The Battle of Monocacy (also known as Monocacy Junction) was fought on July 9, 1864, about from Frederick, Maryland, as part of the Valley Campaigns of 1864 during the American Civil War. Confederate forces under Lt. Gen. Jubal A. Early defeated Union forces under Maj. Gen. Lew Wallace. The battle was part of Early's raid through the Shenandoah Valley and into Maryland in an attempt to divert Union forces from their siege of Gen. Robert E. Lee's army at Petersburg, Virginia. The battle was the northernmost Confederate victory of the war. Afterward, the Union troops retreated to Baltimore, Maryland, and the Confederates continued toward Washington, D.C. But because the battle had delayed Early's march for a day, Union reinforcements had time to get to the Union capital before the Confederates. Early launched an attack on Washington on July 12 at the Battle of Fort Stevens, but the Confederates were unsuccessful and retreated to Virginia. Background In May and June, as part of the Valley Campaigns of 1864, Union General-in-Chief Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant planned a coordinated movement of troops against Confederates in Virginia. It was during this campaign that Lt. Gen. Jubal Early's Confederates defeated Union forces to open a path to Washington, D.C. After skirmishing with Maj. Gen. David Hunter's men outside Lynchburg, Virginia, on June 17 and 18, Early increased his forces to nearly 16,000 men and continued to Martinsburg, West Virginia. The outnumbered Union troops had evacuated the town. On June 19, a small Union force at Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, burned the bridge across the Potomac River. Grant reacted to Early's raids at Martinsburg and Harpers Ferry by dispatching two brigades, about 5,000 men, from the 3rd Division of the VI Corps, under Brig. Gen. James B. Ricketts, from City Point, Virginia, to Harpers Ferry on July 5, 1864. Until Union troops arrived to defend Washington, the only Federal force between Early and the Union capital was a 2,300-man force (mostly Hundred Days Men) under the command of Maj. Gen. Lew Wallace. At the time, Wallace, who would become better known as the author of Ben-Hur, was in command of the Union's Middle Department and VIII Corps, based in Baltimore. Few of Wallace's men had battle experience. Although Wallace had experience as a battlefield commander, having been the Union Army's youngest major general at the time of his promotion, his military career faltered after he