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This is Lee Habib, and this is Our American Stories,

and we tell stories about everything here on this show, including yours.

Send them to Our American Stories.com.

They're some of our favorites.

Previously on our show, Mark Leapson told the story of the Battle of Baltimore and the writing

of our national anthem.

Today, Mark's back to tell the story of the Battle of Monocacy, the Civil War battle that was a union

loss and saved Washington, D.C.

The July 9th, 1864 Battle of Monocacy is one of the most important, little-known battles of the Civil War,

mainly because it's known as the battle that saved Washington, D.C., because after which the

Confederates attacked the nation's capital for the first and only time during the Civil War.

It took place four miles south of Frederick, Maryland, about 45 miles west of Washington, D.C.

This was a time when Lee was surrounded at Richmond and Petersburg by Grant following the

bloody of six weeks of the Civil War, Grant's Wilderness Campaign,

a.k.a. the Overland Campaign.

The last three huge battles of the Civil War.

The battles of Wilderness,

Spotsylvania Courthouse, and Cold Harbor.

These were mammoth battles

that hundreds of thousands of troops

...