Street Fighting

Street Fighting. War Comes to Boonsboro. , On the morning of September 15, 1862, pounding hooves and the sounds of war resounded on the street behind you as Capt. Elon Farnsworth's Union cavalrymen skirmished with Fitzhugh Lee's 9th Virginia Cavalry. Lee's men were the rear guard of the Confederate retreat from South Mountain, and he was unhorsed and lay dazed in a gutter during the melee, narrowly escaping capture. His troops made another delaying stand at Keedysville Road., According to several reports, some residents of Boonsboro, a pro-Union town, took potshots from the windows of their homes at the retreating Confederates., It was the second day of fighting in the Boonsboro region. On September 14 the Union Army of the Potomac had compelled the Army of Northern Virginia to defend Fox's, Turner's, and Crampton's Gaps on South Mountain. Confederate troops had also clogged the streets of Boonsboro that day as they prepared to defend the strategic passes., "The contest in the streets of the town was fierce and protracted.... Lee's squadrons were assailed not only by an open enemy, but concealed foes shot at his men from the windows of the houses." , Confederate Maj. Henry B. McClellan, (sidebar) , The turmoil of the fighting on September 14 had a direct impact on John Christian Brining, whose successful cabinet shop stood at this location. Union forces had attacked Confederate Gen. Samuel Garland's outnumbered North Carolinians at Fox's Gap, dislodging them from their positions and mortally wounding Garland. Confederate troops brought Garland's body to Boonsboro and demanded Brining make a coffin so the general's corpse could be sent to Lynchburg, Va., (captions) , Gen. Samuel Garland. A small monument at Fox's Gap marks the relative location of his mortal wounding. Courtesy Virginia Military Institute, This image of Boonsboro's Main Street is from 1914-15, but one can still imagine Confederate cavalry pounding down the dirt street. This view looks southeast toward South Mountain. Courtesy Boonsborough Museum of History, Union cavalrymen pursued Fitzhugh Mountain Lee's Confederate rear guard through Boonsboro on September 1S, 1862.