A City Divided - Hagerstown, MD
Posted by: 
jiggs11
N 39° 38.561 W 077° 43.316
18S E 266433 N 4391640
A Marker in Hagerstown Public Square recounting the schism between North and South supporters in Hagerstown.
Waymark Code: WMRV9B
Location: Maryland, United States
Date Posted: 08/06/2016
Views: 3
Marker is located in the Hagerstown Public Square.
Text reads:
A City Divided
The Hagerstown Mail offices were located on the second floor of this building during the Civil War. Due to the newspaper's pro-southern columns, the Mail's editor and co-owner, Daniel Dechert, was arrested in 1862 and sent to Old Capitol Prison in Washington D.c>, and held until he took the "Oath of Allegiance". Following defeat of the Federal Maryland troops by Maryland Confederates at the Battle of Front Royal, Virginia, Dechert's newspaper was sacked and burned by a Unionist mob.
John Wagoner's barbershop was located in this corner of Public Square during the Civil War. Wagoner, a free black, operated a popular establishment, catering mostly to white customers. In November, 1861 the shop was looted by a mob of Union soldiers. Grocery stores and other businesses owned by men whose sons joined the Confederacy were also looted from time to time.
The Ransom of Hagerstown
On July 6, 1864, General John McCausland's Confederate cavalry demanded a ransom of $20,000 under penalty of destruction by fire. It was within this building that General McCausland first met City Councilman Matthew Barber to make his ransom demands.
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