One-hundred and fifty years ago this week, Confederate General Robert E. Lee was hatching a plan he hoped would gain him the enemy’s capital, Washington, D.C. Lee had dispatched Lt. Gen. Jubal Early and 15,000 rebel soldiers up through Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley to cross the Potomac into Maryland on the Fourth of July. Five days later, July 9, 1864, at Monocacy Junction, a few miles southeast of Frederick, Confederate and Union forces clashed in perhaps the least known important confrontation of the Civil War. It’s sometimes called “The Battle that Saved Washington.”
With Sheilah to talk about it is Brett Spaulding. He’s a Park Ranger at Monocacy National Battlefield outside of Frederick, and he’s written a book about the battle called “Last Chance for Victory: Jubal Early’s Maryland Invasion.”
You can find out about all of the events happening around the anniversary of the battle at the Monocacy National Battlefield events calendar.
