I’ve lived in New England for the majority of my life, so historical sites like Walden Pond, Boston Common, and Old North Church (“one if by land, two if by sea”) are commonplace. These sites may be locations for an afternoon walk, or simply on the route between a parking garage and a business meeting location. With the move to van life, historical sites in other regions of the country are on the “go-to list”. But with the pandemic, we’ve avoided going to indoor sites (the Calvin Coolidge Historic Site in Plymouth, VT, for example) or sites with large, informative visitor centers (like Gettysburg National Military Park). On our recent travels in Virginia and Maryland, we found a great place to experience history, take a hike, and socially distance at the same time – civil war battlefields.  

Looking for something to do around Frederick, Maryland, we learned the Monocacy National Battlefield was just a few minutes down the road from our overnight stay in a Cracker Barrel parking lot (yes, on travel days we sometimes park overnight in a Cabela’s or Cracker Barrel parking lot, a subject of a future blog post). With rain forecast to begin in four hours, we drove to the battlefield, ate breakfast in the parking lot, and scanned the National Park Service website about Monocacy. We also downloaded a 24-page pdf file titled Battlefield Trails, Battle of Monocacy Walking Tours which contained hiking trail maps and a detailed accounting of battlefield maneuvers.

Monocacy is called “The Battle that Saved Washington, D.C.,” yet it was also the only Confederate victory in the North. In early July 1864, Confederate forces moved north through the Shenandoah Valley and developed a bold plan to turn southeastward and attempt to capture Washington, about 60 miles southeast of Monocacy. Union troops learned of the Confederate march and set up defensive positions along the Monocacy River to try to stop the Confederates. The Union troops, outnumbered 3 to 1, battled bravely but ultimately lost the one-day battle. Yet, by delaying the Confederate’s southerly march, the Union was able to fortify their troops in the Nation’s capital and ultimately thwart the Confederate’s attempt to capture Washington later in July 1864.

According to Battlefield Trails, two Monocacy combatants, former Confederate General John Gordon and Union General Lew Wallace, met at a White House reception three decades after the Battle. Gordon, then a Georgia Senator, told Wallace he was the only Union general who had beaten him, but Wallace reportedly protested, saying that the Confederate forces had won Monocacy.  Gordon was quoted saying:

“…You snatched Washington out of our hands – there was the defeat … The duty of driving you off the road fell to me; and I did it, but not until you had repulsed several attacks, and crippled us so seriously we could not begin pushing our army forward until next morning….”

As an aside, can you believe a Confederate General, a traitor to our country, later became a U.S. Senator? Oh wait, we just had 126 members of Congress sign on to an outlandish attempt to disenfranchise millions of legal voters. Yikes, we live in a wonderful country, but our democracy (then and now) is really messy.

Today, Monocacy is an area of rolling farm fields, forested hill slopes, and a shallow meandering river similar to 1864. Some of the farmhouses present in the 1860s are still standing. Unfortunately, I-270, a busy four lane highway, now bisects the battlefield. We hiked about 6 miles along trails through the battlefields (only getting lost once), read informative signage identifying key battlefield events, and tried to imagine what the farm families experienced in July 1864 as the battle was waged in their fields. I appreciate signage with maps that depict “You are here, the Confederates crossed the river to your right, and the Union troops were positioned on hill to your left.” These signs also help limit the number of times I get lost. We crossed paths with a few other hikers, but everyone was cautious and maintained appropriate distances. The adventure was a success – it was “safe”, we got our steps in, and it was free!

 As we walked back to the van at the end of our hike, we watched another couple scoping out our van. They later drove by, stopped, and peppered us with questions about our van, from a safe distance. We always get a kick out of watching people’s expression when we tell them this is our home. A light rain began as we ate lunch in the parking lot (there’s a theme here, we eat a lot of meals in parking lots) and prepared for a 6-hour drive to Ohio.

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