For the past 160 years, Civil War authors misplaced Hood's troop positions on the Fox's Gap battlefield by approximately one-half mile. The actual location of Hood's attack reconfigures the entire placement of the competing forces in the battle and, thus, the conclusions one draws form the struggle. The battle for Fox's Gap was part of the larger Battle of South Mountain, fought in Frederick and Washington Counties, Maryland, on September 14, 1862. The battle was a Union victory that caused the Confederate forces to abandon the mountain pass and retreat toward Sharpsburg, where the Battle of Sharpsburg (Antietam) was fought just three days later.

Curtis L. Older has both a B.S. and an M.S. in Accounting. While serving in the U.S. Navy, he was a Spanish interpreter. A fourth great-grandson of Frederick Fox of Fox's Gap in Maryland, he has spent the past 35 years researching his geneology and aspects of American history that relate to his ancestors. He has written a number of books about Fox's Gap and the battlefield of South Mountain.