Washington County Courthouse - Ransom- Hagerstown, Maryland
Posted by: 
BruceS
N 39° 38.586 W 077° 43.355
18S E 266379 N 4391688
The earlier Washington County Courthouse was site of an interesting transaction during the Civil War.
Waymark Code: WMKEBZ
Location: Maryland, United States
Date Posted: 03/30/2014
Views: 8
Text of marker:
Ransom of Hagerstown
This courthouse was built in 1873, replacing the courthouse that stood at this site during the Civil War. In 1864, Confederate General John McCausland met with town officials and the directors of the Hagerstown Bank in the court clerk's office to finalize payment of $20,000 ransom levied in retaliation for Union destruction in the Shenandoah Valley.
The former courthouse, constructed in 1785, was used as a hospital in the weeks after the Battle of Antietam in 1862.
Colonel Henry Kyd Douglas, youngest officer on the staff of Confederate General Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson, practiced law from his office on West Washington Street following the Civil War and later served as a judge of the Circuit Court.