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 54
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up to $1.30. But at $1.15 nearly the whole crop was sold. During the last three months of 1861 and January and February 1862 the Franklin rail- road carried from Ilagerstown 828.000 bushels of wheat and 40,000 barrels of Hour, equivalent in all to over a million bushels. And while wheat was selling so low the prices of several articles in daily use had become almost prohibitory. Coffee and tea were so expensive that the use of them was generally abandoned and many ingenious substi- tutes for coffee were invented. In every newspapr there was some recipe for making imitation coffee. Rye was soaked in warm water until swelled, then it was roasted. This was regarded as about the best substitute, but the flavor would be improved, it was gravely suggested, by the addition of one- third real coffee. Roasted barley was also used, sweet potatoes were cut into fine pieces, roasted brown, ground fine and made into coffee. 'These were only a few of the devices of the people for de- ceiving themselves into the belief that they were drinking coffee. Great inconvenience was now felt also at the entire disappearance of all coin. No "change" was to be had. The banks would part with no specie which once got into their vaults, and all that the people had went into the old stockings. There was a "premium" on gold and silver and all desired to make the most of it. Dol- lar bills had indeed, early in 1862 taken the place of gold dollars, but for some months there was nothing to take the place of the subsidiary silver coin, and then the "shin plasters" were issued. As soon as it became apparent that gold would command a premium, J. Dixon Roman, the President of the Hagerstown Bank, made a finan- cial stroke which laid the foundation of the large surplus fund which has made the capital stock of that old institution worth more than six dollars for one. He raised all the money the bank could com- mand and bought exchange on London which was subsequently sold at an enormous advance.
*Senator Fiery did not return to live in his na- tive County but bought a farm in Anne Arundel
where he resided until his death.
CHAPTER XXI
HE issue of enormous quantities of green- baeks which were freely spent by the sol- diers and government purchasing agents, caused during the spring of 1862, "flush" times in Washington County. Money was very abundant. It was difficult for the fortunate pos- sessors to find proper investments for it, and the habit of spending with greater freedom than at any former time, was contraeted by the people. The Hagerstown Bank was almost overwhelmed with money and in May reduced its capital stock from $250,000 to $150,000, which it was authorized to do by an Act of the Legislature at its previous session. This step was also deemed advisable by reason of abandonment of its circulation, which was made necessary by the government tax under the National Banking Law. A considerable sum of money was brought into the County from the . State Treasury. The Legislature of 1862 enacted a "Dependent Pension" bill for the relief of the families of Maryland Volunteers. For the dis- bursement of the money a commissioner was ap- pointed for each County. F. Dorsey Herbert was the Commissioner for Washington County.
The First Maryland Regiment had gone to the front from the camp at Williamsport, and was under Banks at Front Royal in the battle of May, 1862. The news of the Federal defeat at Front Royal caused the wildest excitement in Hagers- town. It was reported that the 1st Maryland had been entirely cut to pieces, and that its eommand- er, Col. John R. Kenly, and other officers of the Regiment had been wounded and taken prisoners, and had then had their throats cut by their captors. Colonel Kenly was greatly beloved by the Union
people of Washington County, and the belief that he had been murdered drove them almost to fren- zy. They were in such a state of mind at this time that they were prepared to believe the South- ern people capable of any crime, however re- volting.
Col. Kenly was a man to inspire feelings of the warmest admiration. He was born in Baltimore in 1822, and practiced law in that city from 1845 to 1893 exeept while he was in the army. He led a company of volunteers into the Mexican war, and distinguished himself for his bravery. Upon the conclusion of the Mexican war, he received the thanks of the State of Maryland by a vote of the General Assembly. In 1861, he promptly joined the Union Army and during the great struggle he attained the rank of Major General of Volun- teers, having served for a time as provost marshal of Baltimore. For his services he, for a second time, was honored by a vote of thanks from the General Assembly, and the city of Baltimore pre- sented a sword to him. Down to 1892 Gen. Kenly was still living a retired life in Baltimore, and although poor, further added to his distinction by refusing a pension from the Government. It was for his gallant conduct at the Battle of Front Royal that the rank of Brigadier General was conferred upon him. He was taken prisoner in the fight and released upon his parole. He was wounded on his head by a sabre cut. He was re- ceived in Hagerstown with great enthusiasm. The Federal Army had been chased from Front Royal to the banks of the Potomae and the soldiers cross- ed the river greatly demoralized. The seeession- ists in Hagerstown precipitated the riots that fol-
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HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD
lowed, by their ill concealed exultation at the result of the battle. An infuriated mob was quickly formed and directed its attention first to the office of the Hagerstown Mail, a newspaper which had been particularly obnoxious to the Union senti- ment. The Mail office was then in the building at the north-west corner of the Square. From the talk of the angry mob, which was composed partly of Virginia refugees, it was supposed early in the day that an attack would be made upon the office. Thomas B. Grim, then a young printer and sub- sequently for many years employed by the Mail, had been spending the nights in the office behind heavily barricated doors,
On the afternoon of the 24th of May, Deehiart, the proprietor of the paper, was at his home. Here he was informed that a mob was threatening to destroy his office. He went to sce Mr. Radelift, the Mayor, and asked him to see that his property was protected from destruction. The Mayor as- sured him that he was entitled to no protection whatever. It was upon the refusal of the town authorities to afford this protection that a suit for damages was instituted by Deehert against the Mayor and Couneil in 1868, and a verdiet rendered against the town for seven thousand five hundred dollars. The same mob destroyed during the same night the hardware store of Nathaniel Sener, and he also recovered damages against the town.
These judgments and the sum levied upon the town by Gen. MeCausland, of which we shall write later, were paid with money raised by the sale of town bonds, which were not finally paid off until about twenty years after the elose of the war .*
Following the Federal Army which retreated into Washington County after the battle of Front Royal, came a tremendous nondescript horde of invaders. Many of the citizens of the County were engaged in business in Virginia. These all came back stripped of their possessions. With them came hundreds and almost thousands of Virginia refugees-Union people who fled from their homes now that the protection of the Northern Army was withdrawn. In the wake of the flying Army eame also not less than two thousand fugitive negroes. These were in a most pitiable condition of destitu- tion. They were making a dash for freedom, and brought with them nothing but the clothes they wore. Some of them kept on to Chambersburg and quartered themselves upon the negroes of that town. filling their dwellings to suffocation. Och- ers went still further north, but the great body of thein encamped near Hagerstown, and existed upon what they could beg or what charitable eiti- zens sent to them. But their condition was for- lorn, and grew so bad that many of them deter- mined to return to their masters in Virginia, pre- ferring slavery to the hardsdhips of a fugitive hfe.
*From the Herald and Torch Light April 15, 1871.
On Tuesday of last week, after we had gone to Press, the Jury in the case of Nathaniel Sener vs. the Mayor and Council of Hagerstown, the suit being for losses sustained at the hands of a mob in the year 1862, rendered a verdict in favor of the Plain- tiff, assessing his damages at $3,000.
Whilst the citizens of this town deplore the outrages which were perpetrated upon Mr. Sehner and other parties in a time of war and violence they feel that they ought not to be held responsible for them, and therefore there is a very decided wish that the law which has imposed upon them this responsi- bility should be thoroughly tested in the highest Courts. During those days of violence and blood- shed, the stores of our Merchants were repeatedly broken open by the Confederate invaders, and goods taken amounting from One Hundred to Three Thou- sand Dollars, for which not one cent has ever been or ever will be paid, so that the parties who have sued the town are not the only sufferers from the lawlessness of the times. In speaking of the law, the Mail says:
"The general law requires suits of this nature to be instituted within three years, but the Legis- lature of January 1867, passed a special act, author- izing suits of this character to be brought at any
time within five years. The question of the consti- tutionality of this special act was raised and discuss- ed. The counsel for the town contended that they had the right, after May, 1865, to plead the statute of limitation, that it had become a vested right which the Legislature had no right or power to deprive them of. The counsel for the plaintiff in reply, contended that the plea of limitation was not a plea to the merits of the case, that the special act of 1867 dc- prived the defendant of no right, but it only enlarg- ed the time when these suits could be brought. The Court (Judge Motter and Judge Perry being on the bench) decided the act of 1867 Constitutional and remarked that the Circuit Courts were bound, in questions of doubtful Constitutionality to decide that the Legislature had acted not beyond their authority and that their acts were in accord with the fundamental law of the State."
Upon this point the case should not only go to the Court of Appeals, but if decided adversely to the town by that tribunal, it should be carried to the Supreme Court of the United States for final ad- judication. Tho question as to the power of the Legislature to pass a law by which all this class of cases were taken out of the statute of limitation, is a very far-reaching one in its consequences, and ought to be thoroughly tested before it is submitted to.
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OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, MARYLAND.
The miseries of these "Contrabands," as they were called, were further increased by disease, which broke out in their eamp. Early in June they were terrified by the appearance of smallpox amongst them; but there were only a few eases, and they of a mild type.
In Hagerstown all was bustle and life. The streets were filled with soldiers, wagons, horsemen, strangers and camp followers-a motley crew. The soldiers spent their money freely, and the volun- teers had their bounties to spend. Business was active, and the shops carried on a large trade. But excepting though the sale of provisions and feed to the Army, the farmers did not reap any of the rich harvest of greenbaeks. Many of them lost largely by the depredations of horse thieves. An organized band of these misereants infested the County and in consequence of the great demand for horses by the Government, easily disposed of their plunder. The farmers organized "imorse thief detective Associations" which continued to exist for several years after the war had elosed. The wheat erop in 1862 was excellent but the price was out of all proportions with the prevailing prices of other commodites. In June it was sell- ing as low as $1.10 per bushel. Harvest was very late. The first wheat was cut after the first week in July and in consequence of the tangled condition of the grain and the imperfect appliances for har- vesting, as compared with the binding reapers of the present day, the work of reaping was not con- cluded until the twenty-second of July. At that tine wheat was still selling at $1.10 to $1.20, whilst gold had gone up to 117.
By the fourth of June, Gen. Banks had re- crossed the Potomae and was advancing into Vir- ginia. Ten days later he sent five hundred pris- oners to the rear, and they arrived in Hagers- town on the 14th, under guard of four companies of soldiers. These were the first Confederates who had yet been in Hagerstown. Their advent created great interest, and the whole population turned out to see them. Their condition was forlorn. Their gray uniformis were in rags, and they were barefooted and foot sore. They spent the night in the seminary grounds, and went to Harrisburg the next day on a special train. In the spring, a portion of a Maine regiment had a slight taste of Confederate fare. It had been detached to guard the Baltimore & Ohio railroad between Harper's Ferry and Weverton, and had been left entirely without provisions. The soldiers had to subsist
upon such provisions as they could beg, borrow or steal from the farmers of the neighborhood. There was loud complaint among the people about the constant thefts.
On the 19th of June there was another mob in Hagerstown. This time Rhodes' restaurant and George Gruber's silversmith shop were gutted. Those who lost property by these raids received no sort of sympathy from the Union people. The coinments of the Herald and Torchlight were that "those who sympathize with this hellish rebellion, inaugurated for the overthrow of the Government, law and order, are beginning to see and feel its consequences."
Late in the summer there was striking testi- mony to the loyalty of the people of Washington County to the Government. In August a draft was ordered. This spread consternation in tire ranks of the disaffected but stimulated the loyal to enlistment. The officers of the 29th Pennsyi- vania Regiment were in Washington County at the time, acting as Provost Marshals. They adminis- tered the oath of allegiance to all "suspeets," and those who refused to take it were sent to prison. Among those who suffered the penalty at this time were Judge John Thompson Mason, David Pretz- man, Samuel Mock, Solomon Keller, Joseph Wil- liams, Samuel J. Price and Joseph Stonebraker. All of these gentlemen were sent to Fort McHen- ry. A large number of Southern sympathizers now fled from the County to eseape the impending draft. These were known at the time as "Ske- daddlers." Prompt measures were adopted to put a stop to "skedaddling." No one, subjeet to mil- itary duty, was suffered upon any pretense to leave the County without a passport.
On the fifth of August, a meeting was held in Hagerstown which passed resolutions approving the draft, upon the ground that in this way many disloyalists could be eaught and compelled to serve their country. Over this meeting Judge Daniel Weisel presided. The State of Maryland was com- pelled to furnish a certain number of reeruits to the army, and Washington County had to bear its proportion of that number, either by draft or by voluntary enlistment. The enlistments in the County had already been very numerous, and many had enlisted in the regiments of other counties and States. Notwithstanding the resolutions of the meeting in approval of the draft, there was no desire upon the part of the most loyal to be drafted and immediate steps were taken to secure volun-
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HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD
tary enlistments. Active recruiting began. Lieut. Ratcliff took possession of the abandoned office of the Hagerstown Mail and there opened a recruit- ing office and much to the gratification of the populace, the stars and stripes waved proudly over that disloyal apartment.
But the recruiting was not sufficiently rapid to satisfy the demands of the occasion, and it was determined that it must be stimulated. The first inducement held out to volunteers was an offer made by Mr. P. L. Blood the Principal of the Hagerstown Academy. This gentleman offered to teach the sons of volunteers for a year free of charge. But there is no evidence that any one offered himself "as food for powder" in order to get his son educated. Later in the month, a publie niceting was held in the Court House which adopt- ed resolutions favoring the appropriation by the County Commissioners of sixty thousand dollars, to be used in paying bounties to volunteers. The suggestion was adopted by the County Commis- sioners, and the appropriation was made. Its ef- fect was magical. Enlistments were made in great numbers and it is doubtful whether any part of the loyal states furnished so large a number of volunteers in proportion to the population as Washington County.
Added to the number who went into the Northern Army, we must not forget that there were many in the Southern Army also. At the time this bounty was offered there were eighty enlistments from the Indian Springs District, nearly one-third of the entire number of the voting population. In Hagerstown which had but six hundred voters and a large portion of them disaffected, two hundred volunteered. But Clear- spring was the banner district. More than one- half of the entire voting population of the village of Clearspring volunteered-seventy-three out of a hundred and twenty-four voters. Among the ('learspring enlistments were seven from a single family ; a father, George W. Chase, with his six sons. Near the last of August Captain Edward M. Mobley of the Bradford Guards, took his con- pany to Baltimore. where they were mustered into the Seventh Maryland, Col. E. H. Webster. Ùn the way to Baltimore the soldiers were handsomely entertained at Frederick. A committee of citizens appointed by the County Commissioners, composed of William Updegraff, Joseph P. Mong, Thomas A. Boultt, Henry Gantz, Benjamin Harris, F. A. Heard, D. C. Aughinbaugh and Charles A. Gel-
wicks, accompanied the Bradford Guards to Bal- timore, and after they were mustered into the service each man received from the committee a bounty of one hundred dollars, from the sum ap- propriated by the County. The money after be- ing handed over was nearly all returned to the in- dividual members of the committee, to be carried back home for the families of the soldiers.
The war was now getting to be a very serious business in Washington County. Privations and deaths, widows and orphans began to result. Major Wm. B. Kennedy, a brave officer from Williams- port was killed at Cedar Mountain in 1862. Taxes too, began to increase. Federal license taxes were imposed. There was a license tax upon almost every occupation, ranging from $10 upon profess- ional men and ordinary business to $100 unon banks and wholesale dealers.
September was a month of terrors to the great mass of the Union people of the County. The Southern army had been successful every- where and when a squad of Virginia Cavalry dash- ed into Hagerstown on Thursday September 11, 1863, a considerable portion of the Union popula- tion had departed, and taken refuge in Pennsyl- vania. As soon as it became known that Lee had crossed into Frederick County, these people were in mortal terror. Hundreds hung continually around the Cumberland Valley railroad station ready to start upon the slightest alarm. Many sat for hours in a railroad car waitng for a train to start for the North. Many went finally, carrying as much of their movable property with them as possible. The regiment which followed the ad- vance guard of Confederates into Hagerstown was commanded by a former citzen of Washington County, L. T. Brien. Then came Toombs' bri- gade, which marched through the town and en- camped on the Cumberland Valley railroad. The next day at 11 o'clock came General Robert E. Lee marching at the head of Longstreet's Division. For three hours these troops were pouring in. These encamped on the Southeastern part of the town. The condition of the Confederate soldiers was described as being deplorable beyond descrip- tion. They were "not only badly clothed and un- clean. but in a half starving condition. For days, indeed, since the fights at Centreville, they had subsisted on rations of bread irregularly issued, and green corn and fruits. Hundreds were weak- ened by diarrhoea and worn out by their long marches, but they fight desperately because worn
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OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, MARYLAND.
out by hunger and want .* This was their eondi- tion when they started on their hot and weary mareh to fight the battles of South Mountain and Antietam.
As soon as these men got into the town, the stores were quiekly thronged, and articles of eloth- ing and food were bought and paid for in the only money they had-Confederate script. But there was not much for them to buy, as nearly all the merchants had fled, and carried their merchandise with them. The Confederate Quartermaster Gen- eral impressed all the produce, clothing, hats, shoes, &c., that could be found, and made pay-
ment partly in greenbaeks. Longstreets' mer were sent back to South Mountain and Sunday night ,at 12 o'clock, Toombs with his brigade started down the Sharpsburg pike, and took position on the hill overlooking Burnside's bridge. Monday, Gen. Reynolds at the head of a Federal foree oc- cupied the town. After the battle of Antietam, Governor Bradford of Maryland with his staff and a number of volunteer surgeons visited the battle field. Upon his return to Annapolis he issued a proclamation, thanking the Maryland troops under Mcclellan, and that General himself in the name of the State of Maryland.
*The Herald and Torch Light.
CHAPTER XXII
HE month of September, 1862, was the most eventful in the history of Washington County. Two battles were fought in the County during that month, and one of them the most hotly contested and one of the most sanguinary of all the battles of the Civil War. In- deed, the battle of Sharpsburg may rank with the decisive battles of the world. It was one of those battles which decided the fate of a nation and changed the course of history. Had General Lee gained a decisive victory on the field of Antietam, in three days more he would have been in Wash- ington, and have dictated terms of peace which would have given the Confederate States of Anier- ica a place among the independent nations of the world.
The armies which confronted each other at Antietam on the 17th day of September, 1862, formed a striking contrast. Lee's army was com- posed of about thirty-five thousand men, weary and exhausted from long marches, with feet torn and bleeding fron marching barefooted in a rough and rocky country, clad in rags, famished and weakened by disease brought on by subsistence upon green fruit and ears of green corn eaten raw. But they were flushed with victory, and between them and their commander there existed that confidence which multiplies the effectiveness of an army. Victualed, equipped, clad, and fresh as the Feder- al Army which opposed them, these men in the hands of Lee, Jackson, Hill and Longstreet would have been invincible. The army of General Mc- Clellan contained eighty-seven thousand men, fresh, well fed and admirably equipped with every appliance of war which the unlimited resources of
the Government could command. But its mate- rial was heterogenous. Many were new recruits who had never yet been in an engagement; those who were veterans had been serving under inconi- petent and discredited commanders, and were dis- pirited. Gen. McClellan had taken command but a short time before. He did not know the men, and could have no confidence in them, and it is likely that this want of confidence saved Lee's army from annihilation, for McClellan deemed it necessary to keep a large force in reserve, and so at the close of the engagement there were about twenty-seven thousand men who had not fired a shot.
If Mcclellan had felt safe in bringing this reserve into action, Lee could not have escaped, for his army was worn out and decimated and his ammunition exhausted. McClellan doubtless un- der-estimated the fighting qualities of his army, and missed the opportunity of his life by permit- ting, Lee to escape. But who shall judge him? He knew that a repulse would be almost as disas- trous to Lee as a defeat. He knew that his army alone stood between the Confederates and Washing- ton, and that the consequences of a defeat of his undisciplined forces would be too momentous to be lightly risked. The whole month of September was a time of intense excitement and alarm for the people of Hagerstown. The fortunes of the Con- federacy were at the f flood. The prevailing impression in the South was that Maryland was a friendly state to them and was ready to fall into the arms of the Confederacy whenever the duress of the Northern Army was removed. This impres- sion of the sympathy for the South was entirely
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