Secrets of Washington County coming early next year
I thought I would share an update for my newest Secrets book. Secrets of Washington County was cruising along smoothly earlier this year until COVID hit, and the places I needed to visit for research were closed. With things opening up, I’ve been able to restart the work. It’s about two-thirds complete, and I’ve been finding out some interesting things about the county. Did you know Hancock is earthquake central for Western Maryland? Hagerstown, Williamsport, and Boonsboro were all considered for locations for the national capital. While Fort Ritchie’s soldiers successfully fought Nazis during WWII, a single woodpecker was able to take out the fort’s power. I’ve got a few leads on additional stories I’m trying to track down. I expect the finished book to have about three dozen little-known stories or forgotten history about the county and around 50 Read more…
The Second Battle of Antietam
Early in the morning of August 25, 1924, more than 3,000 Marines under the command of Brig. Gen. Dion Williams marched onto waiting barges at the Marine Camp Quantico. At 4 a.m., the Navy tug boats towed the barges up the Potomac River toward Washington, D.C. Meanwhile, tanks and artillery pieces towed by trucks rolled out along the Richmond Road headed for the same place. Their ultimate destination was Sharpsburg. Sixty two years after the historic battle, the bloodiest day of the Civil War was soon to be refought. Saving the Corps Despite having proven themselves to be fierce and effective warriors during World War I, politicians and some military leaders began talking about disbanding the U.S. Marine Corps after the war ended. Maj. Gen. John A. Lejeune, commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps, understood that his Marines needed to Read more…
Getting to the top the hard way
Men helped George Oakley into a straightjacket and secured his arms behind the 36-year-old man on the evening of August 25, 1924. The men tied a rope around Oakley’s feet, and with a signal, a winch lifted Oakley upside down to the top of the 6 1/2-story First National Bank Building in Hagerstown, MD. Then hanging from a car tire inner tube, Oakley freed himself from the straightjacket, climbed down the side of the building and then back up to the roof “Going up the outside wall of the First National Bank Building with the ease of an ordinary mortal climbing the steps inside…,” according to the Hagerstown Morning Herald. Before this gravity-defying feat, the daredevil had stood on his head on the front bumper of a Chrysler with four-wheel brakes. The car drove along the street at 10 mph Read more…
Remembering Battle of Antietam in 1937
As Western Maryland prepares to remember the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Antietam in Sharpsburg, no actual Civil War veterans will be attending. The last major anniversary event for a Civil War battle that saw actual veterans in attendance was the 75th. Antietam’s 75th anniversary was in 1937. For Washington County residents, the event also represented the bicentennial of the settling of the county and the 175th anniversary of the founding of Hagerstown. The latter events had been originally planned for 1935, but they had been postponed because of the country’s poor economic condition. The money just wasn’t there to plan for a big event. However, remembering Antietam was not only a big event, but it was a federal one. President Franklin Roosevelt created the National Antietam Commemoration Commission and appointed Maryland U.S. Sen. Millard Tydings to chair it, Read more…
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