Battle for Crampton’s Gap

Battle for Crampton’s Gap. “Sealed With Their Lives”. , The Battle of South Mountain struck Crampton’s Gap late in the afternoon of September 14, 1862, when Union Gen. William B. Franklin finally ordered an attack against Confederate Gen. Lafayette McLaws’s force here. As the Confederate defensive line along the Mountain Church Road began to disintegrate, Gen. Howell Cobb arrived in Whipp’s ravine with reinforcements to stop the Federal onrush. Soon, they were surrounded on three sides. Lt. Col. Jefferson Lamar, leading Cobb’s Georgia Legion, realized that his command must either retreat with the rest of the Confederates stampeding west, or stand and fight to allow the others a chance to escape. He chose to fight. Soon after, he fell to the ground as a bullet smashed into his leg, and when he finally ordered what was left of the Legion to withdraw, he was mortally wounded in the chest. The Federals continued their advance up the mountain, were stopped briefly by two guns of the Troup Light Artillery positioned in the road, and soon forced the withdrawal of the cannons, one of which was left behind when its carriage broke. Franklin’s men then overwhelmed a Confederate last stand behind a stone wall on the reverse slope of the mountain. Southern resistance dissolved as those not killed, badly wounded, or captured retreated into the valley below. Having captured Crampton’s Gap, Franklin called a halt. The Confederates formed a defensive line across the valley, eliminating any chance of a Union rescue at Harpers Ferry.