Posted inUS Civil War

November 4, 1861 – Correspondence from the 2nd NH

Camp of 2d N. H. Reg., Hill Top,
St. Charles County, Md., Oct. 28.

Since my last letter, the 2d Regiment have made considerable change in the locality of its camp. We are now encamped about 45 miles below Washington, near the Potomac, opposite the formidable line of rebel batteries extending from Mathias Point, several miles up the river. The division here is under the command of Gen. Hooker, now acting Major Gen., and comprises Sickles’ brigade and Hooker’s Brigade, (now under command of Col. Cowdin, of the Mass. 1st,) with a formidable force of cavalry and artillery. Our regiment occupies the left of the line. We have with us Doubledays’ battery of heavy guns, with the greater portion of the defenders of Fort Sumter. Our march here was a very interesting one, to us, and we will give your readers an account of it.

Posted inDaily News Iron & Steam Railroads Travelers' Tales

N. P. Willis on the “Baltimore and Ohio Railroad”

ldlewild, August 8, 1859

Dear Morris : There is one class of sights upon a new railroad which are very interesting while their freshness lasts—the places that have been taken by surprise. On the line of the streak of lightning that was thrown over the Alleghanies by the Baltimore thunder-cloud of thirty-one million dollars, is a succession of far-hidden remotenesses—wild valleys, cascades, solitary shanties and mountain fastnesses—many of which were thought by the hunter, or by the pioneer settler, wholly unreachable by common thoroughfares, and, in fact, inaccessible to all visitings but the eagle’s, but which have been laid open, almost with the suddenness of a thunderbolt, and are now daily looked at from crowded freight trains and expresses, as familiar to the man in the locomotive as the signs of a street!

Posted inLocal Histories US Civil War

June 21, 1861 – A Skirmish

A little fight occurred near Seneca Mill, which is on the Maryland side of the Potomac, some 28 miles above Washington. Lt. Col. Everett in command of three companies of District volunteers, about 200 men, being a detachment of Col. Stone’s column, who started in canal boats from Georgetown, and were obliged to leave them a few miles up, and march, the Confederates having cut the dam.

Posted inUS Civil War

June 1, 1861 – The Case of John Merryman

John Merryman, esq., of Baltimore county, President of the Maryland Agricultural Society, was arrested on Friday of last week, by order of the Government, and taken to Fort McHenry to await an investigation on a charge of Treason. On the petition of the prisoner, Roger B. Taney, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, on Sunday issued a writ of habeas corpus, which was served on Gen. George Cadwallader directing him to produce the body of Merryman in Court by 11 o’clock, Monday.  

At the appointed hour Colonel Lee appeared in Court and slated that lie was instructed by General Cadwallader to express his regret that pressing duties in connection with his command prevented his appearing before his Honor in person, and to present his response to the writ. General Cadwallader in his reply states that Merryman was not arrested with his knowledge or by his order or direction, but by Col. Yohe acting under order of Major Keim,“ and is charged with various acts of treason, and with being publicly associated with and holding a commission as Lieutenant in a company having in their possession arms belonging to the United Slates, and avowing his purpose of aimed hostility against the Government.

Posted inUS Civil War

May 22, 1861 – The Baltimore Steam-Gun

illustration of the Baltimore steam-gun

A gentleman direct from Baltimore, and who has seen the steam-gun (about which considerable has been said) operate, has furnished us with the following description of it:  

It is on four wheels; the boiler is like that of an ordinary steam fire engine, the cylinder being upright. There is but one barrel, which is of steel, on a pivot, and otherwise is like an ordinary musket barrel. It is fed or loaded through a hopper entering the barrel directly over the pivot. The barrel has a rotary motion, and performs the circumference, by machinery attached, at the rate of about sixteen hundred times a minute. The balls are let into the barrel through a valve at will, and every time the barrel comes round to a certain point, another valve, self-operated, lets out a ball, which is propelled solely by the velocity of the barrel in revolving.