Battle of Green Springs Run, or Oldtown

Colonel Israel Stough with men of the 153rd Ohio Infantry Regiment tried to prevent Confederate Brigadier General John McCausland’s cavalry force of about 2,500 men from crossing the Potomac River on their return from burning Chanbersburg, Pennsylvania. Stough was accompanied by the Railroad battery of Captain Petrie of the Potomac Home Guard, an armed and armored train. There was also a strongly armed and protected blockhouse at the bridges.

Slough deployed his men between the Potomac and the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal. He repelled the first Confederate attack. But the 21st Virginia Cavalry built a bridge and crossed the canal, outflanking Stough, who withdrew to the blockhouse. The Confederate Baltimore Light Artillery put a shell though the boiler of the armored train’s locomotive with its first shot and disabled one of the train’s guns with its second. Its third scattered the infantry of the Potomac Home Brigade into the woods, leaving Stoughton and his Ohionans unsupported in the blockhouse.

There was an hour and a half standoff until Johnson sent a message under a flag of truce demanding a surrender. Stough asked for and received generous terms – immediate parole with all personal equipment except weapons. Johnson agreed and the Ohioans surrendered.