Burning of the Bridge

A wayside marker about the Burning of the Bridge over the Monocacy River is along a walking trail in the Monocacy National Battlefield outside Frederick, Maryland. The modern Urbana Pike truss bridge visible from the marker crosses the river near the site of the Civil War covered bridge.

Another wayside marker on the Battle of Monocacy, Fleeing for Their Lives, is a few feet away.

Location and directions

The marker is on a walking trail whose trailhead is at the Gambrill Mill parking area, whose entrance is on Urbana Pike (Maryland Route 355) about 0.9 mile south of the National Park Visitor Center. (39.369509° N, 77.388055° W; see map)

From the marker:

Burning of the Bridge

12:00 noon July 9, 1864

Confederates wearing captured blue uniforms had killed or wounded several Union skirmishers who had been sent across the Monocacy River to hold the Georgetown Turnpike and B&O Railroad bridges "at all hazards."

The two sides traded shots all morning, but about noon Union Maj. Gen. Lew Wallace could see that the Confederates were about to overwhelm his troops. He ordered the wooden covered bridge set ablaze. Wallace had delayed the enemy, but he also had trapped his own men across the river.

Previously, men of the company had gathered sheaves of wheat from the nearby field, and had stacked them under the bridge's southeast corner. The combustibles were fired ...and the bridge was soon engulfed in flames.
Pvt. Alfred S. Roe, New York Heavy Artillery