| The Battle that Saved
Washington
This contemporary map of the battle of Monocacy
gives you a pretty good idea of how the battle went. You can
see Ricketts' Division at the bottom center of the map being
pushed backwards after Gordon's Division crossed the ford over the
river. With the left flank turned, the Union army under Lew
Wallace broke apart and fled down the road toward Washington,
after forcing Early's raiding army to stop for a day and fight,
rather than march directly down to threaten Washington.
While this rather minor battle gets a lot of hype as
"The Battle that Saved Washington," I am not so certain
that designation is deserved. Even if Early had reached Washington
unopposed, he only had enough forces for a raid, not to conquer and
occupy, and while he no doubt would have destroyed what stores he
could have, and captured what he could have carried, Early himself
figured he could have only remained in Washington for a day before
being driven out by the rapidly arriving reinforcements from
Grant.
Plus, after forcing Early to deploy for battle, the
Union forces could just have easily used delaying tactics to slow
Early, and avoided the battle altogether.
Wallace claimed after the fact that he expected to
lose the battle, but felt it necessary to attempt a stand to protect
Washington. Whatever he expected, he deployed his troops
poorly, allowed his left flank to be turned by troops crossing
unopposed at a ford he neglected to protect, and ended up presiding
over a rout of his own troops. His troop deployment is a
classic example of wishful thinking, of hoping the enemy will do
what you want, rather than being prepared for what the enemy
actually chooses to do.
In brief, Wallace expected Early to attempt to force
a crossing at the bridge where the road to Washington and the B
& O railway crossed the river, so he put his best troops,
Ricketts' Division there. His militia and 100 day conscripts
he placed north along Crumm's Ford and the Baltimore Pike. I
have no doubt he fully expected to repel the attack, or at least
force a lengthy battle that would cripple Early's ability to
threaten Washington.
Early, seeing the troops lined up along the far bank
across the bridge thought so too, sent his cavalry to find an
alternate crossing, and then assaulted Rickett's exposed
flank. All that saved the Union from an even worse defeat here
was the heroic fighting of Rickett's division in a very difficult
position.
Important note:
Early's mission on this raid down the Shenandoah Valley was never to
take Washington, nor Baltimore, but simply to force Grant to detach
troops from around Richmond and Petersburg to deal with him.
That mission was fully achieved, as Grant sent first Rickett's
Division of 5,000 men, then the remainder of the entire elite VI
Corps (Getty's and Russell's divisions) under H.G. Wright to the
defense of Washington.
If you want a more traditional take on this battle,
go here: Battle
of Monocacy
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