Browsing All posts tagged under »Washington County«

Otho Nesbitt: Southern Unionist, but… wanted to free slaves? Eh, not so much…

May 21, 2011 by

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While the house you see is, in this photo, adorned for Christmas, imagine if you will… an American flag… two yards long, draped from the middle garret window. Can you envision it? In fact, in April 1861, Otho Nesbitt had hired a seamstress to make that flag for him… a statement to all those around […]

The search for family in Civil War draft records

May 20, 2011 by

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A little sidetrack for just a bit, but, on an ancestor hunt. Earlier today, I realized that ancestry.com has Civil War draft records. So, I couldn’t wait to get home to see if for my third great grandfather, Cyrus S. Moore, by draft time, 1863, was still working his canal boat, the G.P. Lloyd, on […]

“Will Secession Preserve Slavery?”

March 27, 2011 by

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I’m in a western Maryland frame of mind. So… …the following comes from the Herald and Torch (Hagerstown, Md.), March 13, 1861: Will Secession Preserve Slavery? The Baltimore Sun, which is the exponent of the extreme sentiments of the Southern rights men of Maryland, as they call themselves, says that “secession and union with the […]

Were some Union soldiers fighting to preserve slavery?(!)

February 19, 2011 by

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Yes, you read that correctly. Give me a little time, and I’ll set the stage… As many who follow this blog know, one of my favorite areas of study is western Maryland… most especially, the Clear Spring and Conococheague Districts in Washington County. Likewise, I spend a good deal of time researching the men from […]

Maryland, my Maryland, wherefore art thou, my Maryland?

January 9, 2011 by

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Earlier this week, I posted a quick comment on my Facebook page about Maryland’s War of 1812 license plates. It’s everywhere, it’s everywhere! Yet, Maryland’s silence about the Sesquicentennial is excruciatingly painful. No blogs, no tweets, nothing… I’m not saying that the War of 1812 is unimportant… because it IS important. What bothers me is […]

Plumb Grove – home of Jonathan Nesbitt, Jr.

October 11, 2010 by

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I’ve got some photos that I took a couple of weeks back while on my road trip to Four Locks and Clear Spring, and I thought that I might as well put them on here for everyone to enjoy. I didn’t include them in the tour that weekend because there is no known tie between […]

Why “Cenantua”?

October 6, 2010 by

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I love this time of year. It’s a chilly day, the sky is overcast… … I have a fire in the wood stove… … and a relaxing cup of cappuccino in my manly-man Mickey Mouse coffee mug (what else??!!) is close at-hand. Feels like a good time to sit down and write… just wish I […]

Looking for manumissions… on the part of my family

January 11, 2010 by

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A couple of months ago,  I purchased a book that provides information about the African-American manumissions for Washington County, Maryland. The objective… to see if I had any family members who freed slaves in the 1850s and even as late as the early 1860s, in advance of the Emancipation Proclamation. Now, as I mentioned in […]

“The Home Brigade”

January 9, 2010 by

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Just a quick plug-in to yesterday’s post… All this talk about Unionists in western Maryland… well, what were their motivations for enlisting (those that did) and what was their intent (in regard to the manner in which they would deal with the secession crisis) after donning blue? For the most part, it may be a […]

Maryland and “the despot’s heel”

January 8, 2010 by

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The deeper I get into the history of events in central and western Maryland, the more I am convinced that the “despot’s heel” argument really holds little weight. Not only is the state song out of date, it never really reflected the Civil War era opinion of the state as a whole. What prompted today’s […]

The 1860 Presidential vote in Washington County, Maryland

October 24, 2009 by

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As you may recall from my post from the other day, there was discussion about “Black Republicanism” playing a factor in the sweeping display of Unionism in the Clear Spring District. I mentioned in the same post, however, that only two votes were casts in the Clear Spring District for Lincoln. With that in mind, […]

Clarification about the decline in slave numbers in Washington County, Maryland

October 21, 2009 by

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I realized that I should probably clarify something in my post from the other day, that the decline of slave numbers in Washington County should not be thought of in terms of attributable to manumissions alone. It should not be misconstrued as some “Utopia” for slaves, as there were some who continued to escape North […]

Were “Black Republican Proclivities” at play in Clear Spring?

October 14, 2009 by

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Before I start with the article, I thought that I should point out… the Hagerstown Mail was a pro-secession publication, unlike Hagerstown’s Herald of Freedom and Torch Light. Apparently, the Mail, seeing all the talk (examples here and here) of strong Unionism in Clear Spring, thought that the town’s strong leanings toward Union might be influenced by […]

The day after the Clear Spring Union Meeting… a meeting at nearby Four Locks

October 12, 2009 by

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If you aren’t familiar with that particular part of western Maryland, Four Locks is just to the South of Clear Spring, and located on the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal. Interestingly (at least to me), my third great grandparents Moore were listed as residents of Clear Spring AND Four Locks in the 1860 census. I suppose […]

Marker of the week in HMDB

March 1, 2009 by

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As I mentioned last week, I’ve been contributing some marker data to the Historic Markers Database. It’s a lot of fun, especially for someone who likes to set up tour guides and virtual tours among existing markers and locations where there should be markers. In the instance of recording the “Four Locks” marker on the C&O […]