South Mountain Wreathed in Smoke? I wonder...

Driving home from Antietam National Battlefield on Sunday after another good day of volunteering, I had just passed over Crampton's Gap and driven through Burkittsville on my way home to Jefferson. Out of the rear view mirror, I caught this view of South Mountain. I have learned when journeying to and from the battlefield that it always pays to carry my camera along. In this case, my carefulness was rewarded with this truly grand view. The camera does little justice to the actual view, but to me, it was a reminder of what the Middletown Valley may have looked like at the end of the fighting for the mountain passes on September 14, 1862. It really looks like a pall of smoke hanging over the mountain. Of course in my case, this is not gun smoke but fog drifting down the valley after another one of our summer downpours. This is from the Union perspective, looking generally west and a little north. Crampton's Gap is to the south (left) and Lamb's Knoll is just rising to the north (right). On the other side of the mountain is Pleasant Valley protected on the west by Elk Ridge and on the east by the mountain you see here. Pleasant Valley is the main avenue between Boonsboro in the north and Harpers Ferry in the south. Further west and over Elk Ridge is the town of Sharpsburg and Antietam Creek.