Hagerstown, Maryland

“ Fighting desperately, their deeds of daring at times amounted almost to madness.
At length Hagerstown was reached. Upon the very heels of the First Maryland, and Tenth Virginia commanded by Colonel Lucius Davis, pressed the would-be incendiary and assassin, Ulric Dahlgren. Furiously he charged the Confederate column in the very streets of the town. The Tenth Virginia, in the rear, was thrown into confusion, and fell back and passed the command of Captain Bond. But that little band of heroes were not to be affected by the unmanly panic, but moved at the same dogged, determined pace. ”

“ When in camp Lieutenant Hawkins, who had a private servant, generally stayed at brigade headquarters, but while at Sharpsburg he had his tent for a time in a grove along with the officers of his regiment. I remember that his mother visited him there and remained for some days. She was a very fine, motherly lady who adored her son.
While the army was at Sharpsburg all of its supplies had to be hauled from Hagerstown, Maryland, about twenty miles away, which was the nearest railroad depot. ”

“ Going up the Cumberland Valley I reached Greencastle on the 14th of September, ten miles from Hagerstown. I could hear a dull and heavy booming of cannon to the south, in the direction of South Mountain; but the Rebels were at Hagerstown, and had made a dash almost up to Greencastle. The only troops in the place were a few companies watching the border, and momentarily expecting the Rebels to appear. Citizens of Maryland, some from Virginia, Union men, were there, ready to run farther North on the slightest alarm. ”

“ Hagerstown lies on the main line of the Western Maryland Railway. The Pennsylvania serves it by a branch line running from Harrisburg, Pa., to Winchester, Va., and the Baltimore & Ohio by a branch line running north from its main line at Weverton, Maryland. ”

“ At Hagerstown was left General Toombs' Georgia brigade, and one regiment of G. T. Anderson's to watch a Federal gathering force just across the Maryland line. The day was hot, the road hard and dusty, the march rapid—so much so that many of the men broke down, falling by the wayside. The emergency demanded the presence of our division on the field of battle, which we knew, having learned on our way that General Hill's division had been attacked at Turner's Gap beyond Boonsboro by a largely superior force, perhaps by the larger part of General McClellan's Union army. ”

“ James’ College, and Vaughan’s cavalry went into Hagerstown. Breckinridge, with his command and Jackson’s cavalry, crossed at Shepherdstown, and took position at Sharpsburg. This position is in full view from Maryland Heights, and a cavalry force was sent out by the enemy to reconnoitre, which after skirmishing with Jackson’s cavalry, was driven off by the sharpshooters of Gordon’s division.
“On the 6th, the whole force recrossed the Potomac at Williamsport, and moved towards Martinsburg; and on the 7th, we returned to Bunker Hill. ”

“ Brandywine and Christiana creeks are the only streams; Delaware bay forms a large part of the eastern boundary. The population is seventy-eight thousand and eighty-five.
Maryland is bounded south and west by Virginia; east by Delaware and the ocean; north by Pennsylvania. It is divided into nineteen counties. Annapolis is the seat of government. Baltimore is the third commercial city in the union; the other important towns are Fredericktown and Hagerstown. The rivers are the Potomac, Susquehanna, Patapsco, Severn and Patuxent. ”

“ One hundred and twenty thousand of the Union troops held the eastern bank of Antietam Creek, ready to cross and complete the expulsion of the rebels from Maryland, while it was believed that not less than two hundred thousand of the rebels held the high lands opposite. The slaughter of the day was fairly commencing. Pleasanton held the upper of the three bridges over the Creek, that at the Hagerstown road, over which Hooker was sweeping forward to make his crossing. ”

“ The educational value of these exhibitions was officially recognized by the French government, which in 1891 awarded Hagenbeck the diploma of the Academy. Most of the wild animals exhibited in music-halls and other popular places of entertainment throughout the world have come from Hagenbeck’s collection at Stellingen, near Hamburg.
HAGERSTOWN, a city and the county-seat of Washington county, Maryland, U.S.A., near Antietam Creek, about 86 m. by rail W.N.W. from Baltimore. Pop. (1890) , 10,118; (1900) , 13,591, of whom 1277 were negroes ”

“ May increase capital stock. SEC. 10. And be it enacted, That the president and directors of said company shall be, and they are hereby invested with all the rights and powers necessary to the construct a road or roads from Hagerstown, to any point on the Baltimore and Ohio rail road, within the limits of Frederick or Washington counties as prescribed in the first section of this act, not exceeding sixty-six feet wide, with as many sets of tracks as the said president and directors may deem necessary ”

“ Hagerstown is an antiquated looking place, and is, at the present time, the seat of unusual activity, owing to its proximity to the centre of military operations. The population was said to be about equally divided in its political sympathies. ”

“ He fought with the legislature from the first; he could not wring their rights from them, but he distressed and irritated the colony, levying arbitrary fines, and browbeating all and sundry with the brutality of an ungoverned temper. His chief patron was Lord Baltimore, a Roman Catholic, and therefore disfavored by the Protestant colony, who would not suffer him to plant in their domain. He bought a patent authorizing him to establish a colony in the northern part of Virginia, which was afterward called Maryland, being cut off from the older colony ”

“ He strongly advised me to wait elsewhere till the horse ferry was reestablished, of which he promised to give me the very earliest intelligence: so I at once determined to take the Hagerstown stage to Frederick next morning (the house stood not many yards from the main road) , and the rail from thence back to Baltimore, leaving men and horses in their present quarters. It was evident that the honest Irishman spoke (he was an emigrant of twenty years' standing) thus in perfect sincerity, from no lack of hospitality, though in poor mood for conviviality. ”

“ Davidson and the other by the Sheriff of Anne Arundel County. At this time the Hookstown Road was one of the main turnpikes into Baltimore. A Mr. Coleman whose brother-in-law lived in Pennsylvania, used a large covered wagon to transport merchandise from Baltimore to different villages along the turnpike to Hanover, Pa., where he lived. Mother and father and I were concealed in a large wagon drawn, by six horses. On our way to Pennsylvania, we never alighted on the ground in any community or close to any settlement, fearful of being apprehended by people who were always looking for rewards. ”

“ So the Maryland colonists, recognizing that their proprietor meant well, forgave him his generosity, and his activities in their behalf—but only because they knew that his day would presently be past. Man is infinite as well as finite: infinite in his claims, finite in his power of giving. And for Baltimore to presume to give the people all they claimed, was as much as to say that his fullness could equal their want, or that his rights and capacities were more than theirs. He gave them all that a democracy can possess—except the one thing that constitutes democracy ”

“ Fairfax County itself was gradually being occupied by men from two of the colonies: viz., Maryland and Jamestown. The Maryland colonists were English traders who, for one reason or another, had left their colony (1632) and taken up their residence among friendly tribes along the Virginia shore of the Potomac. The Maryland colonists [Pg 9] preceded the Jamestown colonists by a few years. ”

“ In Maryland, white labourers being found more advantageous than negroes, the market was always well supplied with them, the price varying from £12 to £30. Maryland was the most southern colony which, in 1695, consented to pay its quota towards the defence of New York, thus forming from Chesapeake to Maine an imperfect confederacy. The union was increased by a public post. Eight times in the year letters might be forwarded from the Potomac to Philadelphia. Public education was talked of, and promised by the assembly, but not carried out. The population increased, though not rapidly. ”

“ Crossing the Blue Ridge and marching down the Shenandoah Valley, he passed the Potomac at Harper’s Ferry, and, advancing across Maryland into Pennsylvania, threatened, not only the rear of Washington, but also the cities of Baltimore and Philadelphia. Hooker followed, keeping at the right of Lee, between Harper’s Ferry and Washington, and moving rapidly northward for the protection of the threatened cities. The Union army was reënforced from every quarter. ”

“ There had risen at his command thousands of men lying asleep on pavement and street, and quietly, in an interminable line, they had stolen out like dead men toward the Seminary, to join their comrades and begin the long, long march to Hagerstown. ”

“ Maryland's chief city, Baltimore, was founded about 1729. It was named in honor of the Catholic founder of the colony, and it still contains thousands of faithful Roman Catholics.
Owing to mistakes made in drawing up the different grants, the boundary between Pennsylvania and Maryland became a cause for disputes which lasted about fifty years. Several times surveyors were sent out from England to settle the quarrel, and the line they finally drew is generally known as the Mason and Dixon line. ”

“ Maryland’s own Charles Willson Peale is represented by a number of portraits and there is such refinement of detail as the very doll which is pictured in the portrait of little Miss Proctor which hangs in a bedroom. The house looks much as it must have, when the flower of colonial society passed through its elegant doors.
THE OCCUPANTS
Lafayette visited the Hammond-Harwood House, and it was a favorite meeting place of the planter society of Maryland. Through the years it has been lived in and loved by the prominent 4 Maryland families of Pinkney, Chase, Loockerman and Harwood. ”

“ The story of colonial Maryland has a flavor of its own, and throws still further light on the subject of popular self-government—the source and solution of American history.
The idea of the Baltimores, as outlined in their charter, and followed in their practice, was to try the experiment of a democratic monarchy. They would found a state the people of which should enjoy all the freedom of action and thought that sane and well-disposed persons can desire, within the boundaries of their personal concerns; they should not be meddled with; each man's home should be his castle ”

“ Her territory extends on both sides of a great inland water communication, and is at the natural Atlantic outlet, by railway, of the Valley of the West. Baltimore in the Union is sure to be inferior to Philadelphia and New York: Baltimore out of the Union is sure to become a great commercial city. In every way, whether we regard her own people or their usefulness to other States, I think the interests of Maryland would be promoted by secession. ”

“ From the village the ground descends in all directions, though a continuous ridge runs northward, on which is the Hagerstown turnpike. The Boonsboro turnpike enters the village from the northeast, crossing the Antietam on a stone bridge, and continuing through Sharpsburg to the southwest, reaches Shepherdstown by the ford of the Potomac already mentioned. The Hagerstown turnpike enters the town from the north, passing the Dunker Church a mile out, and goes nearly due south, crossing the Antietam at its mouth, and continuing down the Potomac toward Harper's Ferry. ”

“ A more beautiful subject could scarcely be found; and yet American history abounds with many such. One day they must of necessity become eloquent through the arts.
As regards the other states, the effect of the Restoration was not so favourable. In Maryland, as we already know, the claim of Lord Baltimore being confirmed, a temporary tranquillity was established throughout the state. Virginia was less fortunate, though she had been the most loyal of all the states; and though her homes had opened themselves to the exiled royalists, many of whom were now established on her soil. ”

“ Besides, many of the old citizens returned to their homes, now comparatively safe, and accumulated snug fortunes in providing small luxuries for the wearied soldiers and their friends. When General Banks was pursued to the Potomac at Williamsport a portion of the confederate forces marched towards Harper's Ferry and the union garrison there, with all the citizens who held to the old government, crossed over to Maryland. The rebels, however, approached no nearer to the place than Halltown, about four miles west, on Charlestown road and, in a day or two, they returned up the valley. ”

“ This law,
after specifying certain speeches against the Trinity, the Virgin, or
the saints as punishable offences, declared that equal privileges should
be enjoyed by Christians of all creeds. Whatever the motives of
Baltimore, his policy was certainly wise and commendable.
A new and troublesome element was now introduced into the colony. Some
Puritans who had not been tolerated among the stanch Church-of-England
inhabitants of Virginia were invited by Governor Stone to Maryland.
Their home here, which they named Providence, is now known as Annapolis. ”