Maryland, Washington County, Hagerstown
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William T. Hamilton was born in Boonsboro. He attended the Hagerstown Academy and Jefferson College in Pennsylvania. Hamilton passed the bar in 1845 and opened a law practice in Hagerstown. After serving one year in the Maryland Legislature, he was elected to three terms in the United States House of Representatives (1849-1855). He served in no public office during the Civil War, however he was one of the party of Hagerstown leaders who arranged for the payment of the Confederate ransom to General McCausland in 1864.
After the War, Hamilton served one term as a United States Senator from 1868 to 1874. He was elected the 38th Governor of Maryland and served as the state’s chief executive from 1880 until 1884. Full of the entrepreneurial spirit, he also engaged in many business enterprises, including the construction of the Hamilton and Baldwin House hotels, one block east of here. When Governor Hamilton died in 1888, he was interred at Rose Hill Cemetery.
His widow developed the Oak Hill subdivision on the grounds of their summer home in the late 1800,s.
This was the site of Governor Hamilton’s “town” home. He purchased the former Valley Bank building in the 1850’s and converted it for use as a residence. The residence was demolished in 1959.
(War, US Civil) Includes location, directions, 1 photo, GPS coordinates, map.
William T. Hamilton was born in Boonsboro. He attended the Hagerstown Academy and Jefferson College in Pennsylvania. Hamilton passed the bar in 1845 and opened a law practice in Hagerstown. After serving one year in the Maryland Legislature, he was elected to three terms in the United States House of Representatives (1849-1855). He served in no public office during the Civil War, however he was one of the party of Hagerstown leaders who arranged for the payment of the Confederate ransom to General McCausland in 1864.After the War, Hamilton served one term as a United States Senator from 1868 to 1874. He was elected the 38th Governor of Maryland and served as the state’s chief executive from 1880 until 1884. Full of the entrepreneurial spirit, he also engaged in many business enterprises, including the construction of the Hamilton and Baldwin House hotels, one block east of here. When Governor Hamilton died in 1888, he was interred at Rose Hill Cemetery.
His widow developed the Oak Hill subdivision on the grounds of their summer home in the late 1800,s.
This was the site of Governor Hamilton’s “town” home. He purchased the former Valley Bank building in the 1850’s and converted it for use as a residence. The residence was demolished in 1959.
(War, US Civil) Includes location, directions, 1 photo, GPS coordinates, map.
The Miller Hotel was one of the most popular destinations along the National Road in Washington County. Traveler T.B. Seabright recalled in 1894 “There were large rooms adapted to dancing purposes, and young men and maidens of the vicinity frequently tripped to the notes of old time music in its spacious halls…The old Wagoners engaged in these festivities with gusto….”
“Several others who were hidden in houses escaped by donning citizen’s clothing, and Private Anitpas H. Curtis (Company D), while so dressed, had the distinction of saluting General Lee in person.” George G. Benedict in “Vermont in the Civil War”, 1888.
After stunning victories at Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, Virginia, early in May 1863, Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee carried the war through Maryland, across the Mason and Dixon Line and into Pennsylvania. His infantry marched north through the Shenandoah Valley and western Maryland as his cavalry, led by Gen. J.E.B. Stuart, harassed the Union supply lines to the east. Union Gen. Joseph Hooker, replaced on June 28 by Gen. George G. Meade, led the Army of the Potomac from the Washington defenses in pursuit. The Federals collided with Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, on July 1, starting a battle neither side had intended to fight there. Three days later, the defeated Confederates began retreating through Maryland, retracing their steps to the Potomac River and crossing into Virginia on July 14.
To follow in their footsteps and to discover their stories, stop by any Welcome Center or local Visitor Center to pick up a Gettysburg: Invasion & Retreat Civil War Trail map-guide. Please drive carefully as you enjoy the history and beauty of Maryland Civil War Trails.
This was a lively Unionist community on the important National Road during the war. In nearby Four Locks on January 31, 1861, local residents raised a 113-foot-high “Union Pole” with a streamer proclaiming the “Union Forever.”
William’s Port lay on the edge of the Maryland frontier in 1787 when founded by Revolutionary War hero General Otho Holland Williams. In 1790 this river town nearly became capital of the United States when President George Washington personally visited Williamsport before selecting the current site of Washington, DC, 100 miles east.
1862 Cook & Brother purchases property at the junction of Trail Creek and the North Oconee River, builds the Armory and produces Enfield-model rifles for the Confederate Army. 
July 22, 1864. Harrow’s 4th div. (composed of Walcutt’s, Oliver’s & Williams’ brigades), 15th A.C. [US] occupied this sector between Leggett’s Hill & the Ga. R.R., which was the outer Confederate line until abandoned that morning.
June 4, 1864. Ireland’s (3d) Brigade, Geary’s (2d) Div., 20th A.C., [US] seized, repaired & held Mason’s Bridge, which had been wrecked by Confederate forces retreating eastward. 
To our Confederate dead
They answered the call to arms
Shepherdstown was established near a natural ford used by American Indians and early settlers to cross the Potomac River. A ferry service, begun in 1775, reliably connected Shepherdstown with communities throughout Maryland and Pennsylvania for almost one hundred years. 
James Rumsey, inventor of the steamboat, lived here, 1785 to 1788, and in 1787 demonstrated his boat on the Potomac at this point. Here was born Colonel James Strode Swearingen, who commanded the men who founded the City of Chicago in 1803.
This Civil War era photograph offers a glimpse into the two Shepherdstown communities that grew up along the river. The stone pilings in this photograph were all that remained of the covered bridge burned by Confederate troops led by Stonewall Jackson in 1861.
Camp Fannin was also the site of an internment camp, with the first prisoners of war (POWs) from Germany's Afrika Korps arriving in Oct. 1943. BY early 1944, the military designated the site a POW base camp that administered a number of smaller branch camps in East Texas. As a result of a home front wartime manpower scarcity, upon the request of local representatives, the War Department allowed the use of POW labor in forestry and agriculture in East Texas. During its existence, the camp efficiently processed many thousands of POWs and held more than 1,000 at this location. After repatriating the POWs, the camp closed on May 10, 1946.
Texas in WW II
Property of the State of Texas
History passed through the town of Shepherdstown for centuries. Native Americans cross the Potowomack River at the ford below the bluffs. German settlers crossed at Packhorse Ford as they emigrated from Pennsylvania into Virginia's Shenandoah Valley, giving the name Mecklenburg to the town. In 1832, the C&O Canal arrived, providing a controlled transportation route to the west. The canal also brought businesses to town with a river lock, providing canal boats a means to cross to the Virginia town, then known as Shepherdstown.
The Nelson house is a beautiful example of a vernacular gabled-front type from the era of Madison's earliest residential development. The house features a simple façade of brick, a street-facing gable and regular placement of windows. Ornament is derived from the windows - arched frames, stone sills and Italianate style segmental hoods over the windows - and the oculus under the gable. The portico is not original but is of the style of the house. Vernacular building types were popular in Madison between 1840 and 1925, but intact examples are now rare due to demolition and alteration.
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In 1836 sixteen Eufaula Presbyterians met in a room above William McKenzie’s store to hold worship services. By 1838 the congregation had built their first sanctuary dedicated to worship on the southeast corner of Forsyth Ave. and Union Street. Eufaula’s first church bell rang from the Greek Revival building. By the 1860’s the congregation had begun to grow. In 1869, John McNab paid to have this sanctuary built here at the corner of Randolph Ave. and Church Place. It is a Gothic structure built in the style of an English parish church. The Sunday School building and fellowship hall were added in 1959.
