How did Union Colonel Benjamin Davis use his heavy Southern accent to damage the Southern invasion of Maryland in 1862?

Answer 1

Union Colonel Benjamin Davis was the only West Point graduate from the "Deep South" to side with the Union in the US Civil War. The night before Union Colonel D. S. Miles prepared to surrender Harper's Ferry to Confederate General Jackson's troops, Colonel Davis urged his superior officer to try and flee Harper's Ferry, rather than surrender. Miles was completely surrounded by Confederate troops and he believed that under these circumstance, fleeing with 13,000 Union troops would end badly. The odds of trying to defend Harper's Ferry or escaping from it, was indeed impossible based on the number of Southern troops and cannons facing him.Davis asked permission to lead as many troops as possible, to escape that night. Miles refused and said he needed every soldier to defend Harper's Ferry.

This was a lie as Miles already planned the surrender of his 13,000 troops the next day. Davis persisted and Miles finally relented. Colonel Davis with a small cavalry unit escaped under the cover of darkness and rode north. He was hoping to join Federal forces that were preparing for the Battle of Antietam.

By pure chance Davis and his men encountered Confederate forty wagon ammunition train that was Confederate General Longstreet's reserve ammunitions. The long train of wagons seemed lost in the darkness. With a bold move, and still under the cover of darkness ( wearing an enemy uniform was a death sentence) Davis took a position in the lead of the wagons an in his heavy Southern accent ordered the wagons to follow him. They did and and at 9:00 AM the wagons found themselves in Greencastle, Pennsylvania. The wagons were surrounded by Union troops and Davis wired the Pennsylvania governor with the good news who then wired Secretary of War Stanton in Washington DC. This good news was dampened by the surrender of Harper's Ferry that same very day.

As an aside, it's amazing how the arsenal at Harper's Ferry comes into play so many times from John Brown's raid to the battles at Manassas and as part of the Battle of Antietam.