White’s Ferry

This 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.