The “One of Lee’s Ammunition Trains” Maryland State Historical Marker is halfway between Hagerstown and Williamsport, Virginia. (see map and directions below)
From the marker:
One of Lee’s Ammunition Trains
was captured here Sept. 15, 1862
by 1200 Federal Cavalry under
Col. B.F. Davis, escaping from Gen.
T.J. “Stonewall” Jackson’s capture
of Harpers Ferry. This loss was
felt by the Confederate army
at the Battle of Antietam.
State Road Commission
The background story
Stonewall Jackson had surrounded the 15,000 strong Union garrison at Harpers Ferry, forcing the Union forces off the high ground on one side and simply moving onto unoccupied ground on another. After a day’s bombardment, Union Commander Colonel Dixon Miles decided to surrender the next day.
Furious at Miles’ incompetence – if nor worse – Union cavalry Colonel Benjamin F. Davis demanded to be allowed to break his 1200 well-equipped cavalrymen out of the doomed position. Miles only agreed after a violent confrontation and the certainty that Davis would leave with or without his approval.
After nightfall the long line of cavalry crossed a pontoon bridge, crept along the foot of the cliffs occupied by Confederate sentries and on to a poor road that led to Shaprsburg and eventualy Pennsylvania. Somehow the troopers made their way north, despite the darkness and an occasional brush with Confederate pickets.
It was still dark when the column fell in with a Confederate supply train south of Hagerstown. Colonel Davis, born in Alabama and raised in Mississippi but loyal to the Union, used his strong southern accent to assign his men as escorts to the supply wagons and to turn them on the road to Pennsylvania. By the time the coming dawn revealed the deception the drivers of the 40 ammuniton wagons were staring down the revolvers of their escorts, firmly in Union hands.
Map and directions to the marker
The ‘One of Lee’s Ammunition Trains’ historical marker is halfway between Hagerstown and Williamsport, Maryland, on the north side of Virginia Avenue (U.S. 11) about 1.8 miles northeast of the Interstate 81 interchange, just northeast of the railroad crossing. (Note: U.S. 11 does not interchange with Interstate 70; from Interstate 70 take Interstate 81 one mile south to the Virginia Avenue exit.) (39°36’58.4″N 77°46’18.7″W;)