The Battle of Shepherdstown (Boteler’s Ford), September 19-20, 1862

Note: This article was published in the September 2007 issue of Along The Towpath, the newsletter of the C&O Canal Association.  It was adapted, with the permission, from publications of the Shepherdstown Battlefield Preservation Association, Inc., POB 3359, Shepherdstown, WV 25543 (www.battleofshepherdstown.org).  The SBPA is a non-profit corporation formed to preserve what is left of the site of the Battle of Shepherdstown.

One the most pivotal campaigns of the Civil War was Gen. Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia's Maryland Campaign in September 1862. Opposing Lee was Gen. George B. McClellan's Army of the Potomac. Battles were fought at South Mountain on the 14th, Sharpsburg/Antietam on the 17th, and finally at Shepherdstown on the 19th and 20th. These battles prevented European recognition of the Confederacy and allowed President Lincoln to preliminarily issue the Emancipation Proclamation. The focus of the war changed and opened the path toward abolition of slavery. Thus the Maryland Campaign of 1862 can be considered the turning point of the Civil War

On the evening of Sept. 18, as Lee withdrew from the bloody fields of Antietam, he desired to continue his campaign. He had ordered Gen. J.E.B. Stuart's cavalry to Williamsport preparatory to re-crossing the Potomac. Preventing that plan was McClellan's advance to the Potomac at Shepherdstown, where Lee had crossed during the evening hours. With heavy artillery fire and a small portion of his Fifth Army Corps, the Federals wreaked havoc with a very under-strength Confederate rearguard commanded by Gen. William N. Pendleton.

The critical crossing, known locally as Shepherdstown Ford or Boteler's Ford, was located one and a half miles east of Shepherdstown. Just west of the ford was a cement mill and dam which offered another crossing. A deep gorge at the ford broke the bluffs on the south side of the river, and a road led west to Shepherdstown while the Charles Town Road led south. Now known as Trough Road, this dirt lane leading up from the river became the axis of attack for the Union army.

Late on Sept. 19, after driving off the Confederate infantry on the south bank of the river, the Union soldiers rounded up a few prisoners, secured several enemy cannon and waited for dawn. A panicked Gen. Pendleton rode toward Charles Town, reporting a disaster to Lee. Fearful of a disruption of his planned re-entry to Maryland, Lee ordered Gen. A. P. Hill's division to return to the ford in the morning and engage the Union pursuers.

On the morning of the 20th, Gen. Fitzjohn Porter, commander of the Fifth Corps, sent a larger force across the river. Soon Major James Lovell's small brigade crossed the ford. About one to one-and-a-half miles south of the ford, Lovell discovered a large Confederate force. He fell back slowly to the bluffs along the river, skirmishing with A. P. Hill's advancing Confederate division. Because Hill's troops overlapped the right, Col. G. K. Warren's brigade crossed the river to support Lovell, but was soon ordered to withdraw. Lovell followed, without loss, but other Union troops were less fortunate.

Gen. James Barnes' brigade had been ordered to climb the bluffs west of Trough Road and help repel the Confederates. Quickly pushing a skirmish line towards Charles Town to meet Hill's Confederates, Barnes engaged the oncoming rebel force. It rapidly became clear that Barnes' men were outnumbered, as a large number of Confederates were visible among the farm buildings and cornfields in their front. Barnes ordered a withdrawal, but due to the stubbornness of Colonel Prevost of the 118th Pennsylvania Infantry, one of the new regiments in the army, his men stood firm. Trying to fire their weapons for the very first time, they discovered that they were defective. Unable to fire at the Confederates, and with no good access to a line of retreat, many of the Pennsylvanians fled in panic over the bluffs or were shot down where they stood. Prevost was severely wounded, and the surviving members of his regiment made their way back across the Potomac on the cement mill dam or by the ford.

The pursuing Confederates shot many Union soldiers as they crossed the river and losses were heavy for the 118th with 63 killed, 101 wounded and 105 missing, a total of 269 casualties. There were also another 100 casualties in the other Union forces engaged. The Confederate casualties were 33 killed and 252 wounded. This, the bloodiest battle in the state of West Virginia, ended Lee's hopes of re-crossing the Potomac.

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