Middletown: Between the Armies
Near Harpers Ferry, Maryland
Middletown sits in a valley between South Mountain and Catoctin Mountain in Frederick County, and in September of eighteen sixty-two that geography made it the center of a pivotal Civil War campaign. Confederate forces under Robert E. Lee held the passes through South Mountain just west of town.
On September fourteenth, Union forces attacked Turner's Gap and Fox's Gap in a day of hard fighting, and Lee's men withdrew that night. The wounded filled Middletown's churches, and Union commanders followed the fight from the valley. Three days later came Antietam.
Antietam gave Lincoln the battlefield success he wanted before issuing the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation. In July of eighteen sixty-three, Union forces under General Meade passed through the valley while pursuing Lee after Gettysburg. The following summer, Confederate General Jubal Early occupied the valley and demanded ransom before moving on toward Washington.
