BATTLE // September 19, 1862
Battle of Shepherdstown
LOADING MAP TELEMETRY…
Source · Wikipedia
Significance
The Battle of Shepherdstown was the final action of the Maryland Campaign, fought in the immediate aftermath of Antietam as Lee's Army of Northern Virginia completed its withdrawal across the Potomac. The engagement secured the Confederate army's rearguard passage at Boteler's Ford and allowed Lee to continue his retreat into the Shenandoah Valley without significant Federal interference. Although Union V Corps elements briefly crossed the Potomac on September 19, A. P. Hill's counterattack the following morning drove them back, removing any immediate threat of Union pursuit. The battle thus closed the Maryland Campaign on Confederate terms at the tactical level, even as the campaign as a whole had ended Lee's first northern incursion. Pendleton's erroneous report that all rearguard artillery had been lost introduced a moment of false crisis on the Confederate side, but Hill's action rendered that report moot.
Tactics
Union elements of V Corps engaged Pendleton's Confederate artillery rearguard at Boteler's Ford in an artillery duel on September 19, then pushed a short distance across the Potomac at dusk. On the morning of September 20, A. P. Hill's Light Division launched a counterattack that forced the Union units back across the river. The 118th Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment suffered heavy losses because it did not withdraw at the same time as the other Union units.
Forces & casualties
Troop strength
- United States2,000medium
- Confederate States2,000medium
Both sides were near-evenly matched in numbers
Casualties
- États-Unis132–163medium
- États confédérés267medium
Commanders (4)
Confederate States
United States
Compare with sibling battle
6 options
Pick a battle to compare side-by-side
Related
6 sibling battles · 2 factions