July sixth, all the
troops he could muster, who were mostly one hundred days
men who hadn't had any experience in battle, one gun,
one piece of artillery, and he had about fifteen hundred men. Meanwhile,
Early had picked up more troops. He's got about fourteen
thousand men, and he's bearing down on monocacy. So finally
(18:52):
Grant finally relents when he hears when all this word
gets to him, and he releases the sixth Corps from
City Point outside of Richmond. They get hunt They wake
them up early in the morning. They get on ships.
They go down to James River, out into the Chesapeake.
Speaker 3 (19:10):
And up up to Baltimore.
Speaker 2 (19:13):
They get on trains at the old Camden station, and
they arrived there on early after and July seventh. Trains
left at four o'clock. They arrived the next dawn the
next day at Frederick Junction. And now Wallace has about
sixty five hundred troops. Again, he's over two to one
out manned, but he at least has sixty five hundred.
(19:34):
He has one gun. The Confederates have something like twenty
four guns. So it's inevitable that the Confederates are going
to win this, but Wallace puts up a full day fight.
One of the Confederate commanders was John Brown Gordon, who
had fought in every battle in the Eastern Theater, was
wounded five times at Antietam. He said that later that
(19:55):
Monocracy was the sharpest fight he was in. The first
shots were fired at six am Saturday, July ninth. Those
three artillery battalions really won the day for the Southerners,
and Wallas was forced to retreat at about four o'clock
in the afternoon. So this little known battle, No, it
(20:16):
wasn't Antietam, it wasn't Wilderness, but we did have about
thirteen hundred Union casualties killed, wounded, taken prisoner, and about
eight hundred Confederates.
Speaker 3 (20:26):
So some people call this a skirmish, but you.
Speaker 2 (20:28):
Know it was a battle. The river ran red with blood,
and I know people say about other battles, but in
this case it was true because a lot of the
fighting took place right on both sides of the river.
Speaker 3 (20:39):
The Confederates.
Speaker 2 (20:40):
When Halleck and Grant found out what happened, they relieved
Wallace of his command although he was soon reinstated. Early
and the troops spent the night on the battlefield at
July ninth, and then the next morning they marched east toward.
Speaker 3 (20:54):
Washington, d C.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
He sent his cavalry north toward Baltimore for two reasons.
One ain't to make people believe that he was going
to Baltimore rather than Washington, and two to cut the
railroad in telegraph lines, which he did.
Speaker 3 (21:07):
So Washington was.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
In communicata lest they heard Early was either on his
way to Baltimore or Washington, probably Washington, and there was
panic in the streets. The Navy Secretary Gideon Wells wrote
in his diary, the rebels are upon us. They readied
a ship. They provisioned a ship in the Potomac to
spirit Lincoln out of town if this invasion of the.
Speaker 3 (21:28):
City should take place and be successful.
Speaker 2 (21:30):
And Lincoln did not know about it, and when he
found out about it, he was angry. But still it
wouldn't have helped Lincoln very much in his election campaign
if he had had to flee Washington, d C.
Speaker 3 (21:42):
There was also the.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
US Treasury to be raided, desperately needed Confederate supplies to
be looted, possibly burning Washington if those Confederate troops got
loose in the streets, and it certainly would have had
an impact on the election.
Speaker 3 (21:56):
So what happened.
Speaker 2 (21:58):
A call went out for all able bodied men to
get to the barricades, and so we had civilians, government
workers on the battle, you know, came up to those sports,
those defensive forts and to help the invalid corps defend
Washington against all these seasoned troops. Again, finally, at the
(22:19):
last minute, Grant relented down in Petersburg and he sent
the rest of the sixth Corps up to Washington. And
again they did the same thing. They got on ships,
they went down the James River, but this time they
came up to Potomac. They landed at the docks downtown Washington,
d C. About noontime on July eleventh, and they went
(22:40):
up to Fort Stevens, which was the northernmost part of Washington,
d C. The citizens were gleeful. They greeted them with
ice cream and sandwiches. So on July eleventh, early, he
was one of those generals who was on his horse
with the men right out in front of the troops.
And they arrived outside Fort Stevens, and you know from
(23:01):
his horse with his binoculars he could see the capital dome.
Speaker 3 (23:06):
He had it in his sites.
Speaker 2 (23:07):
You know, the South's most aggressive generals had the capital
Dome in his sites. And he could have given the
order to attack, but he didn't. And for several reasons. One,
he didn't have very many troops. He had to leave
troops back on the battlefield to take care of the
wounded and the prisoners, and the men were all strung out,
you know, between Frederick and Washington.
Speaker 3 (23:28):
He only had the lead elements of his troops.
Speaker 2 (23:31):
And also it was really really hot, and they had
been on the march now it's July eleventh, since June thirteenth,
and you know, there were wool uniforms. They had to
have been exhausted. Now, the men wanted to go, but
Early decided not to. However, being jewbile, Early and he
had his artillery, there was skirmishing. There was artillery going
back and forth. And that night Early took his generals
(23:53):
for a council of war into Silver Spring at the
Blair mansion, owned by the prominent Blair family had fled.
They had gone to Pennsylvania and Early in his generals
had this Council of War. They raided the Blairs wine cellar,
and they decided that they would decide what they would
do the next morning, on July twelfth. So Early goes
(24:15):
back early in the morning.
Speaker 3 (24:17):
Of July twelfth.
Speaker 2 (24:18):
He looks up in front of him and he sees
six Core troops on the parapet at Fort Stevens. They
had a distinctive cross as their regimental or as their
core cross, and so he knew he was facing experienced troops.
He had thought he might be facing these invalids. And
(24:39):
so again there was skirmishing and fighting on.
Speaker 3 (24:42):
You know.
Speaker 2 (24:42):
Famously, Abraham Lincoln and some of the citizens of Washington
came out. Lincoln came out, was standing on the parapet
at Fort Stevens, all six feet five of them, in
a stovepipe hat, when a Union surgeon standing next to
him was shot and wounded by a Confederate sharpshooter in
the trees far away, at which point Lincoln was urged
(25:03):
to get down from the barricades. So there's two days
of skirmishing, about three hundred Union dead and wounded. We
don't know how many Confederates, but it was probably in
that ballpark it never made the official records of the
Civil War. July thirteenth, Early snuck out of Washington, retreated
back through Montgomery County, Silver Spring to Poolsville, Maryland, and
(25:26):
then crossed the Potomac River at White's Ferry and came
back into Virginia. So did monocracy save Washington, d C.
You know, I think it did. Grant rights in his
memoirs that had Lew Wallace not held up Early for
most of one day and you know, probably two days
because they rested on the battlefield the next day, that
(25:46):
he Grant would not have had time to get the
sixth Corps up to Washington, d C. What impact did
it have on the sixty four presidential election.
Speaker 3 (25:56):
Well, we know that Lincoln won. We also know that
he was at a very very very low point.
Speaker 2 (26:01):
You know, he wrote a letter to his cabinet said
not to be unsealed until after the election, and the
letter said please cooperate with the new administration. He didn't
think he was going to win, but he did. And
one of the reasons had to have been that Washington,
d C. Escaped a Confederate attack. There are other factors,
(26:22):
believe me, there were certainly what happened at Monocracy had
a strong impact on the presidential election.
Speaker 1 (26:34):
And a special thanks to Robbie Davis for the production
on that piece and the storytelling. And also a special
thanks to Mark Leipsen his book Desperate Engagement How a
little known Civil War battle saved Washington d C. And
changed American history. And there is no doubt if Washington
d C. Had been sacked, it would have been a
(26:55):
death blow to the Lincoln presidency. And that's what indeed,
Gettysburg was all about, getting that big victory to harm
Lincoln's chances of getting re elected in eighteen sixty four
and the Union calling it quits in the greatest war
of our country's history, actually perhaps more consequential even than
the American Revolution. The story of the Battle of Monocacy
(27:17):
here on our American Stories
Host
Lee Habeeb
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