Published: March 08, 2009 05:04 am      

A turning point in history

Battle of Shepherdstown ended Lee’s Maryland campaign, prompted Emancipation Proclamation

FAIRMONT — Trapped on the steep banks of the tranquil Potomac River, just about a mile or so east of Shepherdstown, in mid-September 1862, a flank of navy-coated Union soldiers lept to their deaths in an effort to escape artillery fire from approaching Confederate Rebels.

This was part of the Battle of Boteler’s Ford, considered by historians a milestone in the Civil War ... and U.S. history.

Also known as the Battle of Shepherdstown or Packhorse Ford, it was fought Sept. 19 and 20, 1862, the day after the Battle of Antietam across the river in Sharpsburg, Md., had left the cornfields there soaked with the blood of 23,000 Union and Confederate soldiers killed or wounded in the single bloodiest day in American warfare.

And although much of that Jefferson County site remains untouched, the core of the battlefield is threatened by an out-of-state housing development firm.

“And that will destroy its integrity,” said Peter Carmichael, Eberly Professor of Civil War Studies at West Virginia University and author of “The Last Generation: Young Virginians in Peace, War and Reunion” and “Audacity Personified: The Generalship of Robert E. Lee.”

“The landscape has not been touched, at least not yet.

“By all accounts, this was the most important, pivotal campaign of the Civil War. But the site is almost impossible for visitors to get there. It’s in private hands and there are no interpreting markers.”

The Battle of Shepherdstown was fought over approximately one square mile, east of what was then Shepherdstown, Va., and south of the Potomac River and Boteler’s (aka Packhorse) Ford. The battle was the last of three battles, after South Mountain and Antietam, of the Army of Northern Virginia’s (ANV) Antietam or Maryland Campaign.

Approximately 9,000 troops took part in the Shepherdstown battle with 677 casualties about equally divided between the Union Army of the Potomac and Robert E. Lee’s troops.

The battle was a contributing factor in Lee’s decision to reverse the order to move north back into Maryland. As a consequence, the ANV retreated up the Shenandoah Valley toward Winchester. That retreat allowed the Union Army to declare a military victory and enabled President Abraham Lincoln to issue the Emancipation Proclamation.

Because of this, preserving the site “is critical,” Carmichael said.

His graduate students recently visited the small town and, along with the Shepherdstown Battlefield Preservation Association, are preparing a podcast walking tour “that will describe and explain the dramatic action that took place there so people across the country can come to Shepherdstown and walk the battlefield,” Carmichael said.

“The students are also doing a National Register nomination to substantiate and verify the historical significance of that ground in terms of exactly where the fighting occurred.

“This will help preservationalists and Shepherdstown citizens decide what land is deserving of preservation. And the podcasts will create more visibility and awareness to those people who crave to know more.”

Both projects will raise awareness about and accessibility to the battle site, as well as bring some always-appreciated tourist bucks to the sleepy little Jefferson County town, enticing the 300,000 or so yearly Antietam and Harpers Ferry national park tourists (and their spending dollars) to its streets, he added.

Just one day after the Battle of Antietam, the Union Army crossed the Potomac “to make a gentle advance into Virginia,” Carmichael said.

But Confederate General Robert E. Lee thought otherwise and launched his Army of Northern Virginia into a “fierce counterattack.” One inexperienced Union regiment from Pennsylvania refused to retreat and, trapped on the bluffs overlooking the Potomac, suffered very serious casualties.

“The steep banks are in places almost perpendicular to the ground,” Carmichael said. “With the assistance of the podcast, one can easily imagine the plight of the Union soldiers as they struggled against impossible odds, literally plunging to their deaths to get to the river.”

It was a contributing factor in Lee’s decision to reverse the order to move north back into Maryland, Carmichael said. The ANV’s retreat up the Shenandoah Valley toward Winchester allowed the Union Army to declare a military victory and enabled President Abraham Lincoln to issue the Emancipation Proclamation.

“From a historical context, this battle pales in comparison to Antietam,” said Ed Dunleavy, history buff and president of the Shepherdstown Battlefield Preservation Association, a grassroots effort to save the battle site. “But it was the last battle of the Army of Northern Virginia in Lee’s campaign to invade Maryland.”

Lee was hot to take control of the border state to “wise up the people” to switch to the South, Dunleavy said. Plus he needed the win to persuade Great Britain and France to recognize the Confederacy and give it some much-needed help.

“And the Union was desperate for a victory anywhere.”

Earlier that summer, President Abraham Lincoln had written the Emancipation Proclamation, “but his cabinet wasn’t sure this was the time to issue it,” Dunleavy said. “He needed a victory.

“The ANV held its own at Antietam. But Lee felt he had his back to the Potomac and retreated at Pack Horse Ford to resume his Maryland campaign. Because Lee did not return to Maryland and he did not get Maryland to secede, the Union claimed this as a victory and Lincoln was able to issue the Emancipation Proclamation. And Great Britain and France did not recognize the South.”

All of this occurred on a square-mile tract of land. But the size of the battlefield belies its importance.

“It’s important to save as much of history as we can,” Dunleavy said. “I’ve been to where the Battle of Hastings was fought, and there is not a house in sight. And that’s one of the most important battles in Western history.

“To not preserve (Boteler’s Ford) is unthinkable.”

Dunleavy and others have purchased about 84 acres of adjoining land, but the core of the property, where the battle is believed to have taken place, is in jeopardy of being bulldozed over and built upon by Far Away Farms LLC, a construction company that aims to build 150-200 housing units on the site.

Local residents have tried to stop the company. The Jefferson County Board of Zoning Appeals denied the company’s request for rural zoning, stating that it would not “be compatible” with the area. But the West Virginia Supreme Court overruled that denial, and now the green light is on for construction.

If the site is deemed “historically significant,” the National Park Service might be persuaded to incorporate it into either the Antietam or Harpers Ferry national parks. To do that, it would offer Far Away Farm “a fair value” on the land, Dunleavy said.

“Any place that a soldier gave his life should be preserved,” said John Howard, superintendent of Antietam National Battlefield in nearby Sharpsburg, Md.

“So that makes the Battle of Shepherdstown as important as the Battle of Antietam, although numberwise it was smaller. Whether the Union won or lost at Shepherdstown, the whole thing (Antietam and Shepherdstown) gave Lincoln the impetus to issue the proclamation. These battles are a part of the whole.

“Antietam was the first large Union victory. If Lee had succeeded, odds are he would have been in Pennsylvania earlier. That could have left Washington, D.C., open to assault and that could have changed a lot of things.

“It’s not just the importance of what happened at Shepherdstown,” Howard said. “If the study goes through, it needs to be protected, whether by the National Park Service, the state or the county.

“It’s not whether there weren’t as many causalities as at Antietam, but wherever a soldier dies fighting for his beliefs should be preserved and protected.”

Help is on the way via the Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009. Introduced into legislation by Sen. Robert C. Byrd, the act authorizes the National Park Service to conduct a study to determine the national significance of the battle and the site; and to determine the suitability and feasibility of adding it to either the Harpers Ferry National Historical Park or the Antietam National Battlefield.

Two Transportation Enhancement Grants of $100,000 each have been given for the county to purchase land at the site.

“This is a wonderful step in the right direction of preserving the property,” Carmichael said. “But we need to have the money and support — and a developer to play fair to recognize that this is very historical ground and not develop it but to save it for others to appreciate the sacrifices that led to the Union and emancipation.

“If we want people to understand our nation and issues we confront, we have to preserve our historical resources and understand the deep sacrifices the people in the past made.”

For more information, contact Peter Carmichael at 304-293-2421 ext. 5222 or Ed Dunleavy at www.battleofshepherdstown.org.

E-mail Debra Minor Wilson at dwilson@timeswv.com.

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Witness to the Battle of Shepherdstown

“I shall never forget the scene as I worked my way across the dreadful causeway. The bullets struck all around me, men were shot in various places of the body, some falling, others again staggering and struggling to make the other side, and all hurrying wildly on with the consciousness of the desperate chances they were taking. When nearly midway across, one poor fellow just ahead was shot, and in falling rolled over and over. As I came up to where he was lying, he clutched the tail of my overcoat, and in piteous accents called out, “Help me Captain, for God’s sake don’t leave me here.” Without stopping, I unfastened the overcoat from around my neck and left it in his death grip, saying I couldn’t help him then, but would send after him as soon as I got across. I pushed on, but the poor fellow’s soul had reached the presence of the Great Commander before I got to the other side.”

— Capt. Francis Adams Donaldson

118th Pennsylvania Volunteers, “Corn Exchange” Regiment

September 20, 1862