Battle of Shepherdstown

Battle context

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.