Battle of Old Town (U.S. Civil War 1864 Valley Campaign)

The U.S. Civil War Battle of Old Town was an August 2, 1864 engagement wherein overwhelming Union (American Civil War) forces were amassed and took high ground at then Old Town, Maryland on the Potomac River in an unsuccessful attempt to trap Brigadier John McCausland’s Confederate States Army raiders behind Union lines after their sacking and burning of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania on orders of Lt. Gen. Jubal A. Early. McCausland’s and his element of the Army of Northern Virginia’s salvation is credited to a single, heroic, well placed artillery shot directed at perilously close range by Maryland Line (CSA) Lt. John R. McNulty from his Baltimore Light Artillery command, which was supporting Brigadier Bradley Tyler Johnson’s 1st Maryland Infantry, CSA. Lieutenant (later Major) McNulty’s shot has been called “one of the most brilliant achievements of the war.”