Battle of South Mountain • Turner’s Gap • Fox’s Gap • Crampton’s Gap
There are two wayside markers at Fox’s Gap, along Reno Mounument Road at the summit of South Mountain. The Battle for Fox’s Gap wayside marker is next to the Deaths of Two Generals wayside marker. Monuments to Union Major General Jesse Reno and Confederate Brigadier General Samuel Garland are nearby.
The Battle for Fox’s Gap wayside marker
Text from the marker:
The Battle for Fox’s Gap
“Hell is empty and all the devils are here.”
Antietam Campaign 1862
As Confederate Gen. D.H. Hill’s division struggled to hold the gaps of South Mountain on September 14, 1862, the fighting here at Fox’s Gap raged throughout the day. About 9 a.m. Gen. Jesse L. Reno’s corps attacked Confederate Gen. Samuel Garland’s lines approximately 3/4 of a mile south of here and began pushing the men north toward Fox’s Gap. Sometime around mid-morning, Garland fell mortally wounded and the Confederates scattered into the gap.
The fighting died down at midday as both sides delivered more men to the contest. Hill sent two regiments of Gen. George B. Anderson’s brigade to replace Garland’s scattered forces. Union Gen. Jacob D. Cox posted his regiments south of here along the edge of Daniel Wise’s field and waited for the remainder of Reno’s corps to reinforce him. As more units arrived, Hill sent Gen. Thomas F. Drayton’s and Col. George T. Anderson’s brigade along the “wood road” to attack the Federals. They formed in the Sharpsburg Road and attacked about 4 p.m.
By this time, the rest of Reno’s corps had pulled itself up onto the mountain. As Drayton’s men moved through Wise’s open field, well-aimed Union volleys struck them from behind stone walls. The Federals then counterattacked, and some Georgia troops sheltering in the sunken road soon found themselves trapped. Outnumbered four to one and suffering 51 per cent casualties, Drayton’s brigade broke and fled down the mountain. fox’s Gap was in Union hands by 5:30 p.m.
Caption from the photo at lower left:
Situated on the fence-line Old Sharpsburg Road at Fox’s Gap, the Wise farm saw some of the hottest action on September 14, 1862.
Deaths of Two Generals wayside marker
Text from the monument:
Deaths of Two Generals
“Hallo Sam, I’m dead!”
Antietam Campaign 1862
The fight for Fox’s Gap on September 14, 1862, claimed the lives of two general, one from each side. Confederate Gen. Samuel Garland, a Lynchburg, Virginia native, attended the Virginia Military Institute at Lexington and later obtained his law degree. Married in 1856, he suffered tragedy early in the war when both his wife and four year ld son died in an influence epidemic. Grief-stricken, he left Lynchburg as Captain of the Lynchburg Home Guard, excelled during the Penninsula campaign and Seven Days Battles, and soon attained a general’s rank. Charged with defending Fox’s Gap, he fell mortally wounded by a bullet through his chest while rallying his men about 3/4 of a mile south of here.
As evening fell and the Confederate fell back through the gap and off to the north, Union Gen. Jesse L. Reno rode by here and into the field across from Wise’s cabin to investigate what he believed was a delay in the push for Turner’s Gap. Just then, Gen. John Bell Hood’s Texans arrived on the field and fired the final Confederate volley, mortally wounding Reno.Carried on a stretcher to his friend Gen. Samuel D. Sturgis’s headquarters, Reno called to him, “Hallo, Sam, I’m dead!” A few minutes later he died, the first Union corps commander killed during the war. His monument is the second oldest one erected for the Maryland campaign.
Location of the markers at Fox’s Gap
The Fox’s Gap wayside markers are on the south side of Reno Mounument Road at the summit of South Mountain. A small parking area is on the south side of the road. The markers are just east of the small parking area.