The Battle of Old Town was a U.S. Civil War battle fought on August 2, 1864 as part of the Valley Campaign of 1864. Union forces amassed and took high ground at Oldtown, Maryland on the Potomac River in an attempt to trap Brigadier John McCausland’s Confederate States Army raiders behind Union lines.
McCausland's forces had previously sacked and burned
Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, on orders of Lieutenant General
Jubal A. Early.
[1] The survival of McCausland and his section of the
Army of Northern Virginia is credited to a single artillery shot directed at close range by
Maryland Line Lieutenant
John R. McNulty from his Baltimore Light Artillery command, which was supporting Brigadier
Bradley Tyler Johnson’s
1st Maryland Infantry. Lieutenant (later
Major) McNulty’s shot has been called “one of the most brilliant achievements of the war.”
[2]
The Battle of Old Town was a U.S. Civil War battle fought on August 2, 1864 as part of the Valley Campaign of 1864. Union forces amassed and took high ground at Oldtown, Maryland on the Potomac River in an attempt to trap Brigadier John McCausland’s Confederate States Army raiders behind Union lines.
McCausland's forces had previously sacked and burned
Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, on orders of Lieutenant General
Jubal A. Early.
[1] The survival of McCausland and his section of the
Army of Northern Virginia is credited to a single artillery shot directed at close range by
Maryland Line Lieutenant
John R. McNulty from his Baltimore Light Artillery command, which was supporting Brigadier
Bradley Tyler Johnson’s
1st Maryland Infantry. Lieutenant (later
Major) McNulty’s shot has been called “one of the most brilliant achievements of the war.”
[2]