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 60
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94
comes equally and even more necessary in the unhappy circumstances of the two incensed parties lacerating their common country. Should the sov- ereign conceive he has a right to hang up his pris- oners as rebels the opposite party will make refu- sals, or to destroy their country they will retaliate. The Duke of Alva made it a practice to condemin to death every prisoner he took from the Confederates in the Netherlands. They, on their part retaliated and at length compelled him to respect the law of nations and the rules of war in his conduct toward lhem.
The above is the rule and example of nations, and applying it to this case, I think that any one can understand it.
362
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD
of the patients died and were buried under a cherry tree in the yard. One of them was horribly wounded near the house and was carried into the barn where he died in a few hours. He was the son of a rich merchant in Portsmouth, N. H., and some time after the burial his father came for the body and carried it away in a metalic coffin. His griet upon the death of this his only son was very affecting. The hospital made it sickly at our home. Although the greatest care was taken and disinfectants were used liberally all about the house, my little sister was taken with typhoid fever and was very ill. When my father presented his bill to the Government for supplies furnished the hospital he received just one-half the sum he had actually expended.
"Early one afternoon I was standing with several other little girls in front of a farmhouse near the turnpike. Looking down the road we saw a long line of Confederates coming and knowing that a great army was to pass, we started to go to the road to see them. But just as we were starting the gate opened and a party of offi- cers rode in. They rode up to where we were standing and a splendid looking officer riding a fine horse, whose high rank we recognized by the star on his collar, raised his hat to us and asked whose house it was. He then said he knew the family which had formerly owned it and asked for a glass of water. This 1 ran to get and handed to him. After thanking me he raised his hat and left and we followed him to the gate. As he disappeared up the road I asked a soldier who it was and was informed that it was General Lee. I was very proud of having had the opportunity to wait on the great commander. It took many hours for the army to pass and as we little girls sat on the fence watching them, many soldiers spoke to us but always with the utmost courtesy. One of them, a mere boy, left the ranks and handed me his eard and a button from his coat. He was from Mississippi and said he hoped we would meet again. These I think I have still. The button I wore when I went to sehool in the North a year later much to the indignation of my teachers and Northern schoolmates.
"My mother who was in poor health, was in constant alarm about my father who was brought into conflict from time to time with soldiers by the refusal to submit quietly to wrongs. One day he left home to try to recover some horses that had been taken. He went to Boonsboro which was
then within the Federal lines. It was Monday "when he left home and not until Saturday could he obtain permission to go through the lines to return. He had been arrested and detained and made several narrow eseapes with his life. Dur- ing his absence we heard nothing from him. When he left my mother, who was a young woman, had not a grey hair, when he returned her head was almost white."
The last session of the College of St. James as a college, opened October 7, 1863 with twenty- three students which later inereased to thirty-three. That last year was one full of incidents and war alarms. At every Confederate invasion all through the war the eollege had been visited by former pupils who were officers or soldiers in the South- ern army. All came to pay their respects to Dr. Kerfoot who never seemed to lose their love or respect by his firm stand for the Union. On the last day of the year Dr. Kerfoot read in Chapel a list of twelve of the former college boys of whose death in the army he had received information. On July 3 and 4 came news of a Confederate raid. The time had finally come when the Confederates understood that at least this part of Maryland was in their enemy's country and they treated it as sueh, gathering up horses wherever they could find them as well as supplies for their ragged and half-starved soldiers. Iu addition to these depre- dations many outrages on private property and rights were committed by wandering bands of de- serters from both armies, some of them regularly organized forces who were out for loot. Among them was a party of about a half dozen men com- manded by Lieut. Jones, openly declaring they were deserters and calling themselves the New York Hawkeyes. This was the summer of Gen. Mc- C'ausland's raid, of the burning of Chambersburg and of the levying of tribute upon Hagerstown. As soon as news of the Confederate raid was rc- ceived and not a week passed without its alarmning runor, there was a general stampede with horses up to Pennsylvania. Vast numbers of animals were captured and the work of the farmer was more generally interrupted this year than in the preceding years of the war. On July 5 there was a running skirmish on the Sharpsburg turnpike from Hagerstown to Lappans X Roads. About the same time there were a number of barns burn- ed, a lot of army stores at Williamsport was de- stroyed and many depredations were made by straggling Confederates or detachments. The
363
OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, MARYLAND.
College of St. James was looted a number of times. Before this Gen. Hunter had devastated the vailey of Virginia, burning dwelling houses and de- stroying private property by wholesale. The whole Confederacy was in a state of fury about this un- civilized manner of conducting war and the loyal people of Western Maryland and Southern Penn- sylvania were thrown into consternation because they knew there would be reprisals.
In a letter to Bishop Whittingham Dr. Ker- foot voiced the general sentiment of the humanc Union people. "The wicked and needless destruc- tion of private and other unwarlike property by Hunter lately," he wrote, "made us anxious for mills and colleges if the rebels should cross the river. I wish Mr. Lincoln would reprobate and prohibit what we should agree would be gross wrong against us if done here by Confederates."* A barn of Mr. Hammond's was burnt and the distillery and farm house at Dalton the home of Mr. Dall in the Williamsport district were also destroyed. Then came Gen. Early's great raid through Maryland and into Pennsylvania. On the 5th of August a party of Confederates arrived at the College of St. James and all the horses were brought up for delivery to the party. But the officer in command proved to be a former student of the college. He was cordial and most defential to his old teachers refusing to deprive them of their horses but advising them to send them away. The same day a larger party came and Major Peyton the commander asked permission io establish his headquarters at the great college spring. Later Gen. Ramseur, of Virgina, arrived and took command. These officers and men were extremely polite to the college people. Two of the captains, Philips and Moore, were former pupils and a number of them were invited to dinner by Dr. Kerfoot and Gen. Ramseur took tea at the rectory. At the tea table a most awkward inci- dent occurred. Major Peyton arrived and called Gen. Ramseur out. He had brought an order to that gentleman from General Early to arrest his host. Dr. Kerfoot was called into the parlor and there informed of the order for liis arrest and that of the Rev. Mr. Coit, his assistant (later principal of St. Paul's School, Concord, New Hampshire) and that they must prepare to start for Richmond. They were to be held there as hostages for the Rev. Dr. Hunter Boyd of Win-
' chester who had been arrested by Federal soldiers and imprisoned in the common jail in Wheeling. While this news was communicated in the gentlest and most sympathetic manner, Dr. Kerfoot receiv- ed it, in his then state of health, as a sentence of death. It also involved the leaving of his wife and children amidst warlike scenes of the greatest disorder. The two clergymen were kept under close guard that night. They had sent for Mr. John W. Breathed, lately a curator of the college, a Southern sympathizer and the father of Major James Breathed, who lived just across the road from the college campus. Mr. Breathed went the next morning to see Gen. Early and at 8 o'clock returned with that officer to the college. Gen. Early talked to his prisoners at great length and courteously explained to them, after telling the history of Dr. Boyd's arrest, the necessity of de- taining the two clergymen to secure the release of the Virginia minister. Before Gen. . Early came Mr. Coit asked Gen. Ramseur-"General, will you kindly inform me why we are arrested?" The account of the interview is given by the Rev. Mr. Coit. Mr. Coit's account says: "His answer was that we were arrested as hostages for Rev. Dr. Boyd of Winchester, Va., who had been seized in the most cruel and unjustifiable manner by the United States military authorities and taken to Wheeling, Virginia and cast into the common jail along with criminals of all sorts both black and white. The Confederate Government had in vain remonstrated and called attention to the case and at last as the only remedy, had resolved to resort to reprisals. There were no complaints against us personally and no charges of acts done by us in violation of the laws of war.' We were, unfortunately, clergymen of sufficient position and importance belonging to the Northern side to be thought suitable persons to hold as hostages for Dr. Boyd. As for our disposition, he was direct- ed to place us in close arrest at once. We should probably be carried to Richmond and kept in Lib- by prison until Dr. Boyd's release or until the end of the war." The interview of Gen. Early with the two clergymen took place in the parlor of the rectory. There were none present but these three and Col. Pendleton. Mr. Coit in describing this interview said: "Gen. Early, tall, pale and grim looking, neatly dressed, seated himself, while to the best of my recollection we remained standing.
*Hall Harrisons Life of Bishop Kerfoot.
364
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD
He immediately began an address to us, explaining why he had ordered our arrest. He spoke like a lawyer arguing in defenee of a cause, and I confess that his reeital of the eruelties and needless miseries inflicted on the people of Virginia by po- litieal generals or irresponsible parties following in the wake of our armies, was very telling. If the half of what Gen. Early recounted was true, the North, in spite of the justice of its cause, had much to atone for. The reprisals begun by the South seemed justifiable as being their only pro- tection against injuries and outrages neither al- lowed by the laws of war nor ealled for by any extreme necessity." At the close of liis long ad- dress Gen. Early informed the prisoners that he had decided to take their parole upon the eondi- tion that they should effect the release of Dr. Boyd. If they did not sueeeed in doing this they were to surrender themselves to the Confederates at City Point three weeks from that day. This the two elergymen had no doubt they could do and the announcement was joyfully received al- most as a release from a sentence of death. "I ought to say," Mr. Coit continued. "that Gen. Early added that he had been indueed to this aet of clemency by the fact that he had been assured by responsible parties that while Dr. Kerfoot and myself were strong Union men, yet we had taken no part in promoting war, nor had done anything ineonsistent with our position as elergymen and that we had made no distinction of persons in whatever we had done for the sick and wounded after the battles of Antietam and Gettysburg. I think that Gen. Early made a strong and favorable impression on both Dr. Kerfoot and myself and I have always had a kindly feeling towards him and a wish to see him again. And his defence was not thrown away. I think that it had a marked effeet on Dr. Kerfoot's own opinions on certain features of the policy of our Government in the conduct of the war. I was much thrown with Dr. . Kerfoot in the next three weeks and we had many conver- sations upon the events and questions of the hour. And I noticed on his part a deeper tone of sym- pathy and compassion for the Southern people and a distinct reeognition of many unnecessarily eruel and vexatious acts perpetrated in the name of the Government by generals who were either fanatieal partisans or unprincipled demagogues. At the same time there was no ehange in his strong at-
*Harrisons' Life of Bishop Kerfoot.
taehment to the Northern eause and unshaken eonvietion of its righteousness .*
Dr. Kerfoot and Mr. Coit had anticipated the easy and speedy achievement of the release of Dr. Boyd and their own release from their parole. But in this they were doomed to disappointment. They had a singular difficulty in loeating Dr. Boyd. There seemed no record of his arrest nor of his imprisonment and it was only accomplished after a visit to Baltimore, then to Harper's Ferry, then back to Baltimore and finally to Washington and going from official to official, referred from one to another until they were weary and disheart- ened. Their first application was to Bishop Whit- tingham who was high in the confidenee of the administration. But to their amazement that great and good man reproached them for giving their parole. They had no right, he deelared, to put the government in any position whereby it even impliedly aeecorded to the South the rights of a belligerent. And when the two gentlemen went the next day to see Gen. Lew Wallace, the eomman- der of the department of Maryland, he told them that he had received a few days before a singular application from Bishop Whittingham, namely to arrest both of them and imprison them in Fort MeHenry to prevent them from keeping their pa- role.# But the Bishop after his interview with them and after their return from Harper's Ferry, gave them a strong letter to the President asking his aid for them and assuring him that "they have abundant attestations from the military au- thorities immediately cognizant of the facts, that what they ask is fit and right in itself, and con- sistent with the principles on which Government has hitherto aeted in sueh eases." Dr. Boyd had been arrested by Gen. Milroy and Gen. Wallace advised Dr. Kerfoot to go to Gen. Sheridan's camp in the Valley for some information of his prison. On August 11 they went to Harper's Ferry and sought the aid of Gen. William P. Maulshy, of Frederick who was then in command of troops on Maryland Heights. With that gentleman they spent the night. He was kind and sympathetie and sent to Gen. Sheridan's headquarters for in- formation about Dr. Boyd but could get none and the elergymen returned dispirited to Baltimore more than a third of their precious term of proba- tion having expired without any results. On Au- gust 16 they went to Washington, called at the
*Harrisons' Life of Bishop Kerfoot.
365
OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, MARYLAND.
White House, but the President was too tired to receive them nor could they get to see Seeretary Stanton. Gen. Hitcheoek, Commissary General of Prisoners took a warm interest in the case and telegraphed to all the military prisons but no traee of Dr. Boyd could be found. The General de- nouneed the conduct of such generals as arbitrarily arrested non-combatants from personal pique or even worse motives and vented their spite by keep- ing their victims in jails without notifying the proper authorities or making any formal charges. At the War Department they were informed that Mr. Stanton had taken up the ease and was vehe- mently denouncing Gen. Milroy, declaring that if he had not resigned he would have him tried by court martial and eashiered. Finally Dr. Boyd was located and released and the two elergymen joyfully returned to St. James. That was the last of that college. Dr. Kerfoot became President of Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut, and was later elceted Bishop of Pittsburg and died in that eity. Dr. Coit went to St. Paul's school in Con- eord, New Hampshire, of which he was later the headmaster. He died in 1906. About the time that Dr. Kerfoot and Mr. Coit were arrested at St. James, several arrests were made in Hagerstown. Frederiek C. McComas, Rev. Henry Edwards, An- drew H. Hlager and a number of others were ta- ken to Williamsport. Alex. Neill, Jr., and A. K. Syester went over and persuaded Gen. Early to parole then).
John W. Breathed the eurator of St. James College, who came to the rescue of Dr. Kerfoot and Mr. Coit when they were arrested, was a man who took a large part in the affairs of Washington County. He was for four years Judge of the Orphans' Court was an extensive farmer and the first agent of the Baltimore & Ohio railroad at Breatheds Station which got its name from him. He was the son of Isaae Breathed and Kitty Lyles, the latter a daughter of a surgeon in the Revolutionary army. This eouple had two ehil- dren, besides John W., both daughters. One of them, Jane, married, first the Rev. James Dela- plaine and subsequently the Rev. James Buek, for inany years reetor of Rock Creek Parish, District of Columbia, both of them clergymen of the Epis- eopal ehureh. The other daughter, Elizabeth, married Stephen Snodgrass of Martinsburg. John IV. Breathed was born in Montgomery County in 1814. In 1830 he was appointed to West Point through his cousin John Breathed, Governor of
Kentucky. But he went West and then to Vir- ginia where he represented Morgan County in the Legislature. He then came back to Maryland and engaged in farming. He was twice married His first wife was Ann MeGill Williams, daugli- ter of John MeGill Williams, of Montgomery County and also a descendant of Dr. Lyles of the revolutionary army and a cousin of her husband. The second wife was Otelia Cullen, daughter of Dr. ('ullen, of Richmond. Mr. Breathed had eighteen children, twelve by the first marriage and six by the second. Mr. Breathed lived first near Hancoek and then moved to the College of St. James. After the college elosed he bought the Rockland farm on the Sharpsburg road near Lap- pons, formerly the home of Col. Frisby Tilghman. Later he moved to Virginia and was for some years before his death Mayor of Lynchburg. He owned a great traet of land in West Virginia which went into the possession of Robert Bridges his son- in-law and became extremely valuable.
Three of Mr. Breathed's sons entered the Confederate army. One of them, John W. Breath- ed, Jr., joined Lee's army when it eame into Mary- land. Subsequently on the march to Chambers- burg he was captured and imprisoned in Philadel- phia where his health broke down. After the war he moved to Missouri. Isaae Breathed also enter- ed the army at the age of 15. Mr. Breathed's third son who went into the army was Major James Breathed, one of the bravest and most distinguish- ed artillery offieers in the Confederate serviee.
James Breathed was born in Morgan County, Va., December 15, 1838. In his childhood his father removed to the college of St. James where James was educated. In 1860 he graduated in medicine in the University of Maryland and went to the neighborhood of St. Joseph, Mo., to prac- tice his profession. When the war began, or was about to begin, he eame home to join the Southern Army. His traveling companion from Missouri was James E. B. Stuart, afterwards his eommand- ing offieer. Breathed enlisted in a company of cavalry at Martinsburg commanded by J. Blair Hoge, known as Company B, First Virginia Cav- alry. This company with others was put under the command of Col. J. E. B. Stuart who reeog- nizing Breathed as his traveling companion from the West assigned him to important seouting duty. Early in 1862 a battalion of horse artillery being organized, Mr. Breathed was made first lieuten- ant of the first battery of which John Pelham was
366
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD
captain. That battery was in the thick of the war and at the forefront of every great battle of the Army of Northern Virginia-the peninsula campaign, Fair Oaks, the Seven Days around Richmond, Antietam and Gettysburg, and on to Appomattox. He was a man apparently reckless in his daring. And yet the result showed that he had a cool head and if his bravery carried him into tight places his military skill brought him through. In September 1862 he was promoted captain and later major. At the close of the war he had reached the rank of lieutenant colonel. No officer of equal rank in the service perhaps has more stories of gallantry told of him than had Major Breathed. No battery in either army gain- ed a greater reputation than Breathed's battery. Among the stories told of Breathed there are some illustrating his personal prowess as well as his bravery. Toward the close of the war in a fu- rious encounter with Sheridan's men at Yellow Tavern, Breathed was cut from his saddle and fell among the feet of the charging horses. When his loss was discovered his retreating men were about to turn back to recover him when the miss- ing officer dashed up on a horse, badly wounded. He had dragged a Federal officer down, mounted his horse and escaped. Another time in a hand to hand fight with two Federal officers he van- quished both. Fitzhugh Lee spoke of his activity up to the last moment at Appomattox and of the "proverbial intrepidity of the reckless Breathed upon every battlefield of the Army of Northern Virginia." When he was wounded in Richmond the commander in chief wrote to him a tender let- ter of sympathy. Major Breathed while in battle fought with ferocity. After the fight he would give to the wounded, friend or foe alike, his pro- fessional services whenever he was able. After the war he returned to his old home at Hancock where his sister, Mrs. Robert Bridges, lived, and resumed the practice of his profession of medicine. His practice extended into Pennsylvania where he won the love and confidence of many who had regard- ed him with bitter hostility. He died February 16, 1870 in the thirty-second year of his age and was buried in St. Thomas' churchyard in Hancock.
Another son of Washington County was Ma- jor Breathed's companion in arms and his close friend. He was Major George Freaner who was aide-de-camp upon the staff of Gen. J. E. B. Stuart until the death of that officer when he became a member of the staff of Gen. Fitzhugh Lee until the surrender. George Freaner was born in Hagerstown January 20, 1831, educated at Dickinson College and entered the Hagerstown Bar in 1853. Soon afterwards he went to Cali- fornia and opened a law office in Oakland. He also engaged in newspaper work and took a hand in politics. In 1856 he was elected elector at large on the Buchanan ticket and was chosen to bring the vote of the electoral college of California to Washington. He did not return to the coast but settled down to the practice of law in Hagers- town, associated with Robert Wason and George W. Smith. In 1859 he was elected to the House of Delegates of Maryland and took a leading part at the following session. As chairman of the com- mittee on elections he submitted the report which unseated the Baltimore City delegation. It then became known to him that his own election had taken place before he had acquired citizenship in Maryland and he was therefore ineligible to the Legislature. He immediately resigned and came home. In autumn of 1861 Mr. Freaner entered the Confederate Army as adjutant of the First Virginia Cavalry commanded by Col. L. Tiernan Brien. Then he was on the staffs of Wade Hamp- ton, J. E. B. Stuart and Fitzhugh Lee. After the war he returned to Hagerstown and became law partner of Andrew K. Syester and continued in that firm until his death November 10, 1878. George Freaner was a man of strong character, marked ability and a speaker of remarkable force and eloquence. He took a leading position at the bar at the time when the bar of Hagerstown was the strongest in the Maryland countics. In poli- ties he was a Democrat and true to his record and instincts for honest government and was a strong supporter of William T. Hamilton. His wife who survived him was a daughter of George Fech- tig.
367
OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, MARYLAND.
CHAPTER XXIV
HE close of the Civil War found the people of Washington County greatly impover- ished. Their losses had been heavy and there was yet a decade before substantial recovery began. The County as a whole had lost the wealth producing energies of one or two thou- sand able-bodied men who had gone into the army and were withdrawn from industrial work for a period of four years. Fifteen hundred slaves had been set free. Crops had been destroy- ed, horses and all farm animals carried off and fencing burned by marching armies. But possibly the largest loss was caused by the fluctuating cur- rency. Prices in gold for lands and farm pro- ducts had remained steady. But the depreciated greenback was the measure of values. As the greenback became less valuable the price, or rather the nominal price, of lands and wheat and corn advanced. The high price of wheat tempted many to buy lands at inflated values, giving mortgages to secure deferred payments. Many farmers were compelled to mortgage their lands to pay for horses and cattle which they had to buy in place of those taken by the soldiers, and upon these mortgages the interest charged was at the rate of from 8 to 10 per cent. The cost, too, of farming during these years was excessive compared to the present cost. The binding reapers had not been invented and the use of steam engines in threshing grain did not become general for more than ten years after the close of the war. Harvest wages were very high, more than double the daily wage paid for other farm work-and a great band of men had to be engaged to do the work that three or four men do now with the use of the binder. To
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.