Cooksville
Saving the Guns
Gettysburg Campaign When Confederate Gen. J.E.B. Stuart led his cavalry division north across the Potomac River
into Maryland in June 1863, about 400 Federals and civilians were captured and then paroled
in Brookeville. At the same time, Confederate Gen. Fitzhugh Lee’s brigade continued its march
north toward Hood’s Mill.
Near Cooksville, meanwhile, Capt. R.E. Duvall’s Co. A, Purnell Legion Md. Cavalry, had bivouacked on the National Road
with two ordnance rifles of Capt. W.D. Rank’s Battery H, 3rd
Pa. Artillery. Duvall was escorting the guns to Relay in Baltimore County, where they were to be used in the defense of
the Thomas Viaduct on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad.
When Stuart’s advance drove in the Union pickets
before dawn on June 29, Duvall sent Sgt. Andrew Duncan
and Pvt. Jonathan Norris back to Frederick to warn Gen.
George G. Meade of the Confederate presence, then beat a
hasty retreat under cover of darkness. He lost some camp
equipment and four horses but saved his men and Rank’s
guns. Near Poplar Springs he encountered Col. John B. Mclntosh’s cavalry brigade, which was hunting for Stuart and
offered protection. When Duvall’s company and the two guns
did not reach Relay as expected, area commander Gen.
Robert Schenck reported them captured. It was two days
before he learned their true status.
Marker is at the intersection of Roxbury Mills Road (Maryland Route 97) and Old Frederick Road (Maryland Route 144), on the right when traveling north on Roxbury Mills Road.
Courtesy hmdb.org
