The Union is in search of the Confederate Army after finding the Lost Orders 191 that they laid in the grass. Union soldiers within the 9th Corps started to march westward from Frederick, Maryland. The Confederate soldiers under D.H. Hill are protecting Fox and Turner Gaps. I’ll separate though battles with two different pages here.
The 17th Michigan was a regiment that was brand new to the Civil War. They only had a month of training and was thrown into the 9th Corps commanded by Ambrose Burnside and had three brigades within it. They were commanded by Generals Stevens, Jesse L. Reno, and John Parke. Most of the regiment was within Company E, which was composed mainly of students from Michigan States Normal College, which is now known as Eastern Michigan University.
This battle at Fox’s Gap was slightly different that Crampton and Turner Gap. After the battle, there was a death of a Union and Confederate general. Confederates under John Bell Hood’s Texans arrived on the field and fired a final volley and in the process, mortally wounded General Jesse Reno.
Union General Jesse Reno was the first Union Corps commander that was killed during the war. However, further down the battlefield is a monument for the all the North Carolina regiments that fought within Fox’s Gap.
General Samuel Garland, Jr. was the commander of the Confederates soldiers on this field of battle. He was sent back to Lynchburg, Virginia a few days after the battle. He is now reunited with his wife and son who died almost 16 months prior to this battle in June 1861. They both died from influenza.
