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 53
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Politics too had its share of public attention. Lewis P. Fiery who had been elected to the Gen- eral Assembly to fill the vacaney cansed by the resignation of George Freaner, was the leader of a small but earnest minority of Union men in the Legislature then in session in Frederick. Mr. Dennis had offered a resolution recognizing the independence of the Southern Confederacy and against the resolution Mr. Fiery made a speech of intense enthusiasm. Before adjourning the Legislature had passed a law directing the various military organization of the State to surrender the arms which had been furnished by the State government. The Williamsport Company receiv- ed this command in high dudgeon and adopted a resolution setting forth their refusal to disarm themselves at the command of "the illegal and despotic act of the late traitorous legislature." The Boonsboro Guards made no resistence. They delivered up their arms to Captain Davis' Home Guards and disbanded. All this time the feeling of bitterness between the sympathizers of two contending parties, was on the inerease. And soon arrests and imprisonment added fuel to the flame. Richard H. Alvey was above all others hated by the war party. It was known that his
sympathies were wholly with the South. He came from a County, St. Mary's, where all the people, almost without exception, were secessionists. He had taken a bold stand, as we have already seen, in favor of the right of secession and against the right of the General Government to coerce a State. Many of his Southern Maryland friends joined the Confederate army and several Southern- ers who were in the regular army and resigned at the beginning of the war eame through Hagers- town on their way to their homes or to the South and visited Mr. Alvey. Among these was Col. Jenifer, a friend from St. Mary's County. All these things had direeted the attention of the Union people to him but there was yet nothing tangible upon which to base an arrest. And so in June a trap was set. One night about ten o'eloek whilst Mr. Alvey was in his law office a man in travelled stained clothes entered and pre- sented a letter purporting to come from one of the Southern Generals commending the bearer as a friend of the South and asking aid for him in obtaining information of the movements and dis- position of Federal troops. Mr. Alvey, not sus- peeting that the man was a spy, urged him to leave the town immediately. His presence there not only endangered his own safety but that of all with whom he should be seen. After some little talk the man left and in a few minutes a squad of soldiers came in and arrested Mr. Alvey alleg- ing as a cause, his reception of the man who had represented himself to be from the South and in further justification pointed to the decoy letter which was still lying on the table. He was carried to the headquarters at the seminary that night and the next day sent to prison. He was successively at Forts MeHenry, Hamilton and Warren .* At the latter prison he was in company with S. Teackle Wallis, George William Brown, Thomas John Clagett and other members of the Legislature which had been broken up by the troops. After an imprisonment of seven months Mr. Alvey re- turned to his home early in January 1862 upon parole not to enter the scceded States and to re- turn to Fort Warren whenever ordered to do so by Secretary Seward. J. A. Eyester of Cham-
*As the train which carried Mr. Alvey to the North went through Mechanicstown, Pa., a party of men were in the railroad station diseussing the ar- rest. One of them, a farmer, condemned it as un- justifiable. This offended several persons who were present and they took their revenge by tying the
farmer's saddle to a tree so that when he mounted his horse in the dark to go home, the saddle was pulled from the horse and the rider with it, giving him an ugly fall. A suit for damages was the se- quel and the men had to pay roundly for their per- formanee.
Old Col. John Miller Mill, below Sharpsburg, on the Burnside Bridge Road.
Orndorff Mill Bridge Over the Antietam.
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OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, MARYLAND.
bersburg had fallen into the hands of the Con- federates and in August 1861 Mr. A. K. Syester went to Richmond to secure his release. About the last of August 1861 Daniel Dechart the editor of the Hagerstown Mail was arrested and carried to Washington where he was detained six weeks. Although a Pennsylvanian Dechert had conducted the Mail in violent opposition to the Government and to the coercion of the South. After Mr. Dechert's return the tone of the Mail became much more moderate for a time. The next im- portant arrest was that of Dr. Charles Macgill by Captain Waltermyer of the 1st Maryland regiment, about September 50th. He was taken from luis home on South Potomac street to Col. Kenly's headquarters at Williamsport and the next day he was carried North on the Franklin railroad and consigned to Fort La Fayette, having refused to take the oatlı of allegiance to the Government.
In the latter part of the summer the usual political conventions took place. The Union par- ty nominated A. W. Bradford for Governor and S. S. Moffett for Comptroller of the Treasury, and the Peace party placed before the people Ben- jamin C. Howard for Governor and A. Lingan Jarrett for Comptroller. The Washington County delegates to this convention were George Freaner, Dr. Charles Macgill, Dr. E. L. Boteler, Thomas H. Crampton, David Cushwa and Dr. Horine Weast. The holding of primaries by the anti- coercion party was roundly denounced by the Union papers and the Peace party was called ".Jeff Davis' Masked battery." In this connection the persistent contention that the administration pur- posed to interfere with slavery was also denounced as false and malignant and a device of the enemy. Up to the spring of 1862 the "Herald and Torch Light" continued to denounce abolitionists and claimed that it was no part of the purpose of President Lincoln to interfere with slavery. One of the strong points it made against the Confeder- ates was that by bringing on the war it had de- stroyed the slave market and greatly impaired the value of slave property. At a sale in Frederick in April 1862, it quoted from the Frederick Ex- aminer, another Union paper, "a likely, sound and healthy negro woman, aged thirty years, her two children, a boy of four and a girl of two, both well conditioned were sold in a lot for $200. Also a little boy aged ten was sold for $45 and a very likely mulatto girl aged fifteen was withdrawn at $95. Less than two years ago servants of this
description would readily have commanded $2,- 500." The Union ticket in the Fall of 1861 was Daniel Weisel for Judge of the Circuit Court, Lewis P. Fiery for Senator, George Pearson, J. V. L. Findlay, F. D. Herbert, Samuel Rohrer and J. J. Thomas for the House of Delegates; Henry Gantz for sheriff. The Peace party was subjeeted to great discouragements. The convention or a small number of the members assembled in IIa- gerstown on the 28th of September and adjourned to October 15. There were grave doubts as to the advisability of nominating a ticket. Judge Thom- as Perry, who was on the bench, had already an- nounced himself a candidate for re-election. The Hagerstown Mail strongly urged the nomination of a ticket, but the Herald and Torch Light took the ground that no advocate of peace should be permitted to vote without first taking the oath of allegiance. A ticket was finally nominated how- ever to oppose the Union ticket. J. Dixon Roman was nominated for the Senate; for the Ilouse of Delegates Thomas H. Crampton, J. H. Elgin, Sam- nel H. Smith, Dr. W. A. Riddlemoser and Peter A. Witmer were the candidates ; for sheriff, Huglı Logan. The Union party, although their success was a foregone conclusion, were yet somewhat alarmed because of the absence of so many voters in the army. The number which had enlisted from the County had already reached six hundred and before the election a hundred and fifty more had gone. The Union people insisted that they should be permitted to come home to vote. They did come and a full vote was cast, electing the Union ticket by a majority of 2,978.
There was some movement of the military all through the summer. During August the regi- ments of Col. Lamon and Col. Kenly with the local companies commanded by ('aptain Kennedy were guarding the Potomac river at Williamsport and the 13th Massachusetts was performing a similar service at Sharpsburg. No intercourse whatever was allowed between the two banks of the river except to receive the Virginia refugees. A man came over to Hagerstown from Morgan County to buy some supplies. As he attempted to return to his home he was arrested and searched and a small quantity of powder and shot which he had bought was confiscated. Persons from Maryland visiting Virginia sometimes met with a similar reception. The Rev. D. J. Lee an Episcopal cler- gyman of Hancock, who had left Virginia because he was a Union man, went with a party of ladies
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HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD
to Winchester and was arrested and detained sever- al days. Mr. J. Gabby Duckett a youth of twenty years, son of Dr. T. B. Duckett, attempted to cs- cape across the river in order to join the Southern army. Nothing was heard of him for several weeks and then his body came ashore at Shepherds- town with a bullet hole in his breast. By the autumn the number of Virginia refugees in the County was estimated at a thousand. These peo- ple had rendered themselves obnoxious in their own homes by their Union sentiments and in flee- ing to Washington County, many of them brought their horses with them and later on plowed lands of those farmers whose horses had been taken from them by the army. For this work they got their own prices and probably made more money than they could have made by farming their own lands. The Union people of the County complained of thein bitterly for consenting to remain in inaction, enjoying the hospitality of the people rather than enlist in the army. In contrast to them the people of Washington County were eagerly entering the ranks. By the close of the year 1861 the number of recruits from the County had increased to a thousand and was still growing. There were four companies in the First regiment at that time in Frederick, namely the companies of Captains Cook, Holly, Yontz and Cronise; Captain Fiery's cavalry was attached to the second regiment at Cumber- land ; Captains Russell's, Kennedy's and Karnes' to Lamon's at Williamsport. Captain Welshe's infantry which had heen raised in Hagerstown, was in the Fourth regiment of the Home Brigade. In addition to these there were about a hundred of our men enlisted in Pennsylvania regiments. The Home Brigade was formed in August. In the same month the Sharpshurg Company under the cominand of C'apt. Roger E. Cook, who afterwards became a Colonel, was mustered into service and the Clearspring Company marched off to Frederick. The formation of a company in Hagerstown was hegun. In September the Sharpsburg Infantry Company under Captain William M. Cronise left to join the 1st Regt. of the Home hrigade at Frederick. This was the second company which the small town of Sharpshurg had furnished. On the 1st of October the Potomac Home Brigade, raised by Gov. Frank Thomas established head- quarters at the Fair Ground and Charles Welsh of Martinsburg, P. J. Mayberry of Hagerstown and T. H. Irvin of Boonsboro, opened an office near the headquarters to recruit the ranks of Gov.
Thomas' command. The inducements for enlist- ment were $13 a month with an allowance of $3.50 per month for clothing and a bounty of $100. In addition to this a tract of "bounty land" was promised to every soldier. Among the enlist- ments which attracted attention at this time was that of Dr. David Tschudy, of Hagerstown, aged seventy-one years. This was the man who was conspicuous many years before as a defendant in a trial for practicing medicine contrary to the Act of Assembly, not being a member of the Faculty. On the 6th of October the 13th Massachusetts and the 12th Indiana regiments belonging to Bank's division, arrived at Williamsport and went into camp. The Massachusetts soldiers were still in camp there when Thanksgiving day came and their manner of celebrating that New England festival was different from anything the people of Wash- ington County had seen up to that time. The day they celebrated was the one selected by tlie Governor of Massachusetts and not the same day which was appointed by the Governor of Mary- land. Hundreds of citizens gathered into the camp to see a New England Thanksgiving day. The soldiers received great numbers of turkeys and whole stacks of pumpkin pies from their friends at home. The festivities were concluded by a dance upon platforms erected in the camp. The festivities of the soldiers in Hagerstown were of a less interesting character and frequently gave rise to tumnults and disturbances. It was impos- sible to prevent the sale of whiskey to them and when they got drunk they grew ugly and gave trouble. A favorite diversion was fast and reck- less riding through the streets to the great dan- ger of the people. In October a mob of theni looted Jacob A. Wright's tavern on North Poto- mac street, .J. H. Cretin's grocery and the barber shop of John Wagoner, a colored man. They smashed up everything they could lay their hands on and drank all the whiskey they could get. Al- most anything the soldiers did was defended or condoned by the strong Union people of the town. In this instance the excuse was that they had been infuriated by boys who had thrown stones at them. -a most lame and insufficient excuse for such a breach of discipline. Many crimes were commit- ted by these armed and undiciplined troops in var- jons parts of the County. One of them shot at a son of Solomon Levi in Levi's store in Clear- spring and wounded him. Another tragedy took place in the same neighborhood about the same
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time. At a hog killing near Mooresville G. W. Mc- Allister shot and killed his father-in-law John Snyder. He was convicted of murder in the sec- ond degree and sent to the penitentiary for ten years.
All during the sunimer of 1861 the booming of cannon was heard in Hagerstown. It came from the desultory firing across the Potomac. Par- ties of soldiers on the opposite sides of the river were constantly on the watch for each other but did each other little damage. On the 13th of September two parties began a duel across the riv- er and canal at Shepherdstown. The company of Captain David Souders of Sharpsburg mounted two old cannon and after sending to Sandy Hook for reinforcements, opened fire upon Shepherds- town. One of the shot went through a dwelling house in that village and the Confederates becom- ing alarmed for the safety of the women and children, sent over a flag of truce and put an end to the skirmish. The only damage to life in the affair was the killing of an unfortunate tow boy on the canal. On the 16th of October a fight oc- curred at Harper's Ferry.
On December 7 the sound of cannonading became so loud and appeared so near and violent as to create great alarm. It proved to be the work of Gen. Stonewall Jackson who had erected a battery and was endeavoring to destroy Dam No. 5 and cripple canal navigation. With the artillery he had he was unable to batter down the dam, which was constructed of splendid masonry, but it was greatly weakencd. The Union soldiers on the Maryland side directed their fire at the Confeder- ates and did what they could to protect the dam. During the fusilade a barn belonging to Mrs. Ja- cob Reitzell, containing a great quantity of grain, was destroyed. About this time the canal was taken under the protection of the Government. Another assault was made on Dam .No. 5. The Confederates under cover of Coulston's splendid stone mill fired away at the dam until they had destroyed the cribbing, but before any further dam- age could be done the 5th Connecticut had crected a battery and shelled the Confederates out of the mill and then a party went across in skiffs and burned it. But for these interruptions canal navi- gation could have continued until January. Up to the second of January 1862 the weather was ex- ceedingly mild and the movements of troops went on unimpeded. On New Year's day the mercury
stood at 60 and fires were unnecessary. But the winter set in very cold on the second day of the year. It was surprising that such continuous firing could continue all the winter and result in so little destruction. More buildings were injured than people. A shell fired from Virginia went through Denton Jacques' barn and exploded on the other side. Straggling parties of Union sol- diers now and then ventured across the Potomae and were almost invariably captured and there were constant alarms in Hagerstown about the Confederates crossing the river. During the last week in December large reinforcements of Feder- al troops arrived on the Potomac and among them Col. Kenly's regiment, which resumed their former quarters at Williamsport. On Christmas day Co. H of the 1st Maryland, under Capt. B. H. Schley encamped within the Walls of old Fort Frederick and engaged in a brisk fire with a company of Confederates on the opposite side of the river, tearing up the tracks of the railroad. On the fifth of January a body of Federal troops came fleeing into Hancock from Bath, pursued by a party of Confederates who fired one or two shots into the town. The Federal troops under Gen. Kelly, had been for some time in possession of the town of Romney, Va. There was a telegraph line from Romney to Hancock and in the fall of 1861 this line was extended by the Government to Hagers- town.
Up to the close of 1861 the war had not ser- iously distressed the people of the County. No losses of property beyond the damage to the canal and the burning of a few barns, those of George Stonebraker, near Bakersville and Jonathan Hager near Hagerstown among the rest, had been sustain- ed. The presence of the army whilst offensive to many of the people, had been rather to the advan- tage of the County in furnishing an excellent market for all kinds of products. So far the soldiers paid good prices for all they bought and when the army crossed the river at Williamsport into Virginia in March 1862 they left debts for flour and provisions amounting to nearly sixty thousand dollars which was all paid the following mouth. War had not actually shown itself in the County and it was at a later period that the peo- ple suffered so heavily.
The ordinary occupations of the people went on pretty much as usual. The refugees from Vir- ginia fully supplied the places at the plow and in
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HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD
the shop of those who had joined the army. The schools were opened as usual in the fall and even the College of St. James whose students nearly all came from the South, entered upon the autumn term as usual but with only sixteen pupils left. This number gradually inereased during the term but did not reach fifty. The school year at the College was closed by the last publie commence- ment which was held in 1862. An occurrence dur- ing the year was the withdrawal from the chapel of eighteen or twenty of the boys when Dr. Ker- foot began to read the Thanksgiving prayers for a Federal victory. directed by Bishop Whittingham. Soon after the opening of the Hagerstown Female Seminary the Rev. Wm. F. Eyster, the Principal, resigned to take charge of the church at Smiths- burg. The school was continued by Miss Mary Ileffleman, assisted by Dr. Halm. Daniel Weisel was the President of the Board of Trustees.
The political animosities were on the increase all the time. The Herald and Torchlight was the mouthpiece of the extreme Union party and noth- ing could exeeed its bitterness of tone and senti- ment. It lashed itself and its readers into a perfect frenzy. Twenty or thirty of its subscribers who called themselves peace inen, discontinued their subscriptions to the paper at the same time and this was oil on the flames. It bitterly censur- ed the Government for its mildness and leniency and demanded more decisive measures against the secessionist. There was no encouragement, it said, to a loyal police to arrest them. Instead of being punished they would be comfortably kept for a short time in some fort and then turned out on parole of honor as if the oath of allegiance was too strong, for their weak stomachs. Gangs of young men dressed in the toggory of upper ten- dom, could be found on the streets, at the church doors and elsewhere uttering treason, criticisng the administration and exclaiming for Jeff Davis.
But the Torch Light could not complain of the leniency accorded to at least one prisoner. Jesse B. Wharton. of Hagerstown, had been ar- rested and thrown into the old Capitol prison. One day he leaned out of a window in violation of the rules and was promptly shot through the head by a Pennsylvania soldier named Ambrose Baker. It was claimed in extenuation that Whar- ton had refused to obey the command to withdraw from the window but this was denied by his
friends. The unfortunate man died within a few hours and was buried in the old Episcopal grave- yard in Hagerstown. Neither could the Maryland Legislature of 1862 be censured for its moderation for it enacted the "Treason Bill' imposing the pen- alty of death for levying war against the State or adhering to ils enemies, and various other severe punishment for a long list of political offences.
Moderation eane from an altogether unexpect- ed quarter. No man had been more extreme in his support of the Union cause than Lewis P. Fiery. He was one of the principal orators who had stirred the people of the County into active support of the Union cause. In the celebrated Frederick Legislature he had been the leader of the sniall minority who supported that cause and was at all times an extremist. Possessed of un- questioned boldness and of a rugged, untutored eloquence this eccentric man seemed entirely suited for a leader in a time of great excitement. Upon this extreme platform he was sent to the Senate where his party friends were now entirely in the ascendency. Early in the session of 1862 to the untold disgust of his friends and constituents and to the amazement of all, he introduced a series of resolutions urging upon Congress an armistice dur- ing which to endeavor to secure the restoration of the Union by a peaceful conference with Jefferson Davis, upon the basis of the Crittenden resolutions. But Mr. Fiery's party did not wish the Union re- stored upon any such terms. The power of the Confederacy was as yet unbroken and until it was broken no terms, they argued, should be either offered or accepted.
Senator Fiery's speech in support of his reso- lutions was the most remarkable of all. It was one of the ineidents of the session and attracted great attention and a large audience. In wild and impassioned language he spoke of the change which had taken place in him. He had been fa- mous for his boldness in the Legislature and in the field. He had strongly favored the war and had urged it on. But now he was a changed inan. Up to his thirty-fifth year he had been an infidel. But recently he had visited a village church where he had heard preached the truth as it is in Jesus. As he walked home from the church, like Saul of Tarsus a great light fell upon him from heaven and a great joy broke in upon his soul, and now he felt it to be his mission to reconcile the breth-
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ren of the nation and bring back again the hallow- ed days of peace .*
In the same Legislature, Mr. John V. L. Findlay, who had been elected on the ticket with Mr. Fiery, introduced resolutions, warning the Federal Government not to infringe on the rights of the States, nor to interfere with slavery upon the plea of military necessity. These resolutions met with but little more favor than did Fiery's. "The Federal interference with slavery" which Mr. Findlay desired to avert was already giving trouble and causing complications. The laws of Mary- land as they then were, prohibited the confinement of negroes in the State penitentiary. The punish- ment for felony was to sell the negro convict of crime out of the State. Now there was nowhere beyond the State where they could be sold and the sentences of the courts could not be executed. The result was the jail was soon filled with negroes and nothing to be done with them. A curious occurrence which took place in December 1860 may be related in this connection. A negro girl named Sims set fire to Mr. Startzman's barn and upon the trial for the crime she said that years before her brother had been sold to Georgia and she had burned the barn expecting also to be sold to Georgia and there she would be with her brother. But she could not be gratified. There was at this time a law prohibiting free negroes from entering the State and in enforcing this law two free negro servants of Captain Holibert of the army were arrested and carried before the Orphans' Court and by that court committed to jail. But the soldiers had small respect for Maryland law and went to the jail and forcibly took possession of the prison- ers. By the beginning of the year 1862 the ef- fect of the war upon the markets and the daily life of the people began to be keenly felt. The price of wheat, which was alinost the only thing the far- mer had to sell had not kept pace with what he had to buy. Not until February 1862 did it ad- vance beyond $1.15 per bushel and then it went
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