St. Thomas Episcopal Church - Unintended Target - Hancock, Maryland
N 39° 41.897 W 078° 10.672
17S E 741971 N 4398078
A Maryland Civil War Trails Marker located at the Hancock Trailhead of the WM Rail Trail off of Church Street in Hancock Town, Washington County, Maryland depicts how one of one of Hancock's churches was a unintnded target in the Civil War
Waymark Code: WMHNGB
Location: Maryland, United States
Date Posted: 07/27/2013
Views: 1
St. Thomas Episcopal Church
Unintended Target
This marker was placed at the Hancock Trailhead of the WMRT to explain how a Hancock Church was a unintended target during the Civil War in 1862. This marker was placed by the Maryland Civil War Trails.
MARKER TEXT READS:
Before you, at the top of Church Street, stands St. Thomas Episcopal Church, which became an unintended target of Gen. Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson’s artillery on January 5-6, 1862. Jackson had led his force from Winchester, Virginia to destroy as much of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad and the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal as possible while driving Federal units before him to Hancock. He reached the Potomac River south of the town on January 5 and demanded that Gen. F. W. Lander and his Union command surrender, shelling them from Orrick’s Hill (named for the home of Confederate congressman Johnson Orrick). When Union reinforcements arrived, Jackson decided to withdraw and march to Romney (in present-day West Virginia) on January 7. Before he departed, however, he ordered Col. Harry Gilmore to plunder a supply train of rifles, ammunition, and other supplies.
With Jackson’s departure, the threat to Hancock ended. The U.S. troops here prevented a Confederate invasion of the North.
Group that erected the marker: Maryland Civil War Trails
URL of a web site with more information about the history mentioned on the sign: [Web Link]
Address of where the marker is located. Approximate if necessary:
Church Street
WM Rail Trail (Hancock Trailhead)
Hancock, MD United States of America
21750
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