Both Sides Of The River

The Battle of Shepherdstown or the Battle of Boteler’s Ford was the end of the Maryland Campaign and was fought September 19^th and 20^th 1862.

Confederate General Robert E Lee’s army of Northern Virginia waited after the Battle of Antietam for the Union to make another assault, when none came the two armies pulled together a truce so the wounded could be recovered.  Lee began his trip back to Virginia on the night of September 18^th 1862, leaving a rear guard under Brigadier General William N Pendleton to hold Boteler’s Ford.

In the early evening of September 19^th 1862 Union Brigadier General Charles Griffin sent the 1^st United States Sharpshooters and the 4^th Michigan Infantry to Boteler’s Ford.  The Union men attacked Pendleton’s troops, capturing four cannon before Griffin recalled them.  Pendleton reported the incident to Lee, reporting that he lost all forty-four of his artillery pieces.

On September 20^th 1862 the Union sent a reconnaissance force made up of Major Charles Lovell’s Brigade of United States Regulars.  The Regulars crossed the Potomac entered Shepherdstown, Virginia and encountered Confederate Major General A P Hill’s division about a mile from the river.  Hill’s men attacked under a heavy Union artillery fire.  Two more Union brigades were ordered across the river.  There was a clash along the heights along the river, which caused the Union to withdraw from the Virginia side of the river .  The day wore on, ending with both the Union and Confederate troops on either side of the Potomac River in a tactical stalemate.

Following this battle Union General George McClellan settle his Army of the Potomac into a defensive position along the Maryland bank of the river. Casualties for both sides combined were about 700, of this number 269 casualties were from the Union 118^th Pennsylvania Infantry; the “Corn Exchange Regiment”, for who this was their first battle.