USA > Maryland > Washington County > Hagerstown > A history of Washington County, Maryland from the earliest settlements to the present time, including a history of Hagerstown > Part 51
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With those far removed from the seene of the strife the feeling of resentment was more of a sentiniental nature, but here upon the stage, added to this was direct personal hatred. Those who sympathized with the Union suffered loss during the Southern oeeupancy and inconvenience all the
time and they felt that their nearest neighbors might be aiding and abetting those who were de- spoiling them. Those who sympathized with the South, if they gave any license to their tongues were oppressed and insulted and some of them taken from their homes and families to be impris- oned in Northern forts. These were likewise deep- ly incensed with those of their neighbors who re- joiced in their misfortunes.
In the North people were growing rich on the war, patriotism was profitable, but in Washington County the country was overrun by armies and farmers frequently saw the results of a year's hard labor swept away or trod under foot in an hour. Crops would be sowed, the ground ploughed with hired horses and the work done at enormous ex- pense and as the crops would be white for the harvest an army would encamp in the field. Or at a eritieal time every horse from a farm would be earried off leaving the farmer paralyzed. Miles of fencing which had cost almost as much as the land it enclosed was swept away and burnt up for firewood in a day. For this condition each side considered the friends of the other side re- sponsible.
The Union man did not doubt that the se- cessionists, by attempting to break up the Union and by firing on the flag, were responsible for the war. The Secessionist did not doubt that the Southern States had a constitutional right to ler- minate a compaet with those who had violated its terms and that the North, by invading the South was alone responsible for the conflict. Then, too, the successive oeeupancy of the County by the troops of the two sides gave rise to mueh feeling.
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HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD
If, during the occupation of the Northern army the Union man under that protection, treated his Secession neighbor with arrogance, it might be expected that the latter would take liis revenge when the Northern army had given place to the Southern.
This, then was the feeling which prevailed during the progress of the war. It is interesting to trace the local events which gradually led up to and developed into that local condition.
The Presidential campaign which resulted in the election of Mr. Lincoln was not as excited as many which had preceded it. The Hagerstown Mail favored the election of Breckenridge. Doug- las and that ticket got only enough votes to give the County to Bell and Everett by a small plural- ity. The Herald and Torchlight favored the lat- ter candidates, known here as "the Constitutional I'nion ticket." Lincoln had no friends and no support except a few scattering voters who were never heard from and except from the expressions of apprehension that his election would lead to war, no one would have known he was a candidate.
The venerable Francis Thomas who had be- gun his separation from the Democratic party by running as an independent candidate for Congress, came to Hagerstown to make a speech in favor of Douglas. He made a long and eloquent address in the Court House to an overflowing audience, but those who composed his audience were the Bell and Everett people and in point of fact Governor Thomas' speech was more in favor of that ticket than of Douglas whom he professed to support. J. Dixon Roman, a life long Whig, of course support- ed the Bell ticket. He afterwards became a strong Southern sympathizer but during the campaign he was pronounced in his condemnation of the threatened Secession. In a speech in the Public Square, he went so far as to say that should Bell be defeated he would prefer Lincoln to Brecken- ridge. But in this he did not represent his party. All the people of the County looked forward to the threatened clection of Lincoln as a national calamity.
At the election the result in Washington Coun- ty was similar to that in a majority of the States- the division of the Democratic vote lost the election to that party. The vote for Bell was 2,567, for Breckenridge 2,475, for Douglas 283, for Lincoln 95. Whilst Bell had a plurality, the combined vote of Breckenridge and Douglas, the two Dem- ocratic candidates was greater than the combined
vote of Bell and Lincoln. The vote for Lincoln did not exceed that which a womans rights candi- date might have received. In the Sharpsburg, Sandy Hook and Indian Springs districts he re- ceived but a single vote in each ; in Clearspring, Hancock, Pleasant Valley, Funkstown and Conoco- cheague, but two votes each; in Leitersburg and Tilghmanton five votes each; in Williamsport fif- teen, Hagerstown twelve, Boonsboro fourteen, ('avetown thirteen, Ringgold eighteen. The total number of votes cast was 5,427. But the vote for Breckenridge did not indicate that half the people of the County were in favor of secession in ease of his defeat.
The news of secession in the far South which quickly followed upon the news that Lincoln was elected, was received with genuine concern and alarm by a great majority of our people. It is not likely that a majority would have denied the right of the South to secede but a very great majority denied the wisdom and necessity of such a decided step. Indeed men's minds were strangely unset- tled and it was a long time before they finally settled down to conviction. Some of the strong- est and most uncompromising union men in the county contemplated secession and a readjustment of the union as being necessary under certain con- ditions and the idea of coercion or using force to compel the South to remain in the Union did not immediately take hold of the minds of people.
The condition of affairs became rapidly more threatening and as the news of secession move- ments came, a series of union meetings began in the different election districts of the County. The first one was held in Hancock on the 27th of No- vember 1860. Then, on January 12th followed one in Boonsborough. At this meeting, Andrew K. Svester made an earnest speech in which he set forth in detail the wrongs and indignities which the South had received at the hands of the North, but he did not consider secession the best remedy for those wrongs. Resolutions were adopted favoring the settlement of the difficulties between the free and the slave States by the pass- age of the ('rittenden resolutions in the United States Senate. This was in fact the prevailing sentiment in the County at the time and every- where petitions to Congress to adopt those resolu- tions were circulated for signatures.
On the 15th of January there was an im- mense meeting of citizens in the Court House. They assembled regardless of party and it was at
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this meeting that the first sign was made of that violent division of sentiment which afterwards drifted into raneorous hate. The gathering was made up of people from all the districts of the County. A short time before the hour appointed the crowd rushed into the hall and there was great excitement over the organization. The difficulty was finally adjusted by having two sets of officers, two Presidents, Vice-Presidents and Secretaries. The Presidents were Charles Magill and John Me- Kee. Upon motion of William T. Hamilton a committee of twenty was appointed to report res- olutions. At the head of this committee was Rich- ard H. Alvey and associated with him were some of the leading men of the County-William T. Hamilton, George Schley, Daniel Weisel, George Frcaner, William Motter, Alexander Neill, James Wason, Isaac Nesbitt and Elias Davis.
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During the prolonged absence of the com- mittee speeches were made by J. Dixon Roman, Louis P. Fiery, James H. Grove and others. Mr. Roman approved the course of Governor Hicks and spoke earnestly in favor of the preservation of the Union. It was almost night before the commit- tee returned and before that time, as the country members desired to return to their homes, it was decided that the resolutions should be published but that no action should be taken upon them until the following Saturday when the meeting should reconvene. The resolutions undoubtedly gave ex- pression to the predominating sentiment of the people of the County at that time. They dwelt upon the wrongs which had been inflicted upon the Southern States by the North. These wrongs de- manded redress but that redress could and should be found within the Union and under the consti- tution. The method of adjusting the difficulties, it was thought, was the Crittenden resolutions. That the condition of the country was perilous and the present crisis had been precipitated by a persistent and dogmatic course of fanaticism in the Northern States of the Union. The Union was only to be preserved by a policy of concession and peace and that any resort to force would be the certain means of engendering lasting hostility. The Governor was requested to recommend the people to assemble upon a day designated at their voting places that their sense upon the calling a convention be taken. The resolutions so far were the unanimous report of the committee. But Mr. Alvey on behalf of himself and a minority of the committee reported an additional resolution favor-
ing the call of a convention and setting forth at length and with marked ability the right of States to secede and the doctrine that the General Gov- ernment had no right to employ force against a State so seceding .* This resolution of Mr. Alvey because of the vigor of its language, expressing as it did the views of the majority of the people of Maryland, attracted the attention of the State to the author then a man of 35 years of age who had been in Washington County about 11 years and was a leader of the Bar. The resolution was as follows: "At the time of the adoption of the present Constitution of the United States, the sev- cral States adopting the same were free and in- dependent republics; and that the constitution be- ing adopted and the Union of the States fornied by the separate assent of the States respectively, as expressed through and by the several legisla- tures or conventions held in the several States for that purpose, such States whenever they think themselves aggrieved and oppressed, and that the ends and purposes of their Federal Association have been defeated, and their rights and liberties endangerd and therefore withdraw from the Union, cannot consistently with freedom and the nature of the republican institutions guaranteed to each be forced to remain in and maintain the Union; and that the employment of force by the General Government against any seceding State from said Union would be in violation of the true prin- ciples of the Union and of the right of the States; that it would be a radical and despotic perversion of the principles and objects of the Union, as well as of the rights of the States that any such resort to force by the general government should be made; that it is right and expedient that the peo- ple of the State should consult and determine in regard to the crisis impending over them, and as to the position and welfare of the State, and to that end a convention of the people should be call- ed by the sanction of law."
Five months after this resolution was offered the author of it was in a federal prison.
The following Saturday the Court House was again filled with people to vote on the resolutions. It soon became apparent that there could be no harmony between the friends of the North and those of the South, between secessionists and Union men.
A motion was made to adjourn to the Publie Square. The chairman declared the motion lost, whereupon the strong Union men withdrew and
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organized an outdoor meeting in the Square amidst the falling snow. Of this meeting Danicl Startz- man Sr., was the chairman. Danicl Wcisel for the committee reported a series of resolutions, moderate in tonc, but firmly in favor of the Union. "As much as we deeply regret the election of mnen to the highest offices of the Republie, nominated and sustained by a section, yet we do not regard their election as a cause for revolution; that their eleetion should have been resisted at the ballot- box, in the Union, by the united votes of those who were opposed to them, and failing in their duty, it does not now become us to revolutionize or overturn the government because of their elec- tion, but it is the duty of all good eitizens to submit to the Constitutional action of the people, and to judge of the incoming administration by its acts and measures, holding ourselves ready to resist by all Constitutional means any aggressions upon the rights of any portion of the country ; and never except when grievances become intolerable, and the necessity becoms absolute to resort to rev- olutionary aetion for relief or change." Whilst the general government eannot declare war against a State, still it has the power to enforce the due execution of the laws of the United States therein against all such as violate them and are found in open resistenee to their authority. That all laws passed by any States in contravention of the constitution and laws of the United States ealled personal liberty bills and such like, should be repealed. That in any future eontingeney, Mary- land should not consent to be a border state, but her true policy is to look to sueh a position in any new Confederacy as will best comport with her safety, peace and prosperity ; and that in the opin- ion of the meeting a central confederacy presents the best guaranties for her future destiny, if un- happily the Union should be dissolved. The elec- tion of President and Vice-President by the dis- trict system was advocated as a safeguard against the election of sectional candidates.
Speeches were made by Daniel Weisel, Elias Davis, S. M. Fiery, Lewis P. Fiery and others. This expression of views by the most pronounced and uncompromising Union men of the County. this recognition of the right of resistance by force to the General Government when all constitutional methods of redress had failed and this eontempla- tion of a new confederacy would have been regard- ed as rank treason by these same men a few months later and shows the rapid progress of events and
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the divergenee in sentiment between the people of the County. The resolutions prepared by Mr. Alvey of those who remained in the Court House, most of whom became later on, recognized seees- sionists or sympathizers with the seeeded States, were equally moderate in tone but favored a eon- vention, did not deny the right of a State to secede and declared that the threatened use of force against a State was unjust and despotie and should be resisted. This meeting was the begin- ning of the divergenee of sentiment. Following the County meeting, there was a series of Union meetings in all the distriets of the County, most of them commended Gov. Hicks for refusing to call the Legislature together and all of them fa- vored the adoption of the Crittenden resolutions as the best mode of meeting the erisis. "It was our duty as Southern men," said the Herald and Torch Light, "to hold back seeession until the sober second thought of the North can be put into oper- ation for the preservation of the Union."
In none of the meetings were the grievanees of the South, or the aggressions of the North de- nied, and none failed to deplore the election of Lincoln. No one had a kind or tolerant word for the President-elect, none seemed willing to adopt the advice of the County meeting and judge him by his conduct after he should have assumed his offce. He was severely eriticised by the Herald and Torch Light for what it called his frivolous speeches at the various towns where he stopped as he journeyed to Washington. Sentiment rapid- ly took shape during the spring of 1861 and the people arrayed themselves into parties. The Union party now not only denied the right of the States to secede but claimed the right and the duty of the General Government to employ force to preserve the Union. The men who endcavored most to arouse this sentiment were J. D. Bennett, S. M. Fiery and Lewis P. Fiery who made a great number of speeches at the various Union distriet meetings. Opposed to this Union party was the party which called itself the party for the "Con- stitution and Equality." AAfterwards it beeame known as the "Peace" party. However the people who composed this party might have desired to disguise their real sentiments under misleading names, it was generally understood that they were in principle secessionists. They did not profess to believe, and many of them in all likelihood did not believe in the wisdom of sceession, but they contended stoutly for the constitutional right of
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secession and denied as a necessary sequence to this doctrine that the Federal Government had the right to make war upon States for exercising their constitutional privileges. Many of the leading men of the County belonged to this party. Among them were Col. George Schley, a lifelong Whig, Judge John Thompson Mason, William T. Hamil- ton, Richard H. Alvey, Andrew K. Syester and George Freaner. The latter had obtained a high position by his brilliant course in the Legislature of 1860. Soon after the beginning of the war he joined the Southern army and served with the rank of major successively upon the staffs of Gen- erals J. E. B. Stuart, Fitzhugh Lee and Wade Hampton. The ranks of the Peace party were further reinforced by J. Dixon Roman for many years one of the most influential men in the Coun- ty. He and others who had started out with the Union party found that they could not keep pace with it.
The mouthpiece of the Union party was the Herald and Torchlight under the editorship of John Sneary and owned by him and Thomas E. Mittag. Like the citizens of the County generally the Torchlight was in some doubt at first as to what course to pursue, but it soon struck the key- note and became aggressively and violently oppos- ed to secession and relentless towards those people of Washington County who sympathized with the "hellish rebellion" as it never failed to character- ize it. Once, when the County was first invaded by Northern troops, the old pride of States' rights asserted itself, but the wavering was but for a day. The organ of the Peace party was the Hag- erstown Mail, edited by Daniel Dechert, a native of Pennsylvania. This paper on its side was as violent as the Herald and Torchlight or as it dared to be, until Dechert was arrested and kept for six weeks in prison. After that the tone of the paper was greatly modified, but not sufficiently so to prevent its being destroyed by an infuriated mob as we shall see later.
The first occasion for the two parties to nieas- ure their strength was in the municipal election of Hagerstown in April 1861. The Union candi- dates for the Council, Lewis Wilhide, G. H. L. Crissinger, C. H. Henson, Richard Sheckles and E. W. Funk were elected by an average majority of 48 in a total vote of 588 over W. E. Doyle, Upton Rouskulp, Peter Middlekauff, Charles Frid- inger and M. M. Gruber. The latter set of can- diclates called themselves the Constitution and
Equality ticket, but their opponents called them seceders. In obedience to the recommendation of the President the 4th day of January 1861 was observed as a day of humiliation and prayer. In Hagerstown all business was abandoned and the quiet of the Sabbath prevailed. Union services were held and the principal churches were scarcely large enough to contain the people who wished to take part in them.
After the beginning of April events began to crowd upon each other. First came the news of the attack on Fort Sumter and the President's call for troops to repossess the Fort. Then the Baltimore riot and the proclamation of Governor Hicks promising that no troops should be sent from Maryland unless to defend the National Capital, The invasion of Maryland by troops from the North without the consent of the State Govern- ment, evidently shook the loyalty of some of the stoutest Union people of Washington County. But they quickly recovered. On Friday the 19th of April a little body of fifty regular troops under the command of Lieutenant Jones arrived in Ha- gerstown. The men were weary and covered with mud and the stains of travel. This was the gar- rison of Harper's Ferry which had destroyed gov- ernment property there and retired upon the threatened advance of Virginia troops who were now in the field. The command arrived in Ha- gerstown after the departure of the last train for Chambersburg and they therefore went to that town in carriages and wagons which they hired in Hagerstown. This was the first appearance of troops in Hagerstown since the beginning of the troubles. During April a large stream of travel flowed through Hagerstown for the first time since the old staging days. The Baltimore and Ohio railroad from Washington through Baltimore was obstructed and since the 19th of April riot in that city Northern people had no desire to enter its limits and so for some time the route from Washington to the North was by rail to Frederick, thence to Hagerstown by stage and thence to Harrisburg by the Cumberland Valley road. The cars of that road were well filled. Among the passengers on the 20th of April were the Russian minister and Caleb Cushing.
During the spring two elections were held. There was a vacancy in the House of Delegates for Washington County and a vacancy in Congress for this district. Political meetings were held throughout the district. The resolutions of the
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Union party were aggressive and warlike whilst the Peace party was quiet and made but little demonstration. The Union County eonvention was held April 23 in Junior Hall, Daniel Weisel was chairman. Delegates were appointed to at- tend the Union State convention in Baltimore and Lewis P. Fiery was nominated for the Legis- lature. Just three days before the election An- drew K. Syester was informally nominated by the opposition, but he deelined to run, giving the short- ness of the time as his reason, a reason which the war party disdainfully refused to credit, assigning as the cause the knowledge of the eertain and in- glorious defeat which awaited him. Fiery there- fore had no opposition, but a large number of voters came to the polls to vote for him. Of the 5.500 voters of the County, who had voted at the Presidential election the previous year, 3,952 voted for Fiery. The election for Congressman in June was equally one-sided. Frank Thomas was nom- inated by the Union party. A call was made for a peace convention and one sparsely attended was held in Frederick. Col. George Sehley was nominated but he declined. The Peace party therefore having no candidate were advised by their newspapers and leading men to refrain from voting. Governor Thomas eame to Hagerstown before the election and spoke in the Public Square for two hours to an audience wild with enthusiasm. At the election Thomas received 3,931 votes in Washington County, almost the same number that Fiery had received two months before. There were 141 seattering votes east. In the district, the largest number of votes ever given for a can- didate, was 17,667. Thomas' total vote was 10,- 626 showing that in other counties the Union feeling was not as strong as in Washington County. By this time the sentiment of the County had taken definite shape and the enthusiasm of the Union people knew no bounds. The seeessionists had not yet been intimidated and they made no secret of their sentiments of hostility to the Federal Government or of their sympathy for the Southern cause. And it was not long before the bitter feel- ing of antagonism was at flood tide. In Clear- spring where Lineon had received but two votes, the feeling of loyalty to the Government went into enthusiasm. Flags floated over every house in the town but one and women wore aprons of the National colors-bibs studded with stars and skirts with the stripes. Clearspring was after- wards distinguished for having furnished more
soldiers in proportion to population than any other town in the State.
Before the beginning of May, armies were on both borders of Washington County. In Cham- bersburg 4,000 Federal troops were encamped and Harper's Ferry was garrisoned by the same num- ber of Virginians under Gen. Kenton Harper of Staunton. It was a strange eireumstance that on Sundays many Southern sympathizers of Ha- gerstown made the journey to Harper's Ferry to see their Southern friends, whilst Union people went to Chambersburg to view the army there-the largest army which had ever approached our bor- ders or had ever been scen by any of our people except those who had gone with Scott or Taylor to Mexico and those old men whose recollection eould go baek nearly half a eentury to the war of 1812. It was only a short time, however, that the people of Hagerstown were compelled to travel two and twenty miles to satisfy their curiosity with the sight of an army. The speetaele of even larger bodies than those at Chambersburg and Harper's Ferry grew very familiar. Indeed in a very few days there were grave fears that a con- flict would take place in the County. Confederates from Harper's Ferry eame freely over to the Maryland side of the Potomae and by their pres- enee obstructed eanal navigation. Great quanti- ties of flour which would have gone to George- town were now hauled to Hagerstown and sent North by rail. Tidings reached the Confederates at Harper's Ferry of a fight between Virginia and Federal troops at Shepherdstown and three regiments made a forced march to the latter place through a.terrifie hail storm only to find that no Federal troops had been seen in the vicinity. Confederate scouts then appeared in Hagerstown to learn the exact situation of the Federal Army. In the meantime the people of Washington County were forming themselves into military companies. Captain Roger E. Cook had formed the "Sharps- burg Rifles," Captain Kennedy the Union Guards, of Williamsport, and the "Home Guards" were organized in Hagerstown, and a company after the same name in Clearspring. In a short time the Union Guards offered themselves to the Gov- ernment and were mustered into serviee. While this was going on a number of young men from Washington County joined the Confederates at Harper's Ferry and at other points. Among them were three who afterwards became distinguished -- Major George Freaner who has been already mien-
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