Col. Brown was unaware of the retreat of the rest of the army and was left alone in advance of the stone bridge, beating back the repeated attacks of the enemy until 5:30. At that time a farmer living near informed him of the retreat of the whole Union army except his Regiment, and that they were a mile and a half away. So he gave the order to retreat. Adjutant Hildebrand was sent with three companies and deployed as skirmishers on the left. They showed such steadiness that Early stopped to reform his lines, and behind this thin curtain of skirmishers the Regiment cut its way through and escaped to the north and toward Baltimore.
When Col. Brown and his brave little army overtook General Wallace, the latter was much affected. He embraced him, the tears starting from his eyes, and said, “Colonel, I never expected to see you again.”
General Grant in his report says “they saved Washington.” The 149th in this engagement lost 130 men in killed, wounded and prisoners. The performance of the hundred days men was a revelation to the old soldiers, and a surprise to the enemy. They did not know when they were whipped. Everywhere their duty was well performed. On the long forced marches, sometimes hundreds of miles with insufficient rations, suffering from thirst, tramping the dusty roads with blistered feet, it was all done and suffered by the men cheerfully, and as well as by the veterans of long service. I heard one of the men of the 19th Corps say, “We have served for three years but have never seen campaigning like this.” Gen. Tyler in his official report of the battle of Monocacy says:
“It seldom falls to the lot of veterans to be more tried than was the Ohio National Guard at the stone bridge, and none ever carried out trying and hazardous orders better, or with more determined spirit than did the 149th Ohio, and the men associated with it.”
The enemy had seized the time when Grant had depleted the defensive forces of the Capitol, to endeavor to capture Washington. Early charged up to the very boundary of the city expecting to find the rich prize an easy prey, but the stubborn resistance of the Guard at Monocacy and their vigilance in the forts at Washington were more than a match for all the vaunted dash and daring of his veterans, and he was compelled to retire before the raw Militia of the Buckeye State. This was a source of deep humiliation to the dashing Rebel General which he never got over to the day of his death. Whether the hundred days man was on the alert in the entrenchments of the capital, battling at the front with the veteran forces of the Confederacy or skirmishing on the lines of supply with the wary foe in the rugged passes of the Alleghanies, they were each in his place doing their duty manfully toward the great and final victory which came a few months later.
Lincoln and Grant both said that the services of the hundred days men shortened the war, and, that the President appreciated their service was shown by his issuing a special card of thanks, a copy of which was sent to every man in this service. This was a special favor from the hand of our great war President, that no other troops received, and one of which we can well be proud. It was a tribute to bravery from the great, noble heart of the kindest soul that ever lived on earth.
Gen. J. B. Gordon of the Confederate army whose division was with Early in the fight at Monocacy, says:
“The battle of Monocacy was short, decisive and bloody. While the two armies were contemplating each other from the opposite banks, my division was selected, not to prevent Wallace from driving us out of Maryland, but to drive him from our front. My movement was down the right bank of the Monocacy to a fording place below, the object being to cross the river, and then turn upon the Federal stronghold. My hope and effort were to conceal the movement from Wallace’s watchful eye, until my troops were over, and then to apprise him of my presence on his side of the river, by a sudden rush upon his left flank. But Gen. McClausland’s Cavalry had already attacked a portion of his troops, and he discovered the movement of my division before it could drag itself through the water and up the slippery banks. He at once changed front, and drew up his lines in strong position to meet the assault. This movement presented new difficulties. Instead of finding the Union forces still facing Early’s other divisions beyond the river, giving my isolated command the immense advantage of a flank attack, I found myself separated from all the Confederate infantry, with the bristling front of Wallace’s army before me.
“In addition to this I found other troubles which mitigated against the success of my movement. Across the fields through which we were to advance, there were strong and high farm fences which my men must climb while under fire. Worse still these fields were full of grain stacks so high and close together that no line of battle could be maintained while advancing through them. The movement began, and as my men reached the first line of high fencing and began climbing over, they were met by a tempest of bullets, and many fell at the first volley. They pressed on and around the grain stacks, with no possibility of forming allignment or returning effective fire. The men, deprived of the support and strength of a compact line, pushed forward and drove the Federals back to their second line. The Union troops stood firmly in this second position, bravely defending the railroad and highway to Washington. Between the two hostile lines there was a narrow ravine, down which ran a stream of limpid water. In this ravine the fighting was desperate and at close quarters. To and fro the battle swayed across the little stream, the dead and wounded on both sides mingling their blood in its waters, and when the struggle was ended a crimson current ran toward the river. Nearly one-half of my men fell there. Wallace’s army, after the most stubborn resistance, was driven in the direction of Baltimore. The Confederate victory was won at fearful cost, but it was complete, and the way was opened for Gen. Early’s march to Washington.”
On the 12th day of July Companies A and F under marching orders, left Fort No. 1 and Baltimore for Washington City, where we arrived early the next morning. We lay at the depot until ten o’clock, when we were ordered to “fall in” and with the balance of the Regiment marched up Pennsylvania Ave., greeted by the cheers of the crowds who lined the sidewalks and filled the windows of the buildings. We marched past the White House and the Treasury buildings. At the latter we saw President Lincoln on the steps waving his high hat as we marched by. We went over into Georgetown, where, after a short rest, we joined the 19th Corps in the chase of Early, who, after being repulsed at Fort Stephens retreated to the Shenandoah Valley. We marched to Edwards Ferry, on the Potomac, which we forded about five o’clock in the evening. Disrobing, we tied our clothes around our guns, and at “right shoulder shift arms” entered the water. It was an amusing sight to look up and across the river, at the boys struggling through the water. It was about waist deep and some current. The rocks on the river bottom were slippery, and every little while a boy would go down, gun, clothes and all under water, to struggle on again amid the cheers and laughter of his comrades. But we finally all crossed over and we were told not to dress until we had forded Goose Creek which entered the Potomac a short distance ahead. Early in his haste to get away had burned some of his wagons on the road, and we, in our bare feet had to pick our way carefully through the ashes, which were still glowing. It was amusing. We camped that night on the banks of Goose Creek. The next morning early the march was resumed and we went into camp at Leesburg, Va., where we rested the balance of the day and night. We were ordered to guard the wagon train, and by easy marches reached Snickers Gap on July 17. Our train was halted about a mile back of the Gap and our Regiment camped on a mountain side.