Battle of South Mountain • Turner’s Gap • Fox’s Gap • Crampton’s Gap
The 1862 Antietam Campaign wayside marker is part of a a trio of Civil War Trails wayside markers across from the War Correspondents Memorial Arch at Cramptons Gap on the South Mountan battlefield. a copy of this marker is also at Turner’s Gap.
From the marker:
1862 Antietam Campaign
Lee Invades Maryland
Fresh from victory at the Second Battle of Manassas, Gen. Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia crossed the Potomac River on September 4-6, 1862, to bring the Civil War to Northern soil and to recruit sympathetic Marylanders. Union Gen. George B. McClellan’s Army of the Potomac pursued Lee, who had detached Gen. Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson’s force to capture the Union garrison at Harpers Ferry. After the Federals pushed the remaining Confederates out of the South Mountain gaps, Lee awaited Jackson’s return near Sharpsburg and Antietam creek
On September 17, at the Battle of Antietam, the two armies clashed in the single bloodiest day in American history and suffered some 23,000 casualties. Lee soon retreated across the Potomac, ending his first invasion of the north.
Follow in the footsteps of Gens. Lee and McClellan along Maryland Civil War Trails’ Antietam Campaign: Lee Invades Maryland, a 90 mile tour route that allows you to explore the stories of triumph and tragedy at more than 60 Civil War sites. Please travel carefully as you enjoy the beauty and history along the trail.
From the caption to the inset photo on the right:
The Confederate Army crosses the Potomac River into Maryland
From the caption to the inset photo on the bottom:
Franklin’s Corps storming Crampton’s Gap on South Mountain
