On September 12, 2009 we will march under arms from Middletown, Maryland to Fox's Gap on South Mountain to call public attention to the South Mountain State Battlefield now under threat by inappropriate industrial development and declared as one of the top ten most endangered battlefields in the US by the Civil War Preservation Trust in 2009. We want to create a walking vignette to remind the public of the historic events that happened in this area during the Civil War and encourage preservation of battlefield land.

Registration forms can be downloaded from http://www.cpmv.org/battle.html. A donation to the Civil War Preservation Trust is your registration fee.

Marchers will represent the 30th Ohio of the Kanawha Division of the 9th Corps Army of the Potomac which marched along the route we will follow. There will be sag/water wagons moving behind the marchers and a team of volunteer drivers to transport marchers back to their cars at the end of the march.

You choose the distance you want to march.

For a 5-mile march, the march will start at 7:30 AM at the Middletown Municipal Building (31 West Main St, Middletown, MD). There is ample parking and rest facilities here. Be on site around 7AM.

Marchers who want to walk a shorter 2.5 mile distance will rally at 9AM at 2330 Marker Road, Middletown, MD where parking will be available. This area looks like a farm park – it has an antebellum stone barn used as a field hospital after the Battle of South Mountain, a smokehouse raided by Union soldiers, a pond, and large shade trees to rest under.

The route follows public roads that existed in 1862 and are in use today and will pass both modern and historic farms and local residences.

The march will end around noon near Reno Monument on Fox’s Gap. We will have the opportunity to tour the privately-held battlefield land at the top of Fox’s Gap in addition to the State battlefield land.

Following the march, South Mountain State Battlefield will give an overview of the Battle of Fox’s Gap for the marchers and the public on our stop site.

Transportation back to the cars at the halfway-point or at the Middletown lot will be provided.

I wanted to give a heartfelt thank you to all of the participants and those who guided and helped the participants on their march. We had 18 marchers and raised over $200 for the CWPT. I will post the exact figure when I get that number from the Citizens for the Preservation of the Middletown Valley this week.

I could not have asked for a smoother running event. It seems we got through our major snag in the weeks before the march, so the march itself went like clockwork. Everyone was so collegial and happy to take part. We had infantry, a drummer and a fifer, and members of the 30th OVI Co. B reenacting group who came all the way from Ohio to bear their regimental and national colors along on the march.

And after the walk, Isaac Forman took the reenactors on an hour tour of South Mountain so they could walk the ground that the Kanawha Division and the 30th Ohio actually fought. This tour added a powerful historical dimension to the day. Thank you, Isaac, for leading this tour.

I hope those that came had as much fun walking in the footsteps of the 30th Ohio as I did.