Battle of Monocacy

Significance

The Battle of Monocacy on July 9, 1864, was fought roughly six miles from Frederick, Maryland, as part of the Valley Campaigns of 1864. Confederate forces under Jubal A. Early, numbering around 14,000, defeated Lew Wallace's Union force of approximately 5,800, inflicting over 1,200 Union casualties. Despite the tactical Confederate victory, the engagement served a strategic purpose for the Union: by forcing Early to fight rather than march unimpeded, Wallace's smaller force delayed the Confederate advance on Washington, D.C. The battle was itself an element of Early's broader raid through the Shenandoah Valley and into Maryland, an operation designed by the Confederate command to draw Union troops away from Grant's siege of Lee's army at Petersburg, Virginia. Whether that diversion succeeded in materially relieving pressure on Petersburg is the central question the battle poses within the wider 1864 campaign.

Forces & casualties

Commanders (2)