Harlans in the Civil War

The following summary of the Civil War military history of John Bailey Harlan and Thomas Samuel Harlan was taken from a summary sent to me by Douglas Harlan, a great grandson of Thomas Samuel Harlan and from information given to me by Elizabeth Harlan Strickler, also a great granddaughter of Thomas Samuel Harlan.

Thomas Samuel Harlan
Thomas Samuel Harlan, son of Thomas White Harlan, was born on July 21, 1828, in Scottsville, Albemarle County Virginia. After the Civil War he migrated first to West Virginia and then to LaGrange, Oldham County, Kentucky. He died in LaGrange, Oldham County, Kentucky on March 20, 1900, and is buried at Valley of Rest Cemetery in LaGrange.

Thomas enlisted in the Confederate 19th Virginia Infantry on April 17, 1861. He fought and was wounded in the Battle of South Mountain (also known as Boonsboro or Turner’s Gap) on September 14, 1862. This battle was a prelude to Antietam (Sharpsburg, Maryland) which officially began on September 17, 1862.

On April 6, 1865, the remnants of the 19th Virginia Infantry surrendered to General George A. Custer. These men were sent to military prison, mostly in Maryland. This marks the official end of this regiment. General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox on April 9, 1865 bring the War Between the States to an end.

As recorded on April 12, 1865, Thomas S. Harlan “came into our lines” of a regiment from Bulltown, West Virginia (which is near Burnsville, West Virginia. It is unknown exactly where this encounter took place. He is listed on a Confederate must roll dated April 12th as a deserter. He was confined at Atheneum Military Prison in Wheeling, West Virginia on April 13, 1865. Three days later he took the oath of Allegiance at Clarksburg, West Virginia.

The designation of Thomas Samuel Harlan as a deserter is obviously unfounded since it followed both the capture of his entire regiment and the official end of the war. April 1865 in Virginia was a very chaotic time. The lack of communication of the end of the war obviously resulted in this unfortunate and unfounded designation.

John Bailey Harlan
John Bailey Harlan, son of Thomas White Harlan and brother of Thomas Samuel Harlan, was born on 14 April 1824. He was killed in the Civil War on 14 Sep 1862 and is buried at Shepherdstown, West Virginia.

Shepherdstown, West Virginia is less than 5 miles from Antietam National Battlefield at Sharpsburg, Maryland. Elmwood is the cemetery there which has a Confederate section for some of those who died in that battle. John Bailey was killed and Thomas Samuel wounded at South Mountain (aka Boonsboro, Turners Gap) on September 14, 1862 just outside of Sharpsburg. (A summary of this battle follows after the information on Richard J. Harlan.) This battle was the prelude to Antietam which officially started on September 17. [The above information was given to me by Elizabeth Strickler and Douglas Harlan, both great
grandchildren of Thomas Samuel Harlan.]

Richard J. Harlan
Richard J. Harlan was the son of John Morris Harlan. He was a nephew of Mary Fleming Harlan who married Thomas Samuel Harlan. Richard resided in Fluvanna Co., Virginia. During the Civil War Richard was a boat man for the Confederacy. He enlisted on 19 April 1861, as a Private at the age of 23.

He serviced in Company D, 19th Infantry Regiment Virginia and was detailed on 01 June 1861 to the Color Guard. He was promoted to Full Sergeant 3rd Class on 01 November 1861, Full Sergeant 1st Class on 03 December 1861, Full Lieutenant 3rd Class on 24 February 1862, and Full Lieutenant 1st Class on 08 April 1862.

He was wounded on 27 June 1862 at Gaines’ Mill, VA, promoted to Full Captain on 30 January 1863 and returned to service on 25 April 1863. He was wounded again on 03 July 1863 at Gettysburg, PA and back on the rolls on 15 August 1864.

He was imprisoned as a POW on 02 April 1865 at Hatcher’s Run, VA and hospitalized on 08 April 1865 at Petersburg, VA for a gun wound in the right thigh. He was confined on 12 April 1865 at City Point, VA and on 17 May 1865 at Newport News, VA. He took the Oath Allegiance on 15 June 1865 at Newport News, VA.

His Civil War records describe him as being 5’10” in height with blue eyes, dark hair and fair completion. [The information on Richard J. Harlan was taken from a summary of his Civil War
Records on Ancestry.com.]

South Mountain on September 14, 1862.
It is set forth word-for-word from an article in the Civil War Battlefield Guide, by Dennis E. Frye (Houghton Mifflin Company, New York, 1998)

The inadvertent discovery of CS General Robert E. Lee’s campaign plans, Special Orders, No. 191, presented the Union commander, US Major General George B. McClellan, with one of the best opportunities to destroy an enemy during the Civil War.

With one sudden strike through the gaps of South Mountain, McClellan could interpose the Army of the Potomac between the scattered wings of Lee’s army, save the besieged garrison at Harpers Ferry, hurl the southern invaders from Union soil, and possibly precipitate an early end to the war in the East. “I think Lee has made a gross mistake,” a jubilant McClellan wired President Lincoln. “I have all the plans of the rebels and will catch them in their own trap.”

McClellan devised a scheme to “cut the enemy in two and beat him in detail.” A successful strike at Crampton’s Gap would relieve the besieged garrison at Harpers Ferry. At Fox’s and Turner’s Gaps, decisive blows would slice Lee’s line of retreat and doom nearly half of the Confederate army at Boonsboro. With his plans articulated in orders to his subordinates, McClellan rashly proclaimed, “If I cannot whip Bobbie Lee, I will be willing to go home.”

The battle of South Mountain was actually three battles, each contested separately on September 14. The most important was at Crampton’s Gap, where McClellan ordered US Major General William B. Franklin’s VI Corps to “cut off, destroy, or capture” the 8,000 Confederates in Pleasant Valley and relieve the surrounded garrison at Harpers Ferry.

Franklin advanced toward South Mountain at dawn on September 14. CS Major General Lafayette McLaws—unaware that his rear was threatened by the approach of 12,000 bluecoats— had only a rear guard of 500 defenders under CS Colonel William A. Parham thinly deployed behind a three-quarter-mile-long stone wall at the eastern base of Crampton’s Gap. Franklin spent three hours deploying his force, reminding one southerner of a “lion making exceedingly careful preparations to spring on a plucky little mouse.”

At 3:00 P.M., Franklin’s force, with the division of US Major General Henry W. Slocum on the right and that of US Major General William F. Smith on the left, lurched forward. Franklin seized the gap and captured 400 prisoners, most of whom were from CS Brigadier General Howell Cobb’s Brigade, which had arrived too late to reinforce Parham. Franklin refused to press on. He informed McClellan he was outnumbered “two to one” and that he could not advance “without reinforcements.” Franklin’s delusion ended the fighting at Crampton’s Gap. He had failed to relieve the Union garrison at Harpers Ferry.

McClellan ordered the rest of his army to move west via the National Road toward Boonsboro to get between Lee and his reinforcements and to slice his line of retreat to Virginia. McClellan’s plan was to drive through Turner’s Gap. When the Federals discovered Confederates defending Turner’s Gap, they decided to turn the Rebel flanks. US Major General Jesse L. Reno’s IX Corps marched one mile south to Fox’s Gap to pierce the Confederate right. US Major General Joseph Hooker’s I Corps focused on the Rebel left, one mile north of Turner’s Gap.

CS Major General Daniel Harvey Hill’s Division defended the flanks with only 5,000 men stretched over more than two miles, forcing him to remark, “I do not remember ever to have experienced a feeling of greater loneliness.”

US Brigadier General Jacob D. Cox’s Kanawha Division of the IX Corps ascended the Old Sharpsburg Road and attacked at Fox’s Gap at about 9:00 A.M. CS Brigadier General Samuel Garland, Jr.’s small brigade could not withstand the assaults against its extreme right, and following Garland’s death, the line collapsed. A lull followed, while the rest of the IX Corps, including the divisions of US Brigadier Generals Samuel D. Sturgis, Orlando B. Willcox, and Isaac P. Rodman, ascended the mountain. This delay enabled Lee to reinforce the position with brigades from CS Brigadier General John Bell Hood’s Division and two from CS Major General David R. Jones’s Division. As evening approached, the entire IX Corps attacked but failed to dislodge the stubborn Confederates. Fighting continued until dusk, when Reno was mortally wounded. Lee’s forces held the gap until 10:00 P.M. when he ordered a retreat.

While the IX Corps concentrated on turning the Confederate right at Fox’s Gap, the task of driving their left near Turner’s Gap fell upon Hooker’s I Corps. On the fourteenth Hooker positioned his three divisions opposite two peaks located one mile north of Turner’s Gap. The Alabama Brigade of CS Brigadier General Robert Rodes defended the peaks on the extreme Confederate left, but with his men isolated and reinforcement impossible, Rodes steadily withdrew before the advancing Federals. Despite the arrival of Jones’s three other brigades and CS Brigadier General Nathan G. Evans’s Brigade, Hooker seized the peaks, but darkness and difficult terrain saved Lee’s left from complete collapse. US Brigadier General John Gibbon threatened the Confederate center at Turner’s Gap by advancing west along the National Pike, but CS Brigadier General Alfred H. Colquitt’s Georgia Brigade refused to yield.

With Crampton’s Gap lost and his position at Fox’s and Turner’s Gaps precarious, Lee ordered his beleaguered army to withdraw from South Mountain toward Sharpsburg on the night of
September 14. The Confederates’ spirited defense of the gaps had succeeding in keeping Lee’s army intact, protected his line of retreat, and purchased time to ensure the capitulation of Harpers
Ferry. McClellan’s failure to accomplish his strategic aims at South Mountain set up the tragic collision at Antietam.

Estimated Casualties: 2,325 US, 2,300 CS

South Mountain battlefield is in Frederick and Washington Counties. Two areas are owned by the Central Maryland Heritage League in Middletown and are open to the public: ten acres at Fox’s
Gap around the Reno Monument and an acre at Turner’s Gap near the entrance to the Washington Monument State Park. About five hundred acres have been protected through easements purchased through Program Open Space and the Maryland Department of Transportation ISTEA program. Areas on top of South Mountain along the Appalachian National Scenic Trail are protected by the National Park Service. These are about four miles west of Middletown on Route 40-A. One hundred acres are protected in Crampton’s Gap State Park, six miles south of Middletown off Route 17 in Burkittsville.