Crampton's Gap - Burkittsville MD
Posted by: 
Don.Morfe
N 39° 24.353 W 077° 38.371
18S E 272735 N 4365143
Crampton's Gap is located Gathland State Park in the South Mountain area, near Gapland Road and Arnoldstown Road in Frederick County near Burkittsville MD. This was the scene of a U.S. Civil War battle in 1862.
Waymark Code: WM16GBJ
Location: Maryland, United States
Date Posted: 07/27/2022
Views: 4
Crampton's Gap is located Gathland State Park on the South Mountain, near Gapland Road and Arnoldstown Road in Frederick County near Burkittsville MD. This was the scene of a U.S. Civil War battle in 1862.
From Wikipedia:
"Crampton's Gap, also known as Crampton Gap, is a wind gap on South Mountain in Maryland.
The 928 feet (283 m) gap connects Burkittsville in the Middletown Valley to the east with Gapland and Rohrersville in the Pleasant Valley to the west.
Documentation of the earliest land tracts in the Crampton's Gap area and records related to the earliest road may be found in The Land Tracts of the Battlefield of South Mountain by Curtis L. Older.
The gap is the location of Gathland State Park and was the site of the Battle of Crampton's Gap on September 14, 1862, during the Maryland Campaign of the American Civil War."
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visit link)
The Battle for Crampton's Gap historical signs are located on the grounds of the War Correspondents Memorial Arch.
TEXT on the historical marker:
Battle for Crampton’s Gap “Sealed With Their Lives”
— Antietam Campaign 1862 —
The Battle of South Mountain struck Crampton’s Gap late in the afternoon of September 14, 1862, when Union Gen. William B. Franklin finally ordered an attack against Confederate Gen. Lafayette McLaws’s force here. As the Confederate defensive line along the Mountain Church Road began to disintegrate, Gen. Howell Cobb arrived in Whipp’s ravine with reinforcements to stop the Federal onrush. Soon, they were surrounded on three sides. Lt. Col. Jefferson Lamar, leading Cobb’s Georgia Legion, realized that his command must either retreat with the rest of the Confederates stampeding west, or stand and fight to allow the others a chance to escape. He chose to fight. Soon after, he fell to the ground as a bullet smashed into his leg, and when he finally ordered what was left of the Legion to withdraw, he was mortally wounded in the chest. The Federals continued their advance up the mountain, were stopped briefly by two guns of the Troup Light Artillery positioned in the road, and soon forced the withdrawal of the cannons, one of which was left behind when its carriage broke. Franklin’s men then overwhelmed a Confederate last stand behind a stonewall on the reverse slope of the mountain. Southern resistance dissolved as those not killed, badly wounded, or captured retreated into the valley below. Having captured Crampton’s Gap, Franklin called a halt. The Confederates formed a defensive line across the valley, eliminating any chance of a Union rescue at Harpers Ferry.