Turner's Pass Tablet #6 - Boonsboro, MD - American Civil War Monuments and Memorials on Waymarking.com

In 1897 the War Department erected six cast iron tablets which described the Battle of South Mountain. At that time a person could read them and not even have to get out of their horse drawn buggy. Kind of hard to imagine a time when automobiles did not use this road, but it is true, when these tablets were placed, horses were the main way to get around these parts. I had to get out of car and walk a bit in some nasty summer heat to read them as they are far back now, much safer. This is a fun area to visit with so much history, and lots of markers. The Appalachian Trail passes a few feet away. The parking lot for this roadside area is across the street next to the South Mountain Inn.

In 1862, Union and Confederate forces in the early September days leading to Antietam would march along the National Road through the town. The old National Road crosses South Mountain at a point called Turner's Gap. It was at Turner's Gap, along with nearby Fox and Crampton's Gap, that the Battle of South Mountain was waged on September 14, 1862. The battle which was a Union victory is called by some the "Prelude to Antietam" which would occur three days later near Sharpsburg.

 In 1987 (Almost 100 years after they were erected) the Central Maryland Heritage League in cooperation with the National Park Service had the Cast Iron tablets relocated to a safer position. Now the visitor to Turner's Gap can read the tablets without having to worry about being hit by a speeding automobile. At that time it is hoped the visitor will find a better place to come and visit. And perhaps in the quietness of the moment, "in the evening dews and damps," they will witness the march of history, and hear the sounds of days gone by. The whoops of the red men, the tramp of the settlers, the ring of axes as the land was cleared and the National Road was built. Perhaps the visitor can catch a glimpse of marching men, long columns of blue and gray, and officers such as Stonewall Jackson, D.H. Hill, John Buford, and George Meade. SOURCE

Curiously, these tablets, while in the Turner's and Fox's Gaps Historic District, are not mentioned in the nomination form, and therefore do no contribute. They are not even mentioned as non-contributing objects. Weird.

This sixth and final tablet reads:

When Hooker moved to the right at Bolivar by way of the Hagerstown road, Gibbon continued on the main road and attacked Colquitt, in position about 700 yards southeast of this point. He drove Colquitt's skirmishers and reached the bend in the road in Colquitt's front, but was unable to drive Colquitt, and bivouacked in his front. When darkness put an end to the engagement, Cox's Division of the Ninth Corps held the summit of the mountain, south of Fox's Gap. Hooker's First Corps gained the high ground northeast, commanding the Confederate line of retreat on Boonsboro, and Gibbon held the ground gained by him along the turnpike to the south. The Confederate line of retreat being in great jeopardy, Lee, immediately after dark put his Army in motion for Sharpsburg, where Jackson, Walker and McLaws joined him.

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