Garrett personally assisted in foiling the last major Confederate drive north of the Potomac River. In the summer of 1864, Lt. Gen. Jubal Early led his Army of the Valley north through the Shenandoah Valley to Harpers Ferry. At his Baltimore headquarters, Garrett began to receive reports that Rebels were along the B&O line in force.Union authorities ignored that information and remained convinced the movement was nothing more than a cavalry raid, and that all the sizable Confederate infantry forces were tied up around Petersburg. Garrett decided to see for himself, and headed west on his own special train. He quickly learned the Southern presence was real, and hurried back to Baltimore and the headquarters of Middle Department commander Maj. Gen. Lew Wallace to tell him the news.

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Convinced, Wallace began to move troops to Monocacy Junction, a spur of the B&O just south of Frederick, Md., so he could be in a position to cover the approaches to both Baltimore and Washington. He also called for reinforcements from Petersburg. Grant sent those men, a division of the VI Corps, on boats up the Chesapeake Bay to Baltimore, where they hopped on B&O cars provided by Garrett that whisked them to Monocacy Junction.

The resulting Battle of Monocacy on July 21 was a Confederate victory, but it slowed down Early long enough to allow more Federal troops to arrive in Washington and prevent the Rebel raiders from investing the Union capital. Rebuffed, Early headed back into the Shenandoah. The Union’s debt to Garrett and the B&O had grown, as the man and his railroad played had a large role in foiling a Confederate incursion that at the least could have been an embarrassment, and at the most could have changed the course of the war.

John Garrett’s wily leadership, and his ability to separate his company’s best interests from his personal preferences and side with the Union, allowed the B&O to remain a viable company through most of the war, despite the hardships visited upon the rail line. He continued in his role as the B&O Railroad’s president until his death in 1884, and lived long enough to see the federal government support him in several railroad strikes. Garrett was always proud, and rightly so, of the time in his railroad’s history when the belch of his locomotives meant as much to the Northern war effort as the blast of cannons.

This article was written by Larry E. Johnson and originally appeared in the March 2006 issue of America’s Civil War magazine. For more great articles be sure to subscribe to America’s Civil War magazine today!

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