Orders of Battle

Have you referred to Beares’ study of the battle. He offers a detailed order of battle, down to the regimental and battery level if I recall correctly.

Hope you’ll put in the sharpshooters, esp. the Confederates. By this time each brigade had a battalion of them, and each division had a brigade-sized organization called the division sharpshooters. These organizations did a lot of the fighting in the Valley but you won’t find them on most OB since they are composite units.

At Monocacy Rodes did all of his fighting at the Jug Bridge with his Division Sharpshooters, which at that time was a demi-brigade of 7-800 men. Rickett’s division had a sharpshooter company that cause quite a bit of damage also.

The offer of a blog review copy of my book is still open, if either of you are interested. Among other things I take a detailed look at what happened at Jug Bridge.

The question of how to deal with composite units in an OB is an interesting one, since they aren’t “real” TO&E units, but yet they are on the battlefield and are quite important. I’ll be interested to see how you handle it.

Happy to answer any questions you’uns might have about the sharpshooters.

Clendenin’s unit was only battalion strength and had a running fight down the Georgetown Pike. I think there are two graves of troopers from this at the church cemetery in Urbana, MD. Also Luke Teirnan Brien of Stuart’s staff is buried near by at the Catholic cemetery. I was in High School last time I was there.

Take Care
-Nick

Funny you should mention Monroe’s Crossroads Order of Battle. I have not gotten your book yet but I was researching the battle when I was stationed at Fort Bragg, 83-91. I was able to collect most of the first hand reports and other published resouces on the battle as well as copies of the Archeological surveys from Bill Kerns at the Environmental Engineering Department at Ft. Bragg. I wanted to do a detailed study of the battle and perhaps do a book on the subject. The Army had other plans for me and I spent the next ten years around the globe working out of D.C. By the time I was ready to take up the task again there were two books on the subject, a government publication on the battle and the site had a marker on the battlefield.

Back in the day I conducted Staff rides out in training Area Z (Military name of the battlefield area). Several key teaching points from leadership, to snatch operations, to base camp security were subjects we covered during the visits. I used the battlefield in my instruction in the Special Forces Operations and Intelligence course as a teaching ad as well.

I also by chance landed on the battlefield when one halo jump came up short. At the time I did not know of the battlefield. A few weeks later I was reading about the campaigns in the Carolinas when I discovered a reference to a fight at Cross Creek just west of Fayetteville. From then on I read everything I could find on the battle in the area and finally found the site with the assistance of Bill Kerns.

I look forward to reading your book one of these days. I have read several of your articles on the net several years back and Scott Mingus speaks highly of you.

VR
James Mattes

Confederate troop strength @ Monocacy- Has always been debated. I donated to Monocacy NPS an original letter written by CS commanding general Jubal Early written from Drummondville, Ontario, Canada June 18th 1868. He lists 8,000 infantry, 40 pieces of light field artillery manned by some 4 or 500 men, 1200 or 1500 cavalry. But only one division (Gordon’s) 2,000 men, one brigade cavalry 4 or 500 men dismounted, and some 12-15 pieces of artillery were actually used in the fight. as info, Original northern newspapers describing the battle were also donated as source material & research@ the visitor center. Good Luck, hope this helps, looking forward to your book!