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Battle of Crampton's Gap (September 14, 1862), US Civil War

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  • John Basil Lamar (1812 - 1862)
  • Major General Howell Cobb, Sr., (CSA), Governor, US Sec'y of the Treasury (1815 - 1868)
    Howell Cobb (September 7, 1815 – October 9, 1868) was an American political figure. A Southern Democrat, Cobb was a five-term member of the United States House of Representatives and Speaker of the Hou...
  • Major General William Buel Franklin, (USA) (1823 - 1903)
    Major General William Buel Franklin, (USA) General Franklin was a career United States Army officer and a Union Army general in the American Civil War. He rose to the rank of a corps commande...
  • Maj. William Henry Medill, (USA) (1835 - 1863)
    William Henry Medill was born at Massillon, Stark County, Ohio, where his parents and older siblings moved in 1832. After 1855 he moved to Chicago, Illinois, probably because his older brother Joseph M...

The Battle of Crampton's Gap, or Battle of Burkittsville, was a battle fought between forces under Confederate Brig. Gen. Howell Cobb and Union Maj. Gen. William B. Franklin as part of the Battle of South Mountain on September 14, 1862, at Crampton's Gap in Western Maryland, during the Maryland Campaign of the American Civil War.

Franklin's VI Corps attacked a small, hastily assembled Confederate force at Crampton's Gap in South Mountain that sought to protect the rear of Confederate Maj. Gen. Lafayette McLaws, who was across Pleasant Valley on Maryland Heights taking part in the siege of Harpers Ferry. Despite inferior numbers, the Confederate force held out throughout the day, taking heavy casualties. By the evening the VI Corps broke the Confederate line and proceeded through the gap into Pleasant Valley. Franklin, however, failed to follow up on his success and did not attack McLaws on Maryland Heights.

Tactically the battle resulted in a Union victory because they broke the Confederate line and drove through the gap. Strategically, the Confederates were successful in stalling the Union advance and were able to protect McLaws' rear.

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