The Battle of South Mountain Quotes

“My Men Were Fighting Like
Tigers. Every Man Was a Hero”
― John David Hoptak, The Battle of South Mountain

“Arriving at the crest of South Mountain at Fox’s Gap, Sturgis’s men were greeted with the ghastly aftermath of a terrible, savage battle.”
― John David Hoptak, The Battle of South Mountain

“Dr. Joseph Webb, the regimental surgeon and brother of Hayes’s wife, Lucy, released the tourniquet and treated the wound while providing the colonel with some brandy and opium. Hayes was later taken by ambulance to Middletown, where in the weeks ahead he recuperated in the home of Jacob Rudy, cared for by Lucy, who had traveled from their Ohio home. With Hayes’s departure, Major James Comly assumed command of the 23rd Ohio.56”
― John David Hoptak, The Battle of South Mountain

“The cavalry’s fire, combined with canister delivered from Pelham’s two guns, was taking a fearful toll, and it was here, struck on three sides, that the 23rd Ohio suffered its greatest loss. Rutherford Hayes believed the only way out was another charge, but before he could give the order, he felt a “stunning blow” to his left arm and fell to the ground. A bullet struck him just below the elbow. Fearing a severed artery, he had one of his men tie a handkerchief above the wound. “I soon felt weak, faint, and sick at the stomach,” recounted Hayes. However, while lying on the ground some twenty feet behind his line, Hayes said he was comfortable and from there “could form a pretty accurate notion of the way the fighting was going…I could see wounded men staggering or carried to the rear; but I felt sure our men were holding their own.”55”
― John David Hoptak, The Battle of South Mountain

“Local farmer John Miller guided Scammon’s march along the loop road, riding forward with his leading regiment, the 23rd Ohio, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Rutherford B. Hayes.”
― John David Hoptak, The Battle of South Mountain

“Lieutenant Colonel Rutherford B. Hayes of the 23rd Ohio, serving for the first time under McClellan, spoke of this in a September 3 letter to his uncle: “General McClellan is undoubtedly a great favorite with [the] men under him.”
― John David Hoptak, The Battle of South Mountain

“The Enemy…Means to
Make Trouble in Maryland”
― John David Hoptak, The Battle of South Mountain