Monocacy

Our final stop of our first full day in Maryland was Monocacy, just south of Frederick. We got to the park just before the Visitor's Center closed. We did a quick tour of the VC, grabbed the brochures and were on our way. Nice to hear that they will be in a new VC in a year or so. The current one seemed quite small but we were not in it very long as we quite literally got there 5 minutes before closing time (4:30, its light much later, I realize they are not going to stay open til sunset but 6 wouldn't be too extreme). Highway 355 cuts through the battlefield and is quite a busy road. Interstate 270 also cuts through the battlefield but at least you don't have to cross it to complete the tour.

The first spot on the driving tour is next to two monuments on the north side of the Best farm. According to the markers this was Lee's headquarters in 1862 and also was where Order No. 191, the famous lost order, was found by Union forces. Our next stop was at the 14th New Jersey monument. This monument is along a railroad that now serves as a commuter line, probably taking people into DC. In 1864 it was part of the B&O line. While we were there we got a shot of the train, one of several trains we got pictures of. Maybe that will be its own post down the road. The sun wasn't setting just yet but I got a pretty neat shot with the rays coming through the clouds.
After that we moved on to the 10th Vermont and 67th, 87th and 138th Pennsylvania monuments. Then we went to the Worthington Farm. Unfortunately right as we got there a park employee drove up from the farm and closed the gate. The sign says the area is open until dark but apparently our definitions of dark are different. The road to the walking trails at the farm is a mile long so we decided to skip this stop and proceed to the final stop, Thomas Farm. Exhaustation was now playing with us so we walked around a little bit and took some pictures of the cows milling in front of the farm.