Glenn Worthington's "Fighting for Time"

[gary]

The Battle of Monocacy.

It was the battle fought just outside of Frederick, Maryland. Early's Corps had chased Hunter's Corps out of the Valley and then ran off Sigel too. Standing in his path to either Washington or Baltimore was Lew Wallace with a scratch force of men and one division from the VI Corps (Ricketts). Wallace knew there was no way his smaller force could stop Early and all he hoped to do was to bloody him and buy time for Grant to rush reinforcements to the defense of Washington.

Author Worthington was only 6 years old at the time but his family farm was the site of major fighting that first included McClausand's Brigade and later Gordon's Division against Rickett's men. He draws heavily on reports by the combatants including their published works. He doesn't blend them together though and it makes for choppy reading. Still, it is an important work and used as a basis for a more recent one.

[johan_steele]

Monocacy was one hell of a scrap, an interesting battle actually. Thanks Gary I'll have to look up this work.