On July 8, the Confederate cavalry, holding the South Mountain passes, fought a rearguard action against elements of the Union 1st and 3rd Cavalry Divisions and infantry.

This action was one of a series of cavalry combats fought around Boonsboro, Hagerstown, and Williamsport.

Result(s): Inconclusive

Location: Washington County

Campaign: Gettysburg Campaign (June-August 1863) next battle in campaign previous battle in campaign

Date(s): July 8, 1863

Principal Commanders: Major General Alfred Pleasonton [US]; Major General J.E.B. Stuart [CS]

Forces Engaged: Divisions

Estimated Casualties: 100 total

The Battle of the Wilderness May 5-6, 1864
Fought in a tangled forest fringing the south bank of the Rapidan River, the Battle of the Wilderness marked the initial engagement in the climactic months of the Civil War in Virginia, and the first encounter between Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee

To the North Anna River: Grant and Lee, May 13-25, 1864
Spectacular narrative of the initial campaign between Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee in 1864. May 13 through 25, was critical in the clash between the Army of the Potomac and the Army of Northern Virginia.

Grant's Secret Service: The Intelligence War from Belmont to Appomattox
The first scholarly examination of the use of military intelligence under Ulysses S. Grant's command during the Civil War. Feis makes the new and provocative argument that Grant's use of the Army of the Potomac's Bureau of Military Information played a significant role in Lee's defeat

Kindle Available

Men of Fire: Grant, Forrest, and the Campaign That Decided the Civil War
In the winter of 1862, on the border between Kentucky and Tennessee, two extraordinary military leaders faced each other in an epic clash that would transform them both and change the course of American history forever

Encyclopedia of the American Civil War: A Political, Social, and Military History
Definitive Reference Work, this volume, rich with over 500 illustrations, 75 maps, and 250 primary source documents, offers more than 1,600 entries that chart the war's strategic aims, analyze diplomatic and political maneuvering, describe key military actions, sketch important participants, assess developments in military science, and discuss the social and financial impact of the conflict.

Charles W. Quantrell
A True History Of His Guerilla Warfare On The Missouri And Kansas Border During The Civil War Of 1861-1865
This book was written just as Captain Harrison Trow told it to John P. Burch, giving accounts of fights that he participated in, narrow escapes experienced, dilemmas it seemed almost impossible to get out of, and also other battles

Secret Six: The True Tale of the Men Who Conspired with John Brown
The story of how Brown was covertly aided by a circle of prosperous and privileged Northeasterners who supplied him with money and weapons, and, before the raid, even hid him in their homes while authorities sought Brown on a murder charge. These men called themselves the Secret Six.

The Shipwreck of Their Hopes
The Battles for Chattanooga
All the information you need to understand the flow of the battle at Chattanooga as well as the political intriguing that helped to shape the results is here

Rebel Boast
First at Bethel, Last at Appomattox
Based on the stories of 5 men who enlisted in the Confederate Army to fight for what they believed. Where did they go? How did they feel? What did they do day to day? What did they see? How did they live and die? Nominated for a Pulitzer in 1956

Civil War in the American West
An accurate and detailed history of the Western Theater of the Civil War, which was largely forgotten by history. He was one of the first historians to fully understand the impact that California had on the war as he gives an accounting of the Federal raid on the Dan Showalter Ranch in San Bernadino on October 5, 1861.

"We Shall Meet Again": The First Battle of Manassas (Bull Run), July 18-21, 1861
The First Battle of Manassas claimed the lives of approximately 878 soldiers and wounded another 2,489. With a battlefield stretching nearly five miles, 15,000 Union and 14,000 Confederate soldiers clashed for four fateful days, many of them young and terrified and receiving their first taste of a long and bitter war

The American Indian in the Civil War
1862-1865
The 1862 Battle of Pea Ridge, a bloody disaster for the confederates but a glorious moment for Colonel Stand Watie and his Cherokee Mounted Rifles. The Indians were soon enough swept by the war into a vortex of confusion and chaos.