Point of Rocks-Point of Rocks During the War - Point of Rocks MD
Posted by: 
Don.Morfe
N 39° 16.434 W 077° 32.021
18S E 281438 N 4350232
The rail line immediately before you served as an important means of supply and communication during the Civil War (the station, and tracks to Washington, D.C., on the southern or right side of the station were built later).
Waymark Code: WM126JR
Location: Maryland, United States
Date Posted: 03/12/2020
Views: 7
Point of Rocks-Point of Rocks During the War-The rail line immediately before you served as an important means of supply and communication during the Civil War (the station, and tracks to Washington, D.C., on the southern or right side of the station were built later). Here at Point of Rocks, formerly Trammelstown, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad reached the banks of the Potomac River from Baltimore. This narrow strip of bottomland, which allowed passage beyond the Blue Ridge’s Catoctin and South Mountain ranges, had been the subject of a court fight decades earlier when the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal and the railroad sought to use it.
In May 1861, Col. Thomas J. (later Gen. “Stonewall”) Jackson convinced the railroad to consolidate its coal shipments at a specific time period. He then captured 56 locomotives and more than 300 rail cars by halting all train traffic east of Point of Rocks. In 1864, Confederate Lt. Col. John S. Mosby, in what became known as the “Calico Raid” or the “Crinoline Raid,” attacked the Union garrison here. Throughout the war, pro-Union families living in Loudoun County, Va., crossed the river here to shop.
Type of site: Transportation Route or Facility
Address:
Clay Street (Maryland Route 28)
On the parking lot of the Point of Rocks railroad station.
Point of Rocks, MD USA
21777
Admission Charged: No Charge
Website: [Web Link]
Phone Number: Not listed
Driving Directions: Not listed
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