The March from Fox's Gap
The March from Fox's Gap
This march is not for everyone. It is for those who possess the mental and physical stamina to spend a day on the road like a true soldier does.
The weekend reenactment starts early. On Wednesday afternoon, the caravan leaves the St. James School near the reenactment site and takes the marchers to Turner's Gap. There, the marchers will prepare rations and bed down on the historic battlefield for the night. At first light, the march commences south to Fox's Gap where Drayton's Brigade sustained sixty percent casualties and the Laurens Battalion sustained eighty five percent casualties. Then, the march really begins.
Marchers will proceed into Keedysville. From there, the route will proceed into the Antietam battlefield. A lunch stop is scheduled for the Wilson Farm at The Cornfield. Entrance into the park has been cleared with NPS. The marchers will proceed to the Potomac and then along a railroad byway (not the tracks themselves) to the St. James School site where Drayton's Brigade will be forming for the weekend.
The length of the march is 12.8 miles.
Although some of the march will occur alongside present day roads, efforts are being taken to keep travel on modern roads to a minimum and to keep as much of the route in rural, less traveled areas as possible.
Several water stops are planned.
This is your opportunity to spend more than four days in the field portraying a unit which has been all but lost to history. (Despite presence of 160 persons at Fox's Gap and 24 at Sharpsburg, the unit is not listed as a unit which participated at either battle.)
So what are you waiting for? If you are going to make the special effort to participate in Drayton's Brigade, you might as well maximize the experience by marching with the Laurens Batt'n, the only unit of Drayton's Brigade planning an extensive march through historic grounds to the event.
3d S.C. Batt'n / 15th S.C.V. / 51st GA / Phillips Legion
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Last updated 21 July 2002 at 1245 hrs.