See The Sites
Temple Hall
15855 Limestone School Road Leesburg, VA 20176 703-779-9372 http://www.nvrpa.org/parks/templehallTemple Hall was home to a family of ardent Confederate supporters during the war.
Temple Hall was a large farm complex dating from the early 19th century. The main house was built in 1810, and in 1857, it was purchased by Henry Ball. A firm supporter of the Southern cause, he was the only local citizen to take up arms during the 1861 Battle of Ball’s Bluff. His sons took up arms as well, as soldiers in the 6th Virginia Cavalry, and one was mortally wounded at the Battle of Spotsylvania. Ball, who often supplied Confederate soldiers with food and arms at his home, was arrested in 1863 for refusing to take an oath of allegiance to the Union and imprisoned at Fort Delaware. The women of the Ball family were also arrested while trying to smuggle food from Maryland back across the Potomac to Confederate soldiers. During the Monocacy Campaign in 1864, Colonel John Mosby camped nearby and was invited to dinner. While there, he received information about a Federal scouting troop and left quickly to intercept them. Today, the property is Temple Hall Farm Regional Park, a recreational area open to the public. The historic farmhouse still stands, but it is a private residence and not opened to the public.
See these sources and websites for additional information:
Temple Hall Farm Regional Park Website: http://www.nvrpa.org/parks/templehall/
Historical Marker Database: http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=12954
Second Street School
15611 Second Street Waterford, VA 20197 Waterford Foundation: (540) 882 3018After the Civil War, Waterford Quaker Reuben Schooley sold property on Second Street to be used by the “colored people of Waterford and vicinity.” With assistance from the Freedmen’s Bureau, the local Quaker meeting, and Waterford’s African American community, a school for African American children was built on the property in 1867. This was the first school for African Americans in Waterford. The Waterford Foundation now offers educational programs about the Second Street School.
See these sources and websites for additional information:
http://www.waterfordhistory.org/history/second-street-school.htm
Morven Park
17263 Southern Planter Lane Leesburg, VA 20176 703 777-2414 http://www.morvenpark.org/Morven Park was the home of Thomas Swann, Jr., former mayor of Baltimore, at the time of the Civil War.
Morven Park was the home of Baltimore’s former mayor, Thomas Swann, Jr., at the time of the Civil War. During the winter of 1861-62, following the Battle of Ball’s Bluff, Confederate soldiers of the 17th Mississippi Regiment built a camp on the property they named Camp Carolina. The soldiers’ huts were constructed of log with canvas or plank roofs. Each held four to six soldiers, and some had wood stoves installed inside. The mansion, where the officers stayed, had several Italianate-style towers rising above it, and many soldiers referred to it in their writings as “Swan’s Castle.” Today there are depressions and artifacts throughout the property where more than 60 Confederate soldier huts once stood. Replicas of those log huts have been constructed and provide the setting for portrayals of everyday camp life during special educational programs. Living “soldiers” share their war stories, with drilling and firing demonstrations for the public. [Text from http://civilwar.visitloudoun.org]
See these sources and websites for additional information:
Morven Park Website: http://www.morvenpark.org/
Loudoun Convention and Visitors Association “Civil War 150th” website: http://civilwar.visitloudoun.org
Historical Marker Database: http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=1214
Historical Marker Database: http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=13676
Village of Lincoln
Purcellville, VA 20132This area of Loudoun County suffered during the Burning Raid of November and December 1864. First community in the post-Civil War South to be named for Abraham Lincoln.
Lincoln is a few miles southeast of Purcellville, in the heart of the “Quaker Settlement.” Lincoln is an unincorporated village in Loudoun Valley that was established as the community of Goose Creek in the 1750s by Quaker settlers. Its residents opposed secession and slavery before the Civil War, and attempted to be neutral after hostilities broke out. They eventually confirmed their status as citizens of the Confederacy and willingly obeyed its laws, except those requiring them to bear arms. Some may well have been involved in the Underground Railroad. When Union forces came to Western Loudoun to burn out Mosby’s guerillas in late November 1864, Quaker farms and mills were burned as well. Lincoln became the first community in the post-Civil War South to be named for assassinated President Abraham Lincoln. [Text from http://civilwar.visitloudoun.org]
See these sources and websites for additional information:
Loudoun Convention and Visitors Association “Civil War 150th” website: http://civilwar.visitloudoun.org
Village of Waterford
Waterford, VA 20132Loudoun Independent Rangers, the only Union force from Virginia, was raised here in 1862 by Samuel Means, a Waterford miller.
Virginia’s only Union army was created in 1862 when Samuel C. Means, a Quaker and miller from Waterford, was offered a commission to raise an independent cavalry company. Despite the pacifism of their religion, some Quakers from Waterford and Lovettsville took up the fight and enlisted in the newly formed Loudoun Independent Rangers. On the night of August 26th, 1862, the Unionist Loudoun Rangers made their camp at Waterford, with most bivouacked for the evening in the Waterford Baptist Church. Early on the morning of the 27th, they were under Confederate attack. A few hours later, there was one dead on each side, but many lay wounded inside the church. Nineteen Union soldiers and officers surrendered that morning. The capture of White’s nemesis, Capt. Means, however, eluded him because Means had spent the night at a family house and escaped. The fight in Waterford is remembered for literally pitting brother against brother. Capt. Elijah V. White’s 35th Battalion, Virginia Cavalry, known as White’s Comanches, was made up of men from the same area of Loudoun as the Rangers. When the Rangers surrendered outside the church, they surrendered to their former friends, neighbors, and relatives. In fact, two brothers fought on opposing sides in this battle. Later in the war, during Gen. Sheridan’s “Burning Raid” of 1864, Union soldiers burned Waterford barns to deny food for the Confederates and their horses. The village is a National Historic Landmark and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. [Information from http://civilwar.visitloudoun.org]
See these sources and websites for additional information:
Loudoun Convention and Visitors Association “Civil War 150th” website: http://civilwar.visitloudoun.org
Harrison Hall
205 N. King St Leesburg, VA 20175On September 4, 1862, General Robert E. Lee met here with his officers to plan their advance into Maryland that led ultimately to the Battle of Antietam.
Located at 205 N. King Street in Leesburg, Harrison Hall was built in 1780. On October 21, 1861, ladies of the house watched the Battle of Ball’s Bluff from the upper-story windows. Afterward, wounded soldiers were cared for at the Hall, including Col. E.R. Burt of the 18th Mississippi, who died there four days after the battle. During the course of the war, the Hall enjoyed a reputation as a hospitality center for visiting Confederate officers. On September 4, 1862, its most prominent guest arrived. Gen. Robert E. Lee, commander of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, arrived in an ambulance wagon, and left with his two hands bandaged in splints after an accident with his horse Traveler. That night, Lee conducted a meeting in the front parlor of the house. In attendance were his top commanders, including Gens. Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, James Longstreet, Lewis A. Armistead, and J.E.B. Stuart. They finalized plans for the invasion of Maryland, which would lead to the Battle of Antietam. Today, Harrison Hall is known as the Glenfiddich House. [Text from http://civilwar.visitloudoun.org]
See these sources and websites for additional information:
Loudoun Convention and Visitors Association “Civil War 150th” website: http://civilwar.visitloudoun.org
Historical Marker Database: http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=42333
Fort Evans
Leesburg, VAOne of three forts built around Leesburg in 1861.
As a border county in the Civil War, Loudoun was in a dangerous position of having to defend its shoreline from Union invasion along the Potomac River, from Harpers Ferry to Dranesville. Three forts were built around Leesburg to keep watch over the town’s approaches. In 1861 troops built Fort Johnson (later renamed Fort Geary), Fort Beauregard, and Fort Evans. Fort Evans is a 1.5-acre rectangular earthen fort located on high ground two miles east of downtown Leesburg, overlooking Edwards Ferry. Named for Col. Nathan “Shanks” Evans, the local Confederate commander, it protected the eastern approaches to Leesburg. Fort Evans was abandoned when the Confederates left the area in March 1862. Fort Evans is located on private property, and access is limited. A Virginia Civil War Trails marker provides interpretation on the site. [Text from http://civilwar.visitloudoun.org]
See these sources and websites for additional information:
Loudoun Convention and Visitors Association “Civil War 150th” website: http://civilwar.visitloudoun.org
Historical Marker Database: http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=27839
White’s Ford
On the Potomac River, near Lock 2 of the C&O Canal National Historical Park Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority: 703-352-5900Whites’ Ford is located about 3 miles north of White’s Ferry, near Lock 2 on the C&O Canal on the Maryland side of the Potomac River. White’s Ford was used in several major troop movements over the Potomac River in the Maryland and Antietam Campaigns. In September 1862, as Gen. Lee began moving his army from Virginia through Loudoun on his way north for the Maryland campaign, he had Col. Tom Munford and the 2nd Virginia Cavalry cross White’s Ford to get to Poolesville, Maryland. Gen. J.E.B. Stuart made White’s Ford famous again as a crossing for the armies during the Antietam Campaign in October 1862. In June 1864, Maj. Gen. Jubal A. Early defeated Union forces at Monocacy, Maryland, and made his way toward Washington, D.C. but retreated when he heard Gen. Grant’s much larger army was arriving in the city. Maj. Gen. Early crossed into Loudoun County at White’s Ford and paused in Leesburg while Union forces began to converge. The ford is named for Capt. Elijah V. White, a Confederate cavalry officer whose farm was on the Virginia side of the ford. A regional park to commemorate the area’s wartime significance is in the planning stages. [Text from http://civilwar.visitloudoun.org]
See these sources and websites for additional information:
Loudoun Convention and Visitors Association “Civil War 150th” website: http://civilwar.visitloudoun.org
Historical Marker Database: http://www.hmdb.org/Marker.asp?Marker=10145;
http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=812
Goose Creek Rural Historic District
Lincoln, VA, 20160This area was home to Virginia’s largest settlement of Quakers, vocal abolitionists during the war.
The Goose Creek Monthly Meeting of Friends was established in 1750 along a tributary of the Potomac River. The Friends (Quakers) were devoted pacifists; they refused to fight in the Revolutionary War so consistently that military leaders eventually ordered them left alone and made no further attempts to recruit them. They were vehemently opposed to slavery as well, and set up a manumission society in 1824 to help freed blacks; the Goose Creek Meeting also set up the first school in the area for black children. During the Civil War, most members of Goose Creek were devoted to the Union cause; some young men fought in both armies, however, despite their belief in pacifism. Their area was occupied several times by both Federal and Confederate troops; when General Philip Sheridan raided northern Virginia in 1864, many of the Friends’ barns and much of their personal property was spared. During the war, their strong Union sentiment led to the changing of the district’s name, from “Goose Creek” to “Lincoln,” under which name it remains today.
See these sources and websites for additional information:
http://www.nps.gov/history/nR/travel/journey/goo.htm
Historical Marker Database: http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=3933
Goose Creek Meeting House Complex
18204 Lincoln Road Lincoln, VA, 20160 540-751-0323The Goose Creek Meeting began the area’s first school for black children, just after the Civil War.
The Goose Creek Meeting House Complex is made up of three structures: the original stone meeting house, built in 1765; the brick meeting house, built in 1817 to replace the older, smaller building and still in use today; and the Oak Dale School, built in 1815, the first public school in the county. The Goose Creek Meeting also established the first school in the area for the education of black children, just after the Civil War.
See these sources and websites for additional information:
Goose Creek Friends Website: http://goosecreekfriends.pbworks.com/
Historical Marker Database:
http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=3930; http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=3950; http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=3949;
http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=3948
Union Cemetery and Confederate War Memorial
323 N King St Leesburg, VA 20175 703 777-3186Union Cemetery contains a Confederate War Memorial.
Established in 1855 on the outskirts of Leesburg, Union Cemetery was created as a public cemetery open to people of all faiths. It predated three other Union cemeteries in Loudoun County established at Hillsboro, Waterford, and Lovettsville. The cemetery contains the 1908 Union Chapel and several notable monuments, including a Confederate War Memorial at the north end of the site. [Text from http://civilwar.visitloudoun.org]
See these sources and websites for additional information:
Loudoun Convention and Visitors Association “Civil War 150th” website: http://civilwar.visitloudoun.org
Loudoun County Emancipation Association Grounds
South 20th Street (State Route 611) and A Street Purcellville, VirginiaSite of Emancipation Day celebrations.
The association was organized by African Americans in nearby Hamilton in 1890 to commemorate the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation issued by President Abraham Lincoln on 22 Sept. 1862 and “to cultivate good fellowship, to work for the betterment of the race, educationally, morally and materially.” Emancipation Day, or “Day of Freedom,” was celebrated throughout the nation on different days. In 1910, the association incorporated and purchased ten acres of land in Purcellville. More than 1,000 people attended the annual Emancipation Day activities held here until 1967. The site served as a black religious, social, civic, and recreational center. The property was sold in 1971. [Text from historical marker http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=1793]
See these sources and websites for additional information:
“African American Communities of Loudoun County” website: http://www.balchfriends.org/bhmap.htm#
Historical Marker Database: http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=1793
John Brown House
225 E. King Street Chambersburg, PA 17201 (717) 264-1667 http://johnbrownhouse.tripod.com/index.htmlJohn Brown rented a room in this house while preparing for his raid on Harpers Ferry.
Home of the famous abolitionist John Brown from June until mid-October 1859. Working under the pseudonym “”Dr. Issac Smith”" as an iron mine developer and Sunday school teacher, he formulated plans and secured weapons for his ill-fated 1859 raid on Harpers Ferry. Visitors to Brown’s residence included co-conspirators Frederick Douglass, Shields Green, J. Henry Kagi (also operating under the pseudonym of John Henry), and other abolitionist leaders.
The oldest section of this building probably dates to 1820-1840. In 1849, it was purchased by Abram Ritner; following his death in 1851, his widow Mary expanded the building and opened it as a boarding house. Her most famous boarder rented an upstairs bedroom from June to mid-October, 1859. John Brown lived in this house under the alias Dr. Isaac Smith, claiming he was a developer of iron mines. While here, he bought tools from a local business, Lemnos Edge Iron Works, and stored them, along with the weapons he was concurrently stockpiling, in a local warehouse. These were later sent to the Kennedy Farm in Washington County, MD. Brown was visited in Chambersburg by Frederick Douglas, Shields Green, and John Henry Kagi (the latter two members of his raid), as well as other abolitionist leaders. After the failed insurrection at Harpers Ferry, several raiders returned to Chambersburg, asking Mary Ritner to help them. She hid them in a nearby grove, allowing them to escape successfully.
The house evaded damage during the Confederate destruction of Chambersburg, being just outside the downtown area that was torched. Today, the John Brown House is open to the public for tours.
See these sources and websites for additional information:
http://johnbrownhouse.tripod.com/index.html
http://www.nps.gov/history/NR/travel/underground/pa2.htm
Historical Marker Database: http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=8103;
http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=18531
Antrim
30 Trevanion Road Taneytown, MD, 21787 410-756-6812Antrim served as Union General Meade’s headquarters in the days preceding the Battle of Gettysburg.
Built in 1844, this home was Union General Meade’s headquarters in late June 1863 as he awaited a clash with Confederate General Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia, which was making its way north. Meade, newly appointed commander of the Army of the Potomac, had set up his forces along the “Pipe Creek Defense Line,” a twenty-mile stretch of hills along Big Pipe Creek with Taneytown at its center, to prevent the Confederates from advancing eastward to Baltimore. Instead of challenging Meade’s defenses, however, Lee’s army turned north and moved into Pennsylvania, forcing the Union Army to follow them to their ultimate confrontation at Gettysburg, over the first three days of July 1863.
See these sources and websites for additional information:
National Register of Historic Places summary: http://mht.maryland.gov/nr/NRDBDetail.aspx?HDID=433
Maryland Inventory of Historic Properties: http://www.mdihp.net/ (Select “Search by Property” tab, and enter CARR-264 in search box to right of “Site No.”)
White Rock United Methodist Church
6300 White Rock Road Sykesville, MD, 21784 410-795-1110White Rock Church was built in 1868, probably by newly-freed black citizens.
The White Rock Church was built in 1868, barely four years after Maryland’s emancipation of her slaves. Its founding members were probably former slaves, to whom a church was a symbol of freedom and independence. The church’s cemetery contains members of black families that are still prominent in the Sykesville area.
See these sources and websites for additional information:
Maryland Inventory of Historic Properties: http://www.mdihp.net/ (Select “Search by Property” tab, and enter CARR-1011 in search box to right of “Site No.”)
Ascension Episcopal Church
23 N. Court Street Westminster, MD, 21157 410-876-0736Two Confederate soldiers killed during “Corbit’s Charge” are buried in the cemetery of this church.
“Corbit’s Charge,” a clash between Union forces stationed in Westminster and Confederate forces advancing north from Montgomery County, left two Confederate soldiers dead, as well as eleven wounded. The dead of both sides were initially buried in the Westminster Cemetery on July 1st, 1863. Pierre Gibson and John W. Murray, both lieutenants of the 4th Virginia Cavalry, were later reinterred in the graveyard of the Ascension Episcopal Church (though Gibson’s remains were then moved to Virginia in 1867).
See these sources and websites for additional information:
Maryland Inventory of Historic Properties: http://www.mdihp.net/ (Select “Search by Property” tab, and enter CARR-571 in search box to right of “Site No.”)
Historical Marker Database: http://www.hmdb.org/Marker.asp?Marker=13848
Western Maryland College (McDaniel College)
West Main Street and Uniontown Road Westminster, MD 21158 http://www.mcdaniel.edu/index.shtmlDuring the war, the land was used to bivouac troops and place guns to protect arriving artillery.
Western Maryland College was chartered by an “act of Maryland Legislative” in 1864, though it was not opened until September 1867. Part of the land acquired for it included a lot formerly known as the “Old Commons.” Though privately owned, the Old Commons was a common site used by the citizens of Westminster as a meeting and picnicking area, and for public activities such as 4th of July celebrations and political rallies. During the Civil War, it was utilized by the Army of the Potomac to bivouac troops; guns were also placed there to protect the daily arrival of artillery on the nearby Western Maryland Railroad. For a few days preceding the battle of Gettysburg, men from the 1st Delaware Cavalry made it their headquarters, as it had “a commanding view of the surrounding countryside.”
See these sources and websites for additional information:
http://www.mcdaniel.edu/index.shtml
National Register of Historic Places Summary: http://mht.maryland.gov/nr/NRDetail.aspx?HDID=364&COUNTY=Carroll&FROM=NRCountyList.aspx?COUNTY=Carroll
Maryland Inventory of Historic Properties: http://www.mdihp.net/ (Select “Search by Property” tab, and enter CARR-21 in search box to right of “Site No.”)
Pine Grove Chapel
S. Main Street Mount Airy, MD, 21771Pine Grove Chapel was occupied by the Northern army as a barracks for troops guarding the railroad.
Pine Grove Chapel (formerly Ridge Presbyterian Church) was founded in 1846 on land donated by Henry and Eliza Bussard, one of the first families in Mount Airy. The church was constructed by slaves owned by Bussard and two other men. It offered not only church services but also a private school, located in the basement, to the Mount Airy community. Both services were halted during the Civil War when the Northern army took control of the church as a barracks for Company K of the 14th New Jersey Infantry. Company K guarded both the B & O Railroad, a major link in the North’s supply chain, as well as the crossroads in Ridgeville (now incorporated into modern-day Mount Airy). While the officers and men slept on pews in the church building, a mess tent was erected behind the church, in what is now the cemetery. Reportedly, “a sick and delirious soldier who wandered into Ridgeville and died” was the first person to be buried behind the church. Following the war, the church resumed services, though the basement school was then public.
See these sources and websites for additional information:
“Roads to Gettysburg” Pamphlet: http://www.carrollcountytourism.org/PDFs/Civil-War-Driving-Tour-2.pdf
Maryland Inventory of Historic Properties: http://www.mdihp.net/ (Select “Search by Property” tab, and enter CARR-964 in search box to right of “Site No.” Info is on pages 2, 5 and 7.)
Historical Marker Database: http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=12493
John Brooke Boyle House
70 East Main Street Westminster, MD 21157The John Brooke Boyle House, also called “Rosser’s Choice,” is the site where Confederate Colonel Thomas Lafayette Rosser spent a night while leading his cavalry regiment through Westminster in September 1862.
During the Antietam Campaign, Confederate Colonel Thomas Lafayette Rosser and his Fifth Virginia Cavalry spent the night of September 11, 1862, at the John Brooke Boyle House after raiding local Union forces. Rosser and his men remained only one night before continuing on toward Sharpsburg. Before leaving Westminster, Rosser managed to capture the local Union provost marshal and destroy Union enrollment books for the draft.
See these sources and websites for additional information:
“Roads to Gettysburg” Pamphlet: http://www.carrollcountytourism.org/PDFs/Civil-War-Driving-Tour-2.pdf
Maryland Inventory of Historic Properties: http://www.mdihp.net/ (Select “Search by Property” tab, and enter CARR-433 in search box to right of “Site No.”)
Westminster Cemetery
Cemetery Lane Westminster, MD 21158The old Union Meeting House that stood in the center of the cemetery served as a hospital for the wounded from Gettysburg.
The Union Meeting House served as a hospital for the Gettysburg wounded, and the cemetery is an interment site for some soldiers. Five Union veterans are buried in a lot that was owned by Mary Shellman. The meeting house was demolished in 1892; the site is marked at the center of the cemetery. Memories of the meeting house continued to live on, however, after its demolition. Shellman remembered:
“The old ‘Meeting House’ which was used as a hospital, and was built before the Revolutionary War, was torn down a few years ago, but until that time bore on its time stained walls and the wood work of the high pulpit, many autographs and pathetic messages of the soldiers who spent that memorable week under its friendly roof.”
See these sources and websites for additional information:
An article on the soldiers buried at Westminster Cemetery: http://hscc.carr.org/research/yesteryears/cct2007/070520.htm
Mimi Ashcraft and Ned Landis, “Mary Shellman’s Veterans: Finding the Forgotten” Catoctin History (Spring/Summer 2008, Issue #10): 32-41.
Trumbo-Chrest House
297 East Main Street Westminster, MD 21157The Trumbo-Chrest House is located near the center of where the battle known as “Corbit’s Charge” occurred.
On June 29, 1863, two days before the Battle of Gettysburg, the 1st Delaware Cavalry encountered the 4th Virginia Cavalry, led by General J.E.B. Stuart, in downtown Westminster in a skirmish known as “Corbit’s Charge.” The two sides fought briefly in the streets, and there were casualties on each side – two of Corbit’s men were killed and eleven wounded, and two Confederate officers were killed and ten men badly wounded. An untested group of soldiers and greatly outnumbered, the 1st Delaware fought with “an almost suicidal bravery,” but were soon overmatched and driven back to Main Street (Old Baltimore Pike). Despite their quick exit from battle, the 1st Delaware delayed the 4th Virginia enough that Stuart decided to spend an unplanned night in Westminster. This delay was significant because it prevented Stuart, who had critical reconnaissance information for General Robert E. Lee, from arriving at Gettysburg until late on the second day, which possibly influenced the outcome at Gettysburg.
Bullet holes can still be seen in the building, identified by a small sign which reads “struck by gunfire June 29, 1863.”
See these sources and websites for additional information:
“Corbit’s Charge” self-guided tour brochure: http://www.carrollcountytourism.org/PDFs/Corbits-Charge-Tour.pdf
“Roads to Gettysburg” pamphlet: http://www.carrollcountytourism.org/PDFs/Civil-War-Driving-Tour-2.pdf
Cathy Baty, List of Historic Civil War Sites in Carroll County, Historical Society of Carroll
County
Ellsworth Cemetery
Leidy Road Westminster, MD 21157The Ellsworth Cemetery was one of the main burial sites for African-Americans in Carroll County.
The Ellsworth Cemetery Company was incorporated in 1876 in order to “purchase and hold a Lot of Land in the vicinity of Westminster for a Cemetery for Burying therein of the Dead of the Colored People.” Several of the founders were Civil War veterans, and several veterans are buried there, including Daniel P. Warfield of the 29th Regiment United States Colored Troops (USCT), and Stephen H. Lytle of the 4th Regiment USCT. The one-acre site was not officially purchased by the Company until 1894, when it was sold for one dollar by the last will and testament of Elias Yingling, though it was used as an African-American cemetery before the official incorporation. The last burial in the cemetery was made in the early 1980s.
See these sources and websites for additional information:
Maryland Inventory of Historic Properties: http://www.mdihp.net/ (Select “Search by Property” tab, and enter CARR-767 in search box to right of “Site No.”) (Note: entry may not yet be up on Maryland Inventory website)
Carroll County Courthouse
Court Street Westminster, MD 21157The Carroll County Courthouse served as a meeting place for Union sympathizers as tensions ran high during the war.
The Courthouse was built in 1838 and is still in use today. A simple but dignified structure, it serves as a good example of ante-bellum Greek architectural style, with its heavy columns and monumental portico. The courthouse with its high-flying Union flag was an important focal point for Carroll County Unionists during the war, making it an attractive target for Confederate forces. To protect the flag while Confederate general J.E.B. Stuart was passing through town on June 29, 1863, Abraham Huber, clerk of the court, took down the flag flying from the courthouse cupola and locked it in the vault in the clerk’s office. Gen. Stuart ordered Capt. John Esten Cooke and some of his men to retrieve the flag. The detail broke into the vault and removed the flag which they presented to Stuart. The flag had been made by 13 local women, organized by Huber’s wife, Mollie, who had signed their names on the stars.
See these sources and websites for additional information:
Maryland Inventory of Historic Properties: http://www.mdihp.net/ (Select “Search by Property” tab, and enter CARR-558 in search box to right of “Site No.”)
Sherman-Fisher-Shellman House
206 East Main Street Westminster, MD 21157Confederate General Bradley T. Johnson and Colonel Harry Gilmor made this house their headquarters for a few hours in July 1864 during their raid through Maryland.
Gen. Bradley Johnson and Col. Harry Gilmor spent a few hours in the house during their raid through Maryland in July 1864. The house was built by Jacob Sherman in 1807 and later inhabited by the Shellman family for eighty years. Mary Bostwick Shellman, who lived in the house as a girl, recalled:
“Soldiers often passed through Westminster during the remaining months of the war but it was not until the summer of 1864 that the Cavalry force, under the command of Genl. Bradley J. Johnson and Major Harry Gilmore made their famous raid extending to the very doors of Baltimore, that we were again visited by the Rebels. Our house was made headquarters during their brief stay, they only remaining a few hours.”
Earlier, in 1863, a fourteen-year-old Shellman had another, perhaps more intimate encounter with a Confederate General. She and other children were out in the streets watching General J.E.B. Stuart and his cavalry ride by, and unable to contain herself, she yelled out ‘Johnny Reb’ at Stuart. Her derision did not fall upon deaf ears:
“Gen. J.E.B. Stuart, noting my antagonism, amidst the pronounced joy of my companions, had shown me unusual courtesy and called me his little captive, and given me the much wished for kiss, and therefore, I was an object of envy and under the ban.”
See these sources and websites for additional information:
Mary Bostwick Shellman, Recollections of “Stuart’s Raid” Through Maryland and Westminster’s Part in the “Battle of Gettysburg” (Historical Society of Carroll County) 2007. Note: Quotes above from this source.
See Carroll County Historical Society for more information: http://hscc.carr.org/property/Shellman.htm
Maryland Inventory of Historic Properties: http://www.mdihp.net/ (Select “Search by Property” tab, and enter CARR-136 in search box to right of “Site No.”)
Westminster Opera House (Odd Fellows Hall)
[CC ID no. 117, MHT no. CARR-382]
140 E. Main Street (MD 32) Westminster, MD, 21157An entertainer was found decapitated outside following a satirical show depicting Federal leaders.
Plans were drawn up for an opera house here, the site of a former tanning yard and shop, by the International Order of Odd Fellows (IOOF) in 1850, and the new building was complete by 1854, when it was sold to the Odd Fellows for $375. It was very much a community building, both during the Civil War and for many years afterwards. It served as the headquarters for the 17-member, strongly anti-Southern provost guard, Lieutenant Bowman’s 150th New York Infantry. It became the home of the Westminster Library in 1863, and frequently hosted “soirees” on behalf of the local dancing academy, despite the war raging in the background. Sometime during the Reconstruction period after the war, it reportedly held a satirical show portraying Lincoln, Grant, and other Federal leaders; it is said that the next morning an entertainer was found decapitated in the rear stables. An evening that received a much better reception was a speech given by Frederick Douglass in October 1870, who was highly praised by the local paper the next day.
See these sources and websites for additional information:
Maryland Inventory of Historic Properties: http://www.mdihp.net/ (Select “Search by Property” tab, and enter CARR-382 in search box to right of “Site No.”)
Daniel Stouffer House
212 Main Street New Windsor, MD 21776General Bradley T. Johnson made his headquarters here during his raid on New Windsor in July, 1864. Because General Johnson had connections to Mr. Stouffer’s wife, this home was one of the few properties in New Windsor not looted by Confederate soldiers during the raid.
See these sources and websites for additional information:
http://newwindsoronline.com/content/daniel-stouffer-house-212-main-street
Maryland Inventory of Historic Properties: http://www.mdihp.net/ (Select “Search by Property” tab, and enter CARR-1494 in search box to right of “Site No.” Info is on pages 44-45.)
John Forney’s Undertaking Shop
15 West Broadway Street Union Bridge, MD 21791This shop prepared and iced the body of Union Major-General John Fulton Reynolds, killed at Gettysburg.
Major-General John Reynolds was killed by a sharpshooter on the first day of the Battle of Gettysburg, July 1, 1863. His body was taken to Union Bridge where it was iced down and prepared for shipment to Baltimore, as Union Bridge was at the time the western terminus of the Western Maryland Railway. Union Bridge cabinetmaker John Hollenberger made the coffin.
See these sources and websites for additional information:
‘Roads to Gettysburg’ Pamphlet: http://www.carrollcountytourism.org/PDFs/Civil-War-Driving-Tour-2.pdf
Trinity Lutheran Church
28 West Baltimore Street Taneytown, MD 21787The Trinity Lutheran Church steeple was used by the Union Army to send signals during the Gettysburg Campaign.
The Union Signal Corps established their headquarters on June 30, 1863, at Trinity Lutheran Church. The signals they passed could be seen at Gettysburg. The Signal Corps used flags by day and flares by night, with each message taking between seven to eleven minutes to send. The steeple has since been extensively remodeled twice.
In the Trinity Lutheran churchyard is the grave of John Buffington, Co. C, 6th Maryland Volunteer Infantry. Buffington was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor in 1908 for bravery in the Battle of Petersburg, VA, on April 2, 1865.
See these sources and websites for additional information:
‘Roads to Gettysburg’ Pamphlet: http://www.carrollcountytourism.org/PDFs/Civil-War-Driving-Tour-2.pdf
Maryland Inventory of Historic Properties: http://www.mdihp.net/ (Select “Search by Property” tab, and enter CARR-1196 in search box to right of “Site No.” Info is on pages 7 and 11.)
Fairview Methodist Episcopal Church and Cemetery
3325 Old Liberty Road New Windsor, MD 21776The Fairview Methodist Episcopal Church is an African-American church with several United States Colored Troops veterans buried in its cemetery.
The Fairview Church was established in 1851. The cemetery holds several United States Colored Troops (USCT) veterans, as well as noted African-American stone carver Sebastian “Boss” Hammond and his wife.
See these sources and websites for additional information:
Maryland Inventory of Historic Properties: http://www.mdihp.net/ (Select “Search by Property” tab, and enter CARR-57 in search box to right of “Site No.”) (Note: entry may not yet be up on Maryland Inventory website)
Simon Murdock House
2824 Wakefield Valley Road New Windsor, MD 21776Simon Murdock was a Civil War veteran and an important member of the New Windsor African-American community following the war.
Simon Murdock, a farmer in the New Windsor area, enlisted in Company F of the 4th Regiment United States Colored Troops on August 4, 1863, at the age of twenty-six. He was struck on the forehead by a shell on June 15, 1864, near Petersburg, Virginia and sent to Summit House General Hospital in Philadelphia. He was honorably discharged from the hospital on May 5, 1865, with a Certificate of Disability. Though he never fully recovered from his wound, Murdock was still very active in the New Windsor community. He was a member, and also president, of the local New Windsor veterans’ organization for African-American Civil War soldiers, the Thaddeus Stevens Post of the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR). He married Cecilia Murdock in 1870 and lived in New Windsor as a farm laborer. He and Cecilia saw seven children live to adulthood and took in many of their grandchildren. Murdock died in April 1933, well into his nineties.
See these sources and websites for additional information:
Maryland Inventory of Historic Properties: http://www.mdihp.net/ (Select “Search by Property” tab, and enter CARR-1716 in search box to right of “Site No.”) (Note: entry may not yet be up on Maryland Inventory website)
Carroll County Farm Museum
500 South Center Street Westminster, MD 21157 410-386-3880 http://www.carrollcountyfarmmuseum.org/The fields around this former almshouse served as a staging point during the Battle of Gettysburg.
This complex of historic buildings began its existence in 1852 as the Carroll County Almshouse, and served in that capacity until 1965, when it was acquired by the county’s Department of Tourism, and became the Carroll County Farm Museum in 1966. During the week of June 28th-July 4th, 1863, it also served as a “point of entry and service center” for both Union and Confederate troops fighting in the Battle of Gettysburg, who filled the surrounding meadows and fields with men, mules, and wagons. The skirmish between General J.E.B. Stuart and a mixed group of Union troops, known as “Corbit’s Charge,” also took place in the fields behind the almshouse on June 29th, 1863.
See these sources and websites for additional information:
http://www.carrollcountyfarmmuseum.org/
National Register of Historic Places Summary:
Maryland Inventory of Historic Properties: http://www.mdihp.net/ (Select “Search by Property” tab, and enter CARR-38 in search box to right of “Site No.”)
Kimmey House (Colgate House)
210 East Main Street (MD 32) Westminster, MD 21157The owner of this house denied clothes to Confederate soldiers during the occupation of Westminster.
After “Corbit’s Charge,” the Confederate army occupied Westminster for a night before moving on to Gettysburg. The soldiers were badly in need of clothing, and an officer asked Nathan Gorsuch, the owner of the Kimmey House from which he ran a small clothing store, for supplies for the troops. Gorsuch declined to provide clothes for the army, explaining that if did he would be badly criticized by the mostly pro-Union Westminster citizens after the army had left. Surprisingly, the Confederates respected Gorsuch’s wish and left his store alone.
See these sources and websites for additional information:
Frederic Shriver Klein, Just South of Gettysburg: Carroll County, Maryland in the Civil War (Westminster, MD: Historical Society of Carroll County) 1997, 57
Maryland Inventory of Historic Properties: http://www.mdihp.net/ (Select “Search by Property” tab, and enter CARR-59 in search box to right of “Site No.”)
Swope’s Place
Corner of 140 West and Harney Road Taneytown, MD 21787After the Battle of Gettysburg, many soldiers were treated in the surrounding towns including here at the home of Dr. Swope.
Doctor Swope was a well-known doctor and treated many wounded soldiers after Gettysburg. Also, on the eve of Gettysburg, Major General Winfield Scott Hancock stayed here.
See these sources and websites for additional information:
‘Roads to Gettysburg’ pamphlet: http://www.carrollcountytourism.org/PDFs/Civil-War-Driving-Tour-2.pdf
Union Street Methodist Episcopal Church
22 Union Street Westminster, MD 21157 410-861-5822 http://www.gbgm-umc.org/unionstreet/The Union Street Methodist Episcopal Church was an African-American church founded by Reverend John Baptist Snowden in 1867.
Reverend John Baptist Snowden was born a slave in Westminster in 1801. He began to preach locally at the age of twenty-one and bought his freedom shortly thereafter. He helped found the Washington Conference in 1864, an organization of African American Methodists in Maryland and Washington, D.C. Part of his duties included overseeing the Western Chapel Charge in Carroll County, and he was approached by a delegate from Westminster in 1866 about building a Methodist Episcopal Church in that town. The church on Union Street was built in 1867 on land donated by Amos and Rebecca Bell, with Snowden as one of the five original trustees. After the Civil War, the church sponsored a Freedman’s Bureau school. Classes began by January 1868 and were held in the church until the completion of the schoolhouse in November 1869.
See these sources and websites for additional information:
Historic American Buildings Survey / Historic American Engineering Record (HABS/HAER) documentation: http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/hhh.md1000 (Union Street district)
Maryland Inventory of Historic Properties: http://www.mdihp.net/ (Select “Search by Property” tab, and enter CARR-503 in search box to right of “Site No.”) (Note: entry may not yet be up on Maryland Inventory website)
Bowen’s Chapel and School
4070 Bark Hill Road Union Bridge, MD, 21791The Bowens Chapel and School structure was an important part of the African-American community in the general Union Bridge Area.
A group of nine trustees who had split from the all-black Mt. Olivet congregation purchased the lot for the chapel in 1867. The deed for the lot notes that the intended purpose for the lot was to provide a school for the “colored part of the population of Uniontown District” with the assistance of the Freedmen’s Bureau. Though the building was soon completed with the aid of a few local citizens and the Bureau, and was officially listed as a school in Bureau records, it served much more early on as a meeting place and house of worship than as a school. This reflects the critical importance of a religious meeting place for African-American Union Bridge citizens, an importance that trumped even that of education. Bowen’s Chapel initially associated itself with the African Union Methodist Protestant Church, the first fully independent African American denomination.
See these sources and websites for additional information:
Maryland Inventory of Historic Properties: http://www.mdihp.net/ (Select “Search by Property” tab, and enter CARR-1092 in search box to right of “Site No.”) (Note: entry may not yet be up on Maryland Inventory website)
Town of Sharpsburg
Sharpsburg MD 21782 (301)432-4428 http://sharpsburgmd.com/Sharpsburg, Maryland, suffered damage during the Battle of Antietam, and many of its buildings were used as hospitals after the battle.
In 1763 Joseph Chapline laid out the town of Sharpsburg, which was named to honor Maryland Colonial Governor Horatio Sharpe. At the time of the Civil War the town’s population was 1,300. At the September 17, 1862 Battle of Antietam, or the Battle of Sharpsburg, the town was behind Confederate lines. The armies incurred over 23,000 casualties during the battle and a number of the town’s buildings suffered damage. More damage was inflicted to the town after the battle when many of its building were used as hospitals.
Following the war, Antietam National Cemetery was established in Sharpsburg. It was dedicated on September 17, 1867, the fifth anniversary of the Battle of Antietam. In the decades that followed, Sharpsburg was often a destination for veterans and others arriving to tour the battlefield and visit the cemetery.
See these sources and websites for additional information:
http://sharpsburgmd.com/history/
http://www.nps.gov/anti/historyculture/antietam-national-cemetery.htm
Kathleen A. Ernst, Too Afraid to Cry: Maryland Civilians in the Antietam Campaign, 1999; paperback edition, 2007.
Vernell Doyle and Tim Doyle, Sharpsburg, Images of America Series, 2009.
Maryland Inventory of Historic Properties: http://www.mdihp.net/ (Select “Search by Property” tab, and enter WA-II-0723 in search box to right of “Site No.”)
Civil War Trails marker: http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=197
Other markers:
http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=1968 http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=6293 http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=5903 http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=6268
http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=6519
http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=456
Norland Hall of Wilson College
1015 Philadelphia Ave Chambersburg, PA 17201 (717)264-4141 http://www.wilson.edu/Norland Hall, originally owned by a political supporter of Abraham Lincoln, was occupied by Confederate generals and was burned by southern troops in 1864.
Alexander K. McClure, whose Norland estate was located north of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, was editor of the Franklin Repository newspaper, a Republican politician, and political supporter of Abraham Lincoln. When Confederate General J.E.B. Stuart led his cavalry around Union General George B. McClellan’s army in October 1862, his men occupied Chambersburg on October 10-11. Southern horsemen camped on McClure’s lawn and officers spent the night at Norland. Prior to the Battle of Gettysburg, Confederate cavalry officer Albert Jenkins stayed at Norland. On July 30, 1864 Confederate Brig. Gen. John McCauland ordered his men to burn Chambersburg when town officials failed to provide a ransom. Norland was destroyed in the fire.
McClure rebuilt Norland in 1865. In 1868 he sold the estate to the newly founded Wilson College, a women’s college that began instruction in 1870. Norland Hall is still used by Wilson College as its Admissions Office.
See these sources and websites for additional information:
http://www.wilson.edu/about-wilson-college/history-and-traditions/index.aspx
http://vshadow.vcdh.virginia.edu/personalpapers/collections/franklin/mcclure.html
http://explorepahistory.com/displayimage.php?imgId=1-2-821
Judith Longacre, The History of Wilson College, 1868–1870, 1997.
Historical Marker Database: http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=8104
Monocacy Chapel site and Confederate Cemetery
19801 West Hunter Road Beallsville, MD 20839Confederate veterans are buried in the cemetery adjoining Monocacy Chapel.
During the Civil War, Beallsville was known as Monocacy Chapel because of an Anglican “Chapel of Ease” that dated to the eighteenth century. Federal troops camped in the vicinity in 1861 and practically destroyed the building by stabling horses inside and using the pews for firewood. A local United Daughters of the Confederacy chapter erected a tablet in 1911 in the adjoining cemetery to honor Confederate veterans buried there. A new tablet replaced the original in 1975. The Daughters reconstructed the chapel in 1915.
See these sources and websites for additional information:
Susan Cooke Soderberg, A Guide to Civil War Sites in Maryland – Blue and Gray in a Border State(Shippensburg, PA: White Mane Books, 1998), 71.
Historical Marker Database: http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=1681
Isaac Smith, claiming he was a developer of iron mines. While here, he bought tools from a local business, Lemnos Edge Iron Works, and stored them, along with the weapons he was concurrently stockpiling, in a local warehouse. These were later sent to the Kennedy Farm in Washington County, MD. Brown was visited in Chambersburg by Frederick Douglas, Shields Green, and John Henry Kagi (the latter two members of his raid), as well as other abolitionist leaders. After the failed insurrection at Harpers Ferry, several raiders returned to Chambersburg, asking Mary Ritner to help them. She hid them in a nearby grove, allowing them to escape successfully.
The house evaded damage during the Confederate destruction of Chambersburg, being just outside the downtown area that was torched. Today, the John Brown House is open to the public for tours.
See these sources and websites for additional information:
http://johnbrownhouse.tripod.com/index.html
http://www.nps.gov/history/NR/travel/underground/pa2.htm
Historical Marker Database: http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=8103;
http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=1853
Carroll County Farm Museum
500 South Center Street Westminster, MD 21157 410-386-3880 http://www.carrollcountyfarmmuseum.org/
The fields around this former almshouse served as a staging point during the Battle of Gettysburg.
This complex of historic buildings began its existence in 1852 as the Carroll County Almshouse, and served in that capacity until 1965, when it was acquired by the county’s Department of Tourism, and became the Carroll County Farm Museum in 1966. During the week of June 28th-July 4th, 1863, it also served as a “point of entry and service center” for both Union and Confederate troops fighting in the Battle of Gettysburg, who filled the surrounding meadows and fields with men, mules, and wagons. The skirmish between General J.E.B. Stuart and a mixed group of Union troops, known as “Corbit’s Charge,” also took place in the fields behind the almshouse on June 29th, 1863.
See these sources and websites for additional information:
http://www.carrollcountyfarmmuseum.org/
National Register of Historic Places Summary:
Maryland Inventory of Historic Properties: http://www.mdihp.net/ (Select “Search by Property” tab, and enter CARR-38 in search box to right of “Site No.”)
White’s Ferry
24801 White’s Ferry Road Dickerson, MD 20842This ferry was a crossing point during the Civil War, used on many occasions by Confederate forces during raids and campaigns in Maryland.
The ferry at Dickerson was originally known as Conrad’s Ferry. It began operating sometime before the Civil War, though the exact decade is uncertain; some accounts claim it was begun as early as 1782 under owner Conrad Myer, by an act of the Maryland General Assembly, while others date its founding to 1833 by Ernest Conrad. During the Civil War, White’s Ferry and nearby White’s Ford (three miles above the ferry at Lock 25 of the C&O canal) were repeatedly used as crossing points by Confederate troops. General Stonewall Jackson and three thousand of his men crossed here in September of 1862 during the Antietam campaign. Later, General Jubal A. Early’s men returned to Virginia after their 1864 raid on Washington at this point; the cavalry crossed at the ford, while the infantry took the ferry. After the war, the ferry operation was bought by Colonel Elijah Veirs White, a local Confederate officer who had distinguished himself early on in the war at the battle of Ball’s Bluff at Leesburg, only several miles downstream. White’s Ferry still operates today, carrying the cars of tourists and commuters alike across the Potomac to Loudoun County, Virginia, on the barge Gen. Jubal A. Early.
See these sources and websites for additional information:
Susan Cooke Soderberg, A Guide to Civil War Sites in Maryland – Blue and Gray in a Border State (Shippensburg, PA: White Mane Books, 1998): 68.
Historic Marker Database: http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=807
http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=741
Edward’s Ferry
Edward’s Ferry Road Poolesville, MD 20837Controlled by Union forces, this was an important Potomac River crossing site during several campaigns.
Edward’s Ferry, at Lock 25 of the C&O Canal, was controlled by Union troops for the duration of the Civil War. Federal forces passed through during the Battle of Ball’s Bluff (though they did not participate in the fighting), and again in large numbers during the Gettysburg campaign. Confederates also passed through, raiding the site in 1863, 1864, and 1865, damaging the canal and Union equipment. From December 1862 until March 1863, it was the base for Thaddeus Lowe’s balloon operations. Lowe, appointed Chief of Army Aeronautics in 1861 by President Lincoln, used his balloons to observe nearby Confederate forces from overhead, recording their positions and movements.
See these sources and websites for additional information:
Susan Cooke Soderberg, A Guide to Civil War Sites in Maryland – Blue and Gray in a Border State (Shippensburg, PA: White Mane Books, 1998): 67.
Historic Marker Database: http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=33741
http://www.hmdb.org/Marker.asp?Marker=1686
Historic Marker Database: http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=807
http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=741
Schmucker Hall (Old Dorm) of Lutheran Theological Seminary
111 N West Confederate Ave. Gettysburg PA 17325 (800)658-8437 http://www.ltsg.edu/
Schmucker Hall (Old Dorm) was used as an observation post by both sides during the Battle of Gettysburg, and it served as a hospital following the battle.
The Lutheran Theological Seminary in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania was founded in 1826 by Samuel Simon Schmucker, an abolitionist who personally hid runaway slaves in his home and barn. It is the oldest continuing Lutheran seminary in North America. Schmucker Hall (Old Dorm) was completed in 1832. During the three-day Battle of Gettysburg, its cupola was used as an observation post by both sides. On the first day of the battle Union Brig. Gen. John Buford used it to observe Confederate troop movements. When the Confederates took control of the area, they used the cupola to watch Union troop movements. Following the battle, the building served as a Union field hospital for two months.
Until recently Schmucker Hall housed the Adams County Historical Society. The building is presently undergoing major renovations, with the expectation that the work will be completed by July 2013, the 150th anniversary of the battle.
See these sources and websites for additional information:
http://www.gettysburg.stonesentinels.com/Places/Seminary.php
http://www.ltsg.edu/LTSG-News/January-2012/REHABILITATION-OF-OLD-DORM-TO-BECOME-FLAGSHIP-OF-B
James Gindlesperger and Suzanne Gindlesperger, So You Think You Know Gettysburg? The Stores Behind the Monuments and the Men Who Fought One of America’s Most Epic Battles, 2010.
Historic American Buildings Survey/Historic American Engineering Record/Historic American Landscapes Survey: http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/hhh.pa0007
Other markers: http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=15304
Women’s Memorial Evergreen Cemetery
(Monument located 50 feet southwest of the cemetery gatehouse) 799 Baltimore Street Gettysburg, PA 17325The Gettysburg Women’s Memorial is a tribute to the women of Gettysburg who served and suffered because of the battle.
The Gettysburg Women’s Memorial is a tribute to the women of Gettysburg who served and suffered because of the battle. The woman depicted is Elizabeth Thorn, the wife of the caretaker of Evergreen Cemetery, who was away serving with the 138th Pennsylvania Infantry during the Battle of Gettysburg. At the time, Thorn was six months pregnant and was caring for her three sons and elderly parents. She and her family were forced to flee their home in the gatehouse during the battle, and when they returned they found their food and possessions either strewn everywhere or stolen, and dead bodies lying unburied. As caretaker of the cemetery, Thorn was ordered to begin burying the bodies along with a detail of men. The men slipped away from their duty and only Thorn was left having to finish burying the 91 bodies herself. She gave birth to a daughter soon after, but the girl was never healthy and died at the age of 14. Thorn was convinced that the stress of the battle and of burying its victims affected her unborn daughter. Thorn’s husband returned safely after Appomattox, and the couple stayed at the cemetery until 1874.
The monument was created by Ron Tunison and was dedicated in 2002. Tunison created several other monuments at Gettsyburg and also the bas reliefs on the Irish Brigade monument at Antietam.
See these sources and sites for additional information:
Stone Sentinels website: http://www.gettysburg.stonesentinels.com/Other/Women.php
Evergreen Cemetery website: http://www.evergreencemetery.org/womens.htm
