History of Western Maryland. J. Thomas Scharf
Williamsport, Cumberland, and other towns hundreds of the citizens left their homes, while many more made preparations to do so. The panic also spread wildly through the country. Valuable stock of all descriptions was put en route northward, and did not halt in its flight until some haven of safety was reached. Horses, wagons, and cattle crowded every avenue leading to the mountains and other safe hiding-places.
During the Confederate retreat a brisk skirmish occurred at Hagerstown on the 6th of July between Stuart and Kilpatrick.
The Hagerstown Herald and Torch of the 22nd of July, 1863, says,
" Before our people had completely settled down after the entry of Stuart, leading the advance of the rebel retreat on Monday, the 6th, they were again aroused by the cry, 'The Yankees are coming!' About half-past one o'clock the advance of Kilpatrick's division appeared, and formed in line of battle on the crest of the hill near Funkstown. Stuart seemed thunderstruck, and wild hurry and bustle characterized all his movements. Approaching gradually line after line was formed, until the advance line of the Federal forces rested near Mr. A. Hager's mill. From here, led by Capt. Snyder, of the First Michigan Cavalry, a charge of not more than fifty men was made about half-past two o'clock. Hastily advancing, they met and received the fire of the enemy, about one hundred and fifty strong, posted on Potomac Street, just where the road to Frederick breaks off to the left, and rushing on them, sabre in hand, they drove the rebels pell-mell up Potomac Street to beyond the Reform church, where the main body of the force rested. Here they fell back in an orderly manner to meet the skirmishers, deployed and led forward by Capt. Dahlgren (son of Rear-Admiral Dahlgren), of Gen. Kilpatrick's staff, who advanced beyond the town hall. Capt. Dahlgren was wounded in the right ankle by a pistol-ball from the market-house as he led his skirmishers up. The main column was soon deployed, part of them dismounted and put in ambuscade, and a general charge prepared for. In the meanwhile the rebel battery opened with shell, which proved inefficient to move or check the gradual advance of the Federals. Eider's battery was quickly put In position on the north of the seminary and replied, while Gen. Custer, with his brigade, was sent to the right, to work to the enemy's flank and rear. An ambuscade of the rebels on Grove's farm, a mile north of town, being discovered, Kilpatrick made dispositions to attack it in the rear, while he led a charge of two regiments in person into the front of the main body of the rebels. All his arrangements were made, Gen. Custer had reached a petition where he could attack the left flank of the enemy, and Kilpatrick himself actually moving off to lead the charge, when Custer, whose skirmishers had reached the Leitersburg road, in the rear of the rebel column, discovered the advance of a brigade of rebel infantry, the beginning of the retreat of the shattered columns which Lee had so triumphantly led through an unarmed valley but two weeks before, and with which he was to conquer and bring back a treaty of peace. Thereupon Gen. Kilpatrick ordered his men to draw off gradually, to go to the assistance of Buford at Williamsport, who was attacking the enemy's trains. His loss was not over five killed and twenty wounded during this spirited skirmish. On his route to Williamsport he was pursued by cavalry and mounted infantry, about six thousand strong, and there met and out up at least five hundred of their men with but slight loss, notwithstanding he was hemmed in between two columns, one of infantry, the other of cavalry and infantry mounted."
When Gen. Lee reached Hagerstown on his retreat from Gettysburg, and discovered that the Potomac was too high to effect a crossing, he took a position west of the town and proceeded to protect it by fortifications. His line of intrenchments extended about twelve miles, his extreme left resting on the farm of Frederick Bryan, a mile northwest of Hagerstown, and a few miles from the Pennsylvania line, and his right reaching the Potomac River in the vicinity of Falling Waters. These works were thrown up in about two days, and, together with the great natural strength of the positions chosen for them, were formidable in the extreme. A contemporaneous writer, speaking of the spectacle presented after the passage of the two armies, says, —
" The rebel line of intrenchments, as well as our own, which were hastily thrown up opposite to them, extend for a distance of twelve miles through one of the most fertile portions of Washington County. Along these lines farms have been terribly devastated. Fences have been destroyed, timber cut down, embankments thrown up, ditches dug, wheat, corn, and clover-fields destroyed, the whole presenting a scene of desolation and destruction painful to behold. Some farmers estimate their losses at six, eight, and ten thousand dollars, and renters and others say that they are entirely ruined."
During the skirmish at Hagerstown on the 6th of July John F. Stemple, a citizen of the place, was instantly killed. He had ascended to the roof of Marshall & Cranwell's business house to witness the fight, and was killed by a ball from the neighborhood of the market-house. On the 1st of July, when the Confederate forces occupied Hagerstown, someone reported to them that Andrew Boward, Sr., a respectable citizen living in the suburbs of the town, had on the previous day displayed the national flag while Kilpatrick's forces occupied the place; whereupon a squad of Confederates at once repaired to his residence and demanded its surrender. Mr. Boward, being slightly deaf, did not understand the nature of the demand and did not comply with it, upon which, it is said, one of the Confederates leveled his carbine and fired at him, the ball entering his left arm below the elbow. On Monday, the 13th of July, during a skirmish between Gen. Kilpatrick's cavalry and the Confederates, Andrew Hagerman, a well-known citizen of Hagerstown, seized his gun, rushed into the streets, and commenced firing upon the Confederates. He was mortally wounded in the skirmish, and died a few days afterwards. After the retreat of the Confederate army large bodies of Pennsylvania militia were encamped for some time in the vicinity of Hagerstown. The Washington House and Lyceum Hall of Hagerstown were used after the battle of Gettysburg as hospitals for Union soldiers, and the seminary as a hospital for Confederate soldiers.
On the 25th of August an affray occurred at Clear Spring, in which Capt. Isaac T. Prather, a highly respectable citizen of that district, lost his life. The affair, it is said, grew out of an assault by a paroled soldier, named Samuel Masters, upon some colored men whom Capt. Prather had recruited for the United States service, and who had assembled preparatory to being sent to join the colored regiment then being formed in Baltimore. During the melée Capt. Prather was shot in the abdomen, and died in about forty-eight hours afterwards. On the 27th of August the First Maryland Cavalry was paid off, and on the 29th its members forwarded by express to their families at home over seven thousand dollars. Company I, of Washington County, alone forwarded over two thousand. Altogether the regiment sent home over ten thousand dollars of the money received on the last pay-day.
On the 20th of August, by order of Brig.-Gen. Lockwood, Col. Benjamin L. Simpson was directed by his brigade commander. Col. George D. Wells, to proceed with the forces under him from Loudon Heights and encamp in the woods on the east side of the village of Charlestown, W. Va. Col. Simpson's command consisted of portions of seven companies of the Ninth Maryland Volunteers, amounting to about three hundred and fifty men, and a cavalry force of about eighty men. His instructions from his brigade commander were that the holding of Charlestown itself was of no importance, but to watch the movements of the Confederate forces, scout the country thoroughly, and if attacked to resist or retire as the force opposed to him should suggest. At half-past five o'clock on the morning of the 18th of October a Confederate force under Imboden attacked and drove in the pickets on the different roads about Charlestown, planted a battery north and south of the town, and sent in a flag of truce demanding the surrender of the place. This was refused, and the attack was soon after begun by the Confederates.
When the presence of the enemy in the vicinity was first discovered by the attack on the Federal pickets, Col. Simpson posted his men in the courthouse, the jail, and another building, making loopholes for muskets. The Confederate batteries were so planted behind buildings at a distance of two or three hundred yards that their fire was very effective, while the cannoneers were completely protected from the musketry of Col. Simpson's force. The first shot fired struck the courthouse, and several others followed, killing and wounding several men and an officer. Col. Simpson then ordered the men to evacuate the building, and form column by company in the street, and ordered the cavalry force, consisting of about eighty men, under Lieut. Moore, to reconnoiter the roads and find the weak points of the enemy. Lieut. Moore led his men out on the road leading to Harper's Ferry, and finding