See The Sites
Museums / Archives
Antietam National Battlefield
5831 Dunker Church Road Sharpsburg, MD 21782 http://www.nps.gov/anti/ (301) 432-5124A pivotal battle of the Civil War, the Battle of Antietam was fought on September 17, 1862, and was the bloodiest single day of combat ever on American soil.
After the General Robert E. Lee’s Confederate incursion into Maryland in early September 1862, the Union Army under General George B. McClellan pursued Lee with uncharacteristic speed thanks to the finding of the famous “Lost Orders 191” that detailed Lee’s movements. Lee had divided his army to accomplish various objectives, but once McClellan began pursuit, Lee quickly tried to reconsolidate his forces. A delaying action at South Mountain on September 14 slowed the Union troops long enough for Lee to establish a defensive line at Sharpsburg, MD. The resulting battle on September 17 was a pivotal battle of the war. Although McClellan’s troops outnumbered the Confederates, the day long battle was virtually a stalemate. The intense fighting was brutal, however, and the Battle of Antietam became the single bloodiest day of fighting, in terms of casualties, during the war. The only skirmishes on the 18th came as Lee withdrew his troops across the nearby Potomac River back to Virginia.
While it was no clear victory for either side, Union soldiers did manage to halt the Southern advance into the north, and Lee’s expulsion from Maryland was touted as a victory. Lincoln used it as a chance to issue the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation on September 23rd, which changed the objective of the war from restoring the Union to also include the elimination of slavery. The Confederates’ inability to win a decisive victory on Northern soil and the altered objectives of the war also influenced England and France to not recognize the Confederate States of America as a sovereign nation, a critical development that helped the North win the war.
The battlefield was established as a national park in 1890, and was administered by the War Department until 1933, when it was turned over to the National Park Service. The park includes many historic structures and monuments, and the Visitor Center includes exhibits, a theater and a bookstore.
See these sources and websites for additional information:
Antietam National Battlefield website: http://www.nps.gov/anti/
http://www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/hh/31/index.htm (National Park Service’s Antietam Historical Handbook)
National Register of Historic Places summary: http://www.marylandhistoricaltrust.net/NR/NRDBDetail.aspx?HDID=12
Historic American Buildings Survey / Historic American Engineering Record (HABS/HAER) documentation: http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/hhh.md1073
Maryland Inventory of Historic Properties: http://www.mdihp.net/ (Select “Search by Property” tab, and enter WA-II-0477 in search box to right of “Site No.”)
Civil War Sites Advisory Commission’s Battle Summary for Antietam:http://www.nps.gov/hps/abpp/battles/md003.htm
Civil War Trust: http://www.civilwar.org/battlefields/antietam.html
Susan Cooke Soderberg, A Guide to Civil War Sites in Maryland – Blue and Gray in a Border State(Shippensburg, PA: White Mane Books, 1998): 107-111
Save Historic Antietam Foundation: http://shaf.org/
Barbara Fritchie House
154 West Patrick Street Frederick, MD 21701 Contact: The house is privately owned and occasionally opened for tours. Check with the Tourism Council of Frederick County for current information: 301-600-2888, or 800-999-3613This reconstructed house marks the residence of Barbara Fritchie, the heroine of John Greenleaf Whittier’s 1863 poem.
In 1863, John Greenleaf Whittier wrote a poem about Frederick resident Barbara Fritchie and her courageous act of flying the Union flag from her attic window above of the heads of Confederate soldiers marching out of town during the first invasion of Lee’s troops into Maryland in September 1862. Fritchie was ninety-six years old at the time, and perhaps bedridden. The poem has been controversial ever since, and most people today think the incident never took place (at least not the version described in the poem). Barbara Fritchie’s strong Unionist views were never in doubt, however. She freely expressed her strong and unyielding support for the Union throughout the sectional conflict. It is known that Barbara Fritchie stood outside her home and cheered on McClellan’s forces as they marched through Frederick in September 1862, and an alleged member of Jackson’s Third Brigade relates that the elderly woman once mistakenly waved a Union flag at passing Confederates. True or not, Whittier’s poem became famous, and spawned books, plays, musicals, films, and memorabilia and souvenirs of all types. Fritchie died in December of 1862, and her house was torn down a few years later to widen nearby Carroll Creek. Much of the material from the house was saved, and later used in reconstructing the house in the 1920s. The house is privately owned and occasionally open for tours.
See these sources and websites for additional information:
Maryland Inventory of Historic Properties: http://www.mdihp.net/ (Select “Search by Property” tab, and enter FHD-0520 in search box to right of “Site No.”)
Charles S. Adams, The Civil War in Frederick County, Maryland – A Guide to 49 Historic Points of Interest (Shepherdstown, WV: The Author, 1995), 12
Civil War Trails Historical Marker: http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=2693
Entler Hotel (Historic Shepherdstown Museum)
129 E. German Street Shepherdstown, WV 25443 Contact: 304-876-0910 http://historicshepherdstown.comThe hotel served as a hospital complex after the Battle of Antietam.
The Entler Hotel began as a set of six adjacent properties, the earliest of which was built in 1786. After the Battle of Antietam in 1862, it was turned into a large hospital; some of the most severely wounded soldiers were brought here and tended by a local doctor, Richard Parran. After the war, it resumed its status as a hotel: in the latter part of the century, it was not uncommon for a veteran of the Civil War to return to spend a night in the room in which he had recuperated. In 1912 the structure became Rumsey Hall, the first men’s dormitory of Shepherd College. After serving as faculty apartments and storage space, it lay abandoned for almost a decade and was threatened with destruction. Today, however, it is the headquarters of the nonprofit organization Historic Shepherdstown, and is operated as the Historic Shepherdstown Museum.
See these sources and websites for additional information:
http://www.historicshepherdstown.com/
National Register of Historic Places nomination: http://www.wvculture.org/shpo/nr/pdf/jefferson/73001919.pdf
Margaret S. Creighton, The Colors of Courage – Gettysburg’s Forgotten History (NY: Basic Books, 2005), 121-122.
Gettysburg National Military Park
1195 Baltimore Pike Gettysburg, PA 17325 Contact: (717) 334-1124 ext. 8023 http://www.nps.gov/gettThe park, created in 1894, preserves and commemorates the Battle of Gettysburg, fought July 1-3, 1863.
The Battle of Gettysburg, fought July 1-3, 1863, was a turning point in the Civil War. The battle is often referred to as the “high-water mark of the Confederacy,” since this was the final large-scale push into Northern territory during the war. Although more men died during the three days of the battle than in any battle fought before or since on North American soil, the Union victory did much to boost the morale of northern soldiers and civilians alike.
Efforts at commemorating the Battle of Gettysburg began almost immediately, as the citizens of Gettysburg were forced to cope with the slaughter that had taken place on their farms and in their streets. Burial ceremonies led to the creation of a cemetery there, the Soldiers’ National Cemetery, which became part of the larger national cemetery system in 1872. As early as 1863, the Gettysburg Battlefield Memorial Association was established and began attempting to purchase land and preserve the battlefield. The Association’s original aim was to preserve only the Union battle lines, with very little effort at commemorating the Confederate positions until 1892. These efforts eventually led to the creation of a National Military Park in 1894; it, like the cemetery, was administered by the War Department from the time of its creation until 1933, when the National Park Service took over.
An estimated 9,600 acres comprise the Battle of Gettysburg’s primary area of action. Monuments and markers are scattered across the battlefield, and the park includes a Museum and Visitors Center.
See these sources and websites for additional information:
Civil War Sites Advisory Commission’s Battle Summary: http://www.nps.gov/history/hps/abpp/battles/pa002.htm
Civil War Trust: http://www.civilwar.org/battlefields/gettysburg.html
Harpers Ferry National Historic Park
171 Shoreline Drive Harpers Ferry, WV 25425 Contact: (304) 535-6029 http://www.nps.gov/hafeThe site of John Brown’s raid in 1859, Harpers Ferry was also strategically important during the war years, and changed hands several times.
Harpers Ferry played a significant role in the Civil War, from John Brown’s raid before the war, to the U.S. Arsenal located in town, and to the numerous times the town changed hands during the course of the war. Harpers Ferry was strategically important because of the Arsenal and the town’s railroad, highway, and canal transportation links. John Brown chose Harpers Ferry as his first objective in his infamous 1859 raid because of its stores of weapons and its location near the mountains; his plan was to establish a sheltered base from which to free slaves and attack slaveholders. Brown launched his raid on October 16th, 1859. However, he did not draw the support he expected from local slaves, and he was pinned down by the local militia until U.S. Marines under the command of Colonel Robert E. Lee arrived, capturing or killing Brown and his men. Brown was taken to nearby Charles Town, where he was tried and executed.
Brown’s raid is widely credited with helping fan the flames of the impending conflict. The Civil War reached Harpers Ferry on April 18th, 1861, when Union forces burned the arsenals located there to deny access to the “strong and hostile Virginia State forces” reported to be approaching. The Confederates in their turn burned more buildings and looted others in June 1861. Harpers Ferry was regained and occupied by Federal forces from February-September 1862, but their defenses were weak. Confederates under the command of Stonewall Jackson were able to take the town in an astonishingly short amount of time as part of Lee’s Maryland campaign, on September 15th, 1862, taking 12,000 Union prisoners in the process.
Union forces once again won back Harpers Ferry in October, and immediately began strengthening its defenses, building fortifications until June 1863. In 1864, the rifle trench along Bolivar Heights was extended so that the town was virtually impregnable, provided the defenders also held Loudoun Heights and Maryland Heights (site of Federal campgrounds from 1862-1865 and seven fortifications, only one of which is still intact today). From August 1864 to February 1865, Harpers Ferry was the main base of operations for Union General Philip Sheridan’s army while they destroyed Confederate General Jubal Early’s forces and took control of the Shenandoah Valley. In 1864, Federal forces destroyed several more buildings around the area, this time to clear the way for a U.S. Military railroad to help supply Sheridan’s army.
After the Civil War, Harpers Ferry was the site of Storer College, one of the earliest institutions for black education after Emancipation.
See these sources and websites for additional information:
National Register of Historic Places summary: http://www.marylandhistoricaltrust.net/NR/NRDBDetail.aspx?HDID=18
Maryland Inventory of Historic Properties: http://www.mdihp.net/ (Select “Search by Property” tab, and enter WA-III-072 in search box to right of “Site No.”)
Jennie Wade House
548 Baltimore Street Gettysburg, PA 17325 Tour information: (717) 334-4100 http://www.jennie-wade-house.comJennie (or Ginnie) Wade was shot and killed in this house during the Battle of Gettysburg. She was the only civilian casualty of the battle.
Jennie (Ginnie) Wade, a native of Gettysburg, was twenty years old when the Battle of Gettysburg began on July 1, 1863. [Her full name was Mary Virginia Wade, and she was nicknamed "Ginnie." Newspaper reports after the battle mistakenly referred to her as "Jennie."] On the first day of the battle, Ginnie, her mother, and two younger brothers left their house on Breckenridge Street to assist Ginnie’s sister, Georgia Wade McClellan, and her new baby, in the McClellan home on Baltimore Street. On the morning of July 3, while Ginnie was kneading dough for bread, a bullet fired by an unknown soldier tore through the kitchen door and struck Ginnie. She died instantly. Amazingly, Ginnie was the only civilian casualty during the three-day battle. The McClellan house, now called the Jennie Wade House, is a museum and tourist attraction.
See these sources and websites for additional information:
http://www.jennie-wade-house.com/
http://www.army.mil/gettysburg/profiles/wade.html
Margaret S. Creighton, The Colors of Courage – Gettysburg’s Forgotten History (NY: Basic Books, 2005), 121-122.
Monocacy National Battlefield
5201 Urbana Pike Frederick, MD 21704 (301) 662-3515 http://www.nps.gov/monoUnion and Confederate forces clashed here on July 9, 1864, in the “Battle that Saved Washington.”
In the summer of 1864, the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia was pinned down in Petersburg, VA by Union forces. In hopes of relieving pressure by diverting part of the Union army, General Robert E. Lee sent General Jubal Early up the Shenandoah Valley and into Maryland. Early entered Maryland through Washington County and continued east towards Washington, DC. After demanding ransom from the towns of Hagerstown and Middletown, Early’s forces reached Frederick on July 8. On July 9, the city of Frederick was also ransomed, and Early moved westward towards the Monocacy River. He was met there by a force of Union soldiers, led by General Lew Wallace, perhaps half the size of the Confederate army. Wallace, not sure whether Early was aiming for Baltimore or Washington, was forced to guard three miles of the Monocacy River against either outcome. The ensuing battle ended in a Union retreat, but it delayed Early long enough to allow for additional Union forces to arrive to protect Washington.
The park includes several historic residences and other structures, and there are five historic monuments on the battlefield.
See these sources and websites for additional information:
Monocacy National Battlefield website: http://www.nps.gov/mono
Monocacy National Battlefield Staff, The Battle of Monocacy, July 9, 1964 [Handbook] 2010.
Brett W. Spaulding, Last Chance for Victory: Jubal Early’s 1864 Maryland Invasion, 2010.
National Historic Landmarks summary: http://tps.cr.nps.gov/nhl/detail.cfm?ResourceId=687&ResourceType
National Register of Historic Places summary: http://mht.maryland.gov/nr/NRDetail.aspx?HDID=208&FROM=NRMapFR.html
Maryland Inventory of Historic Properties: http://www.mdihp.net/ (Select “Search by Property” tab, and enter F-3-42 in search box to right of “Site No.”)
Civil War Sites Advisory Commission’s Battle Summary for Monocacy: http://www.nps.gov/hps/abpp/battles/md007.htm
Civil War Trust: http://www.civilwar.org/battlefields/monocacy.html
National Museum of Civil War Medicine
48 East Patrick Street Frederick, MD 21701 Contact: 301-695-1864 http://www.civilwarmed.orgThe museum tells the story of medical care for soldiers during the Civil War.
The National Museum of Civil War Medicine tells the fascinating story of the evolving medical treatment of soldiers during the Civil War. The sheer number of casualties overwhelmed available resources, leading by necessity to advancements in battlefield triage, ambulance service, operations, the quality of nursing care, and in other areas of medical care. The building in which the National Museum of Civil War Medicine resides was once the furniture shop of James Whitehill as well as his undertaking business during the war.
See these sources and websites for additional information:
National Museum of Civil War Medicine website: http://www.civilwarmed.org
Charles S. Adams, The Civil War in Frederick County, Maryland – A Guide to 49 Historic Points of Interest (Shepherdstown, WV: The Author, 1995), 13.
Philip Pry House (Pry Farm)
18906 Shepherdstown Pike (MD 34) Keedysville, MD 21756This farm was used by General George McClellan as headquarters during the Battle of Antietam; it was also a hospital and signal station.
The Philip Pry House dates back to July 1844. Standing on a hill, it commands a good view of the Antietam battlefield, leading Union General George McClellan to make his headquarters there during the Battle of Antietam. The location also served as the medical headquarters of Dr. Jonathan Letterman, who put into place influential plans reorganizing the army medical system while here; both the barn and the house were called into service as hospitals. General Israel B. Richardson, “the Union hero of Bloody Lane,” died here on November 3rd, after being visited by President Abraham Lincoln in October. Today, the Pry House is part of Antietam National Battlefield and serves as a field hospital museum for the National Museum of Civil War Medicine.
See these sources and websites for additional information:
http://www.civilwarmed.org/VisitUs/PryHouse.aspx
http://www.nps.gov/anti/planyourvisit/pryhouse.htm
Historic American Buildings Survey / Historic American Engineering Record (HABS/HAER) documentation: http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/hhh.md1084; http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/hhh.md1083;
http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/hhh.md1082
Maryland Inventory of Historic Properties: http://www.mdihp.net/ (Select “Search by Property” tab, and enter WA-II-0355 in search box to right of “Site No.”)
Charles S. Adams, The Civil War in Washington County, Maryland – A Guide to 66 points of Interest (Shepherdstown, WV: Charles S. Adams, 1996), 12.
Roger Brooke Taney House
121 South Bentz Street Frederick, MD 21701 Contact: Historical Society of Frederick County http://www.hsfcinfo.org/taney/index.htm 301-663-1188This house was owned by Roger Brooke Taney, future Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, from 1815 to 1823.
Roger Brooke Taney began his career as a lawyer in Frederick, MD, and practiced law there between 1801 and 1823. He owned this house from 1815 to 1823. Taney later became Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, and was the chief author of the infamous Dred Scott case in 1857, in which Taney “affirmed” that African Americans “had no rights which the white man was bound to respect.” The Dred Scott case was one of the catalysts of the Civil War. Taney and Abraham Lincoln also clashed in 1861 over the arrest of John Merryman in Baltimore by military authorities. Taney claimed the military had no right to hold Merryman without a judicial inquiry, but Lincoln claimed the Constitution gave the President extra-legal authority in times of war. The Roger Brooke Taney House is now operated by the Historical Society of Frederick County as a museum featuring items of interest from the lives of both Taney and his brother-in-law Francis Scott Key. Taney is buried in Frederick, in St. John’s Catholic Church Cemetery.
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.md0338
Maryland Inventory of Historic Properties: http://www.mdihp.net/ (Select “Search by Property” tab, and enter FHD-1008 in search box to right of “Site No.”)
Charles S. Adams, The Civil War in Frederick County, Maryland – A Guide to 49 Historic Points of Interest (Shepherdstown, WV: The Author, 1995), 7
Susan Cooke Soderberg, A Guide to Civil War Sites in Maryland – Blue and Gray in a Border State (Shippensburg, PA: White Mane Books, 1998), 90.
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
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.”)
