Battle of Folck's Mill 1864
Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Date | 1 August 1864 | Wikidata |
|---|---|---|
| Year | 1864 | Wikidata P585 (point in time) |
| Era | 19th century (1800–1913) | derived from year |
| Location | United States | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | North America | Natural Earth |
| War / conflict | American Civil War | Wikidata P361 |
| Coordinates | 39.6639, -78.7530 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
The Battle of Folck's Mill, also known as the Battle of Cumberland, was a small cavalry engagement, fought August 1, 1864, in northern Maryland, as part of the Valley Campaigns of 1864 during the American Civil War.
After burning Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, on July 30, cavalry under Confederate generals John McCausland and Bradley T. Johnson set out for western Maryland towards Cumberland, to disrupt traffic on the Baltimore and Ohio (B&O) Railroad and to demand a ransom from the town or torch it as well. At 3 p.m. on August 1, the Confederates arrived at Folck's Mill, east of Cumberland. There, Union Brig. Gen. Benjamin F. Kelley, with three regiments of untested "100-days" troops and six pieces of artillery, met the Confederate advance. As the Confederates arrived at the outskirts of town, Kelley's artillery fired on the cavalry. Lacking familiarity with the local terrain and the strength of the opposing force, McCausland decided against an assault and brought up his own artillery. The gunners from both armies dueled until about 8 p.m., at which point McCausland withdrew, heading southeast to Old Town on the Potomac River.
The following day the Confederates prepared to cross the Potomac and head into West Virginia but found the bridges over the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal had been burned by Col.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Battle of Folck's Mill (revision 1380654497), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; shortened by selecting paragraphs and trimming at a sentence boundary; formatting and citations removed. No text added.
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