M.A. Kleen

On the night of July 4, Union Brig. Gen. Hugh Judson Kilpatrick’s cavalry division fell upon a wagon train from Lt. Gen. Richard S. Ewell’s Second Corps at Monterey Pass, capturing hundreds of wagons, mules, and supplies and over 1,300 prisoners. The next morning, July 5, Kilpatrick’s exhausted but victorious troopers rode into Smithsburg, Maryland, where local unionists regaled them with a brass band and Sunday breakfast.

That afternoon, two of J.E.B. Stuart’s cavalry brigades under Col. John R. Chambliss and Col. Milton J. Ferguson approached Smithsburg from South Mountain along Raven Rock Road. Stuart’s troopers dismounted and fought as skirmishers to push Kilpatrick’s men from the town’s hinterlands. Both sides deployed artillery and exchanged fire for approximately 20 minutes. Union batteries were stationed on Gardenhour Hill, Cave Hill, and Goat Hill. The bombardment accomplished little more than minor damage to civilian structures. At nightfall, Kilpatrick’s division withdrew 12 miles south to Boonsboro, while Stuart’s men camped four miles northwest around Leitersburg.