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In June of 1862, Annapolis native Brigadier General William A. Hammond, Surgeon General of the United States Army, recommended to Brigadier General Montgomery Meigs, Quartermaster General, that the United States Army Quartermaster Corps should take possesion of a spit of land in St. Mary's County, Maryland, know as Point Lookout, and there erect a military hospital. Jutting out between the Potomac River and Chesapeake Bay, Point Lookout was in a perfect position to provide quick medical support for any campaign in North Eastern Virginia, as well as along the York and other rivers leading from the bay into Virginia's heartland. By August of 1862 Hammond General Hospital was in full operation. ***** In mid-July of 1863, three significant factors led to the creation of a prisoner of war facility at Point Lookout. The first, and most important was the Union's change in attitude toward paroling prisoners. Before the American Revolution, it had been customary in North America for armies to exchange or parole prisoners. This attitude was carried over into the American Civil War. But with it's much larger population, the North quickly realized that by not exchanging prisoners it strained the Confederacy's ability to put sufficient forces into the field. The second factor was the fall of Vicksburg, and the third was the bloody results of the Battle of Gettysburg. The North, unwilling to exchange to many prsioners suddenly found itself over burdened with thousands of wounded Confederate soldiers. Facilities were hastily established at Point Lookout to confine these prisoners. As the war progresses their numbers increased dramactically. For all the sensationalism and histrionics concerning the notrious Confederate facility at Andersonville, Point Lookout would become the largest military prison in United States history, and more prisoners per capita would die there then at Andersonville. ***** In April of 1864, Ulysses S. Grant, having taken command of all Union armies in the field, persuaded the Lincoln administration to completely end the prisoner exchange program. He then proceded to fight a horrible war of attrtion aganist the Army of Northern Virginia. Robert E. Lee continually bloodied Grant's nose in the Wilderness, Cold Harbor, and Spotsylvania; but the cost to the Confederate pool on man power was devistating. During the Battle of the Mule Shoe at Spotsylvania, Lee lost nearly all of General Edward Johnson's Division. General Lee realized that these losses could not continue if the Army of Northern Virgina was to survive. During the winter of 1863-64 General Lee had played with an idea in the back of his mind concerning an amphibious landing near Point Lookout to free the Confederate prisoners held there. Once the prisoners were free, they would be armed and marched around Washington, D.C. and cross into Virginia northwest of the district. Since the operation would occur on Maryland soil, Lee thought it suitable that the "Maryland Line," commanded by Colonel Bradley Johnson, should execute the landing and rescue. ***** General Lee never got the opportunity to attempt his rescue mission across the Potomac. But in the Spring of 1864, events in the Shendandoah provided him with a window of opportunity to free the prisoners at Point Lookout. General Grant's over all plan to defeat General Lee, was to stretch Lee's existing resources to the maximum. To do this he sent two seperate armies, one under the command of General Georeg Meade and the other under the command of General Benjamin Franklin Butler to strike towards Richmond. Meade basicly took the same route of the previous Federal attempts to strike at Richmond, across the Rapidan and into the Wilderness, while General Butler was to emmulate McClellan's earlier campaign, landing east of Richmond and strike over land for the Confederate Capitol. At the same time, a third army under the command of General Franz Sigel was to strike in the Shenandoah. ***** When General Lee learned of Sigel's incursion into the Shenandoah he three together a mixed command of regulars, militia and partisan cavalry under the command of General John Breckenridge, former vice-President of the United States. Breckenridge collided with Sigel at New Market, Virgina, on May 15th. In a pitched battle during which the young cadets of Virginia's Military Institute were utlized by Breckenridge as desperate effort to fill a gap that had been punched into the Confederate line, Sigel was defeated and driven from the field. ***** Always in the past it had taken months for Federal armies beaten in the Shenandoah to recoup and return, so General Lee directed Breckenridge to bring his regulars to Cold Harbor, where they were needed in the great struggle with the Army of the Potomac. Grant quickly replaced Sigel with Virginia born General "Black Dave" David Hunter. Hunter marched into the Shenadoah like an avenging angel, indiscrimantly burning farms, homes and mills. While partisans and milita under the commands of Generals John Imboden and John McCausland faught a strategic retreat up the Shenandoah, Lee directed Breckenridge back to the Vally. General Jubal Early, who had just recently taken command of Lee's Second Corps, was directed to march his command to Lynchburg and prevent Hunter from destroying the valuable military stores there and cutting the rail link into Tennessee. Lynchburg was also the entry way into south west Virgina where valuable salt mines, necessary for the war effort, were located. ***** After a brief skirmish at Lynchburg, Hunter retrteated into the West Virginia mountains. Early was directed to march down the Valley and carry the war into Maryland. Enroute Early collected various commands such as Imboden's and McCausland's and formed a new Army of the Shenandoah. With McCausland and Imboden were the remnants of General William "Grumble" Jones' Brigade, who was killed during the battle of New Market; and a group of partisan rangers from Maryland under the command of Major Harry Gilmor. These two cavalry units were attached to Colonel Bradley Tyler Johnson's First Maryland Cavalry, C.S.A., which was in the Valley refitting after participating in the Battle of Trevallion Station between General Wade Hampton's Confederate Cavalry and General Phillip Sheridan's Federal Cavalry. ***** Early was met with littel resistance as he marched north. At Harpers Ferry he forced the Federal garrison to take refuge on Maryland Heights. While General John Brown Gordon's division held the Federal forces on Maryland Heights in check, Early crossed into Maryland. McCausland's cavalry moved north to ransom the city of Hagerstown, and Johnson moved east across the Catoctin Mountains to probe for Federal forces west of Frederick City. Johnson ran into the tenacious 8th Illinois Cavalry under the command of Colonel____Clendenin. Clendenin also had under his command a contingent of Cole's Independent Cavalry, and Alexander's Baltimore Light Artillery, both Maryland units. Throughout most of July 7th the two commands were locked in a bitter struggle as Johnson gradually forced Clendenin back toward Frederick. Johnson, a native of Frederick, divided his command and prepared a two pronged attack on the city. But this attack was canceled by Gederal Robert Ransom, whose was in over all command of Early's cavalry. ***** The Federal response to Early's invasion of Maryland was sluggish. The Federal garrison at Harpers Ferry and several smaller outpost on the Virginia side of the Potomac had been over ran, and had provided little information about the size and intent of the invading force. Many in Washington believed it to only be a large raiding party. The vast and intircate network of telegraph operators of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad had alerted the company's Superintendant, Mr. John Work Garrett of Early's army, and he in turn provided this information to General Lew Wallace, commander of the Middle Department, which included Maryland. Wallace immmediately moved part of his command to Monocacy Junction, just east of Frederick City. It was soon joined there by part of the VI Corps, under the command of General James Ricketts, that had taken steamers from Virginia, where they had been participating in the siege of Petersburg and Richmond. The rest of VI Corps was detached to Washington, D.C. ***** On the evening of July 8th, General Early called General Johnson to his headquarters. Several days earlier Early had received orders from General Lee, so important were they that they were delivered by Lee's son, Captain Robert E. Lee, Jr. Early was directed to send a cavalry brigade sweeping across Maryland to Point Lookout Prison, and free the Confederate prisoners there. The prisoners were then to be marched to Washington, and join Early in the siege of the Union capital. Early informed Johnson that he would attack the Federals at Monocacy Junction in the morning. Johnson's cavalry would cover his left flank. Once Johnson was sure of a Confederate victory, he was to strike for Baltimore, there sever tailroad and telegraphic ties between Baltimore and Philadelphia, then swing around Baltimore and make for the prison. ***** Unknown to Early or Johnson, Commander John Taylor Wood, who had expanded on Lee's plan to free the Point Lookout prisoners, was enroute to Wilmington, North Carolina with Lee's oldest son, George Washington Custis Lee. There the two men would take command of two sleak, and well armed blockade runners, manned by Confederate Sailors and Marines. In the hole's of the ships were 10,000 rifles and ammunition to arm the freed prisoners. ***** Once he was sure of Early's victory, Johnson swept across northern Maryland. The following day, while Wallace was retreating toward Baltimore from the west, Johnson's cavalry arrived in Hunt Valley, northwest of the city. Johnson preceeded down the York Road toward Baltimore, tearing up tracks and tressels of the _____ R & R as he went. At Timonium, Johnson divided his command. Major Harry Gilmor of the 2nd Maryland Cavlary was given 135 men of the 1st and 2nd Maryland, and directed to cross Baltimore County and destroy the railroad bridge of the Philadelphia, Wilmington & Baltimore Railroad at Magnolia Station, east of the city. Johnson led the remainder of his command around the werstern side of Baltimore and headed for Point Lookout. Enroute, he detached a small squadron of troopers to burn the mansion of Maryland's governor, _____Bradford, in retaliation for General Hunter's burning of the home of ex-Virginia Governor ______Lecther. At Bladesburg, Maryland, Johnson destroyed a large portion of track and supplies belonging to the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, and defeated a small Union Cavalry force near by. ***** By 1864 the Southern state of Maryland was an armed Union camp. Maryland served throughout the war as a staging area for the numerous campaigns the Union Army made into Virginia. Consequently thousands of Federal troops were located in and around Baltimore and Washington. Remarkably, Gilmor was able to avoid any contact with Federal troops until he reached Magnolia Station. There he destroyed two trains and partially destroyed the tressel over the Gunpowder River. The flamboyant cavalier even managed to stop and visit with his family for several hours while his small command scattered over Baltimore and Harford Counties looking for mounts and taking a few hours of "French Leave." Consequently reports from all over that part of Maryland poured into Baltimore about Confederate Cavalry. Gilmor and Johnson seemed to be every where. Baltimore was thrown into a state of panic. ***** While Johnson drove his horses into the ground in his attempt to reach Point Lookout, rumors in Richmond concerning the attempt to rescue the prisoners were so accurate that President Jefferson Davis was forced to call off the mission. Commander Wood's small fleet was recalled. General Early meanwhile, defeated General Wallace and pushed onto Washington. But Wallace had delayed Early long enough for relief forces from Grant to reach Washington. A courier was sent across county to intercept Johnson and inform him to join the army near Poolesville. ***** After destroying the bridge at Magnolia, Gilmore headed back across Baltimore County. Reports from that time indicate that he came so close to the city that civilians could see his column from their roof tops. Gilmor stopped in Towson at Ada's Hotel for a drink and to allow his men, who were literally falling out of their saddles asleep, some time to rest. But a large cavalry patrol arrived from Baltimore. Outnumber more than two to one, Gilmor took the offensive and charged, breaking the ranks of the Federal Cavalry and driving it off. After several close encounters, Gilmor managed to thread his way around the Baltimore and Washington defenses and rejoin Early's command as it was recrossing the Potomac into Virginia. |
