 Monocacy was a tactical victory for the Confederate States Army but a strategic defeat, as the one-day delay inflicted on the attacking Confederates under Gen. Jubal Early by Federal General Lew Wallace's units hastily sent west on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad with reinforcements from Baltimore with their stout resistance cost rebel General Early his chance to capture the Union capital of Washington, D.C. during the subsequent attack on the outlying northwestern fortifications near Fort Stevens, witnessed by President Lincoln himself in the only time that a Chief Executive came under hostile fire.Across the state, some 50,000 citizens signed up for the military, with most joining the United States Army.Approximately a tenth as many enlisted to "go South" and fight for the Confederacy.