“Battle that Saved Washington.”

Did You Know?
By the summer of 1864, the Confederate Army was paralyzed at Petersburg. Staggering Union defeats at Lynchburg and Lexington, however, left the Shenandoah Valley and the path to Washington, D.C., virtually undefended. Seizing his opportunity, General Robert E. Lee devised a plan to bring the war to the north, threatening the nation's capital and potentially turning the tide of the war. In mid-June, he dispatched Lieutenant General Jubal Early and a corps of 15,000 men north. By July 8 they had reached the outskirts of Frederick.
Agents of the B & O Railroad learned of the advance of Early’s troops. In response, Union Major General Lew Wallace (left) hastily organized a force of 5,800 men at Monocacy Junction in an attempt to delay Early’s advance on the Capital. On July 9, 1864, the Confederate and Union forces met on the field of battle.


Although the battle was a military victory for the Confederates, it was also in a key respect a defeat. Time spent at the battle cost the Confederates a day’s delay in marching on the Federal Capital, exhausted Early’s troops, and provided time for the Union to reinforce Washington’s defenses. Lieutenant General Early’s raid was thus thwarted and the remainder of the war took place in the south. Because of Major General Wallace’s valiant delaying action, the Battle of Monocacy has come to be known as the “Battle that Saved Washington.”
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I always wanted to stop at this scenic overlook but was always following someone else's schedule.

This morning it hit us...we need things before vacation. So we jumped in the car and went to Hagerstown again.

I finally stopped at the scenic overlook and overlooked. I must have passed it 100 times on the way to Ohio but just thought it overlooked the valley. I had no idea it overlooked a battlefield.
What is it about men that they have to get to the destination in record time? Can't the trip be as much fun as the destination?