Filling the Gaps (Fox’s Gap)

Fox’s Gap is the site of one of the three Battles of South Mountain.  The battle occurred on 14 September 1862 between Union forces pursuing confederate forces staging an invasion of the north.  Because Confederate General Lee feared the Union garrison at Harpers Ferry could interrupt his supply lines he divided his army so they could take Hagerstown and Harpers Ferry.  A numerically superior Union force drove them back through the passes setting up the Battle of Antietam three days later.
Just to the south of Turners Gap, elements of Confederate Gen D. H. Hill's division (most notably Gen. Thomas Drayton's Brigade ) defended Fox's Gap against Gen Jesse Reno's IX Corps. A 9 a.m. attack by Union Brig. Gen. Jacob D. Cox's Kanawha Division secured much of the land south of the gap. In the movement, Lt. Col. Rutherford B. Hayes of the 23rd Ohio led a flank attack and was seriously wounded. Cox pushed through the North Carolinians positioned behind a stone wall at the gap's crest, but he failed to capitalize on his gains as his men were exhausted, allowing Confederate reinforcements to deploy in the gap around the Daniel Wise farm.

The Wall at the Crest

 Reno sent forward the rest of his corps, but due to the timely arrival of Southern reinforcements under Confederate Brig. Gen. John Bell Hood, they failed to dislodge the defenders. Union Maj. Gen. Jesse Reno and Confederate Brig. Gen. Samuel Garland, Jr., were killed at Fox's Gap. 

Reno's Memorial

Memorial to Garland

After Farmer Wise was paid one dollar each to bury the Confederate soldiers who died behind the stone walls on or near his property, sixty (or more) bodies were dumped down his dry well.   

By dusk Lee ordered his outnumbered forces to withdraw from South Mountain. McClellan was now in position to destroy Lee's army before it could concentrate. The Battle of South Mountain was an important morale booster for the defeat-stricken Army of the Potomac.
This site is very interesting to tour.  This site contains the South Mountain Monument. You will see a sign at the trail head.  This trail gets very muddy with the rain so if you prrefer stay on the walking path/one-lane rd from the parking lot and look for the pull off on your left.  This path is shorter and more stable

The memorial is in tribute to the North Carolinians who were lost their lives at South Mountain and specifically 38 men who were dumped down Wise's dry well and later reinterred in Hagerstown.

Back of South Mountain Monument

Front of South Mountain Memorial