Reenactors To March For South Mountain & CWPT
(September 2009 Civil War News)

MIDDLETOWN, Md. – Citizens for the Preservation of Middletown Valley (CPMV) will sponsor a Union reenactors’ march to commemorate the Battle of South Mountain on Saturday, Sept. 12. The battle was Sept. 14, 1862.

All proceeds from the march are tax-deductible and will be donated to the Civil War Preservation Trust (CWPT).

The march will begin at the Municipal Building on Main Street in Middletown at 7:30 a.m. It will then follow the original route taken by the 30th Ohio Volunteer Infantry Regiment, past the Dominion Transmission property, concluding at the Reno Monument by noon.

A shorter 2.5-mile march from the midpoint, starting at 9:30 a.m., is also offered. A South Mountain State Park ranger will give a short talk about the Battle of South Mountain and the 30th Ohio’s role before marchers are transported back to the midway and starting points.

The Citizens for the Preservation of Middletown Valley works to protect and preserve the Middletown Valley’s historic land. The 2009 CWPT report History Under Siege: A Guide to America’s Most Endangered Civil War Battlefields listed South Mountain Battlefield as one of the 10 most endangered battlefields in the country.

The citizens group said this land includes the property now owned by Dominion Transmission Inc. (DTI), which has identified this site as its primary location for placement of a $55 million gas compressor station. CPMV has organized opposition to the DTI gas compressor facility since the project was first announced in late 2007.

On the morning of Sept. 14, 1862, the 30th Ohio Volunteer Infantry was sent as the first wave of Union troops to engage massed Confederate forces reported to be on the crest of South Mountain near the Old Sharpsburg Road (now Reno Monument Road) at Fox’s Gap.

The 30th Ohio fought all day, enduring intense artillery and infantry fire at close range near the Wise Farm on the Old Sharpsburg Road on the mountain crest. By late evening the Union pressed the Confederates to the west side of South Mountain, but at the cost of over 5,000 casualties and the deaths of both Union Maj. Gen. Jesse Reno and Confederate Brig. Gen. Samuel Garland.

Donations and volunteer help are needed for the march. For information, visit www.cpmv.org. Donations payable to CWPT may be mailed to Citizens for the Preservation of Middletown Valley, P.O. Box 922, Middletown, MD 21769-0922.