Best Farm at Monocacy National Battlefield

MONOCACY NATIONAL BATTLEFIELD TOUR

STOP 1:  BEST FARM

Allow up to 30 minutes for a visit to the farm
Add an extra 30 minutes if you walk the Best Farm Loop Trail

Best Farm is the first stop on a tour of Monocacy National Battlefield. The farm encompassed the land here and on the other side of MD 355 / Urbana Pike where the Visitor Center is located.

BATTLE AT THE BEST FARM

The Best Farm is where 15,000 Confederate soldiers under the command of General Jubal Early arrived on the morning of July 9, 1864. They were on their way to attack Washington, D. C., but they first had to take control of Monocacy Junction, which was located a half mile to the east of the Best Farm tour stop and on the same side of the Monocacy River. Union general Lew Wallace had been tipped off about the Confederate movement, so he rushed troops from Baltimore to stop them. He positioned roughly 350 infantrymen at the junction and the rest of his men on the other side of the river at the Thomas Farm and Gambrill Mill. Men were also sent a few miles to the east to guard the Baltimore Pike / Old National Pike bridge over the river (this is not part of Monocacy National Battlefield).

Monocacy Junction train station in 1858

Monocacy Junction was where the Georgetown Turnpike—which followed the route of the modern Urbana Pike and Araby Church Road—and two Baltimore and Ohio Railroad tracks converged. An iron railroad bridge and a wooden covered road bridge, both located at the junction, were the only ways across the river in this area. Most important to the Confederates was the road, for it led directly into Washington, D. C., Early’s ultimate destination.

As the forward Confederate troops marched down Georgetown Turnpike towards Washington, when they got to the Best Farm they began taking fire from the Union troops at Monocacy Junction. When the bulk of the army arrived, Early set up his artillery where the Visitor Center is now located and began shelling the junction. Union artillery located on the high ground on the other side of the river returned fire. Though heavily outnumbered, the Union troops held their ground. Early realized a frontal assault would cost the lives of many of his men, so he sent a cavalry unit downstream to the west to find another way to cross the river and attack the left flank of the Union line at the Thomas Farm.

Best Farm Battle Map (the You Are Here refers to the Visitor Center)

BEST FARM HISTORY

The area surrounding the Best Farm parking lot is where the farm buildings were located. In addition to the buildings standing today, there was a wooden barn on the property during the battle. The Confederates had positioned sharpshooters inside, which made it a prime target for the Union artillery. As a result, the barn caught fire and was destroyed.

The Best farmhouse was built in stages between 1794 and the 1870s. A farm was first established on the property around 1793 by a French woman named Victoire de la Vincendières. Called L’Hermitage, it was one of the largest slave-labor plantations in Maryland. Vincendières sold the land in 1827 to John Brien, and it was eventually purchased by the Trail-McElfresh Family in 1835 and run as a tenant farm. The Best Family was the tenant from 1852 through 1888. The Trail-McElfresh Family owned the property until selling it to the National Park Service in 1993 for inclusion in Monocacy National Battlefield. The farmhouse is not open to the public.

Best Farmhouse at Monocacy National Battlefield

The farmhouse is L-shaped, with one part of the L being wooden planks covered with stucco (the original sections) and the other part being exposed wooden planks (1870s construction). When looking at the front of the stucco-covered section, notice that the right side has a slightly higher roof than the left side. The left side was the original house built in 1794, while the taller section was an addition built a few years later, also by the Vincendières. The exposed wooden plank section was built in the 1870s when the Best Family was farming the land. The small wooden building next to the house was also built in the 1870s.

Best Farmhouse at Monocacy National Battlefield

It is possible to look inside the 1870s addition through the windows. The interior has been gutted, and wood beams now hold up the roof to keep the building from collapsing.

Interior of the Best Farmhouse at Monocacy National Battlefield

The Vincendières also built a smaller house in the 1790s that still stands. This has a stone foundation and chimney, but the rest is made of wood (originally logs).

Secondary house built in the 1790s at the Best Farm, Monocacy National Battlefield

Between the farmhouse and secondary house is a shed that covers a well. This is the newest structure at the Best Farm, having been built in 1949.

Well house built in 1949 at the Best Farm, Monocacy National Battlefield

The stone barn constructed of local stone was built around 1798 by the Vincendières. Visitors can walk inside to see the interior of the structure.

Stone barn built in the 1790s at the Best Farm, Monocacy National Battlefield

Interior of the stone barn at the Best Farm, Monocacy National Battlefield

What looks like an old covered bridge is actually a corncrib that dates to the 1870s construction period.

Corncrib built in the 1870s at the Best Farm, Monocacy National Battlefield

In addition to the farm buildings, there are wayside exhibits at the tour stop that explain the events that took place here and a few cannon that aim towards Union positions on the opposite side of the Monocacy River. The railroad tracks are directly behind the trees that the cannon are aiming at, and the river is a quarter mile farther south.

Cannon at the Best Farm points toward Union positions on the other side of the Monocacy River, Monocacy National Battlefield

There is also a 1.3-mile loop trail that leads around the farm property to the north of the buildings. See the Best Farm Loop Trail review here on National Park Planner for details and photos.

The Best Farm may have played an important role earlier in the Civil War as well. In September 1862, the first year of the war, Confederate general Robert E. Lee and his army camped at the Best Farm. During this time he decided to split his army in two, sending General Thomas Stonewall Jackson to take control of Harper’s Ferry (in Virginia at the time) and General James Longstreet to Hagerstown, Maryland. The plan was written up in Special Orders No. 191. Seven copies were made and sent out to various Confederate generals, but one was lost. Supposedly, a Union soldier found it along the Georgetown Turnpike south of Frederick and delivered it to Union general George McClellan, spoiling Lee’s plan. Though the exact location where the document was found is not known, historians believe it was at the Best Farm.

Stop 2: Worthington Farm | Battlefield Tour Home Page

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