Name/Title
"Recollections of Stuart’s Raid through Maryland"Entry/Object ID
1955.528.626Description
Manuscript. Titled: "Recollections of Stuart’s Raid through Maryland". Author: Mary Bostwick Shellman. Dated approximately 1913. Includes her memories of Westminster’s role in Corbit’s Charge and general reaction of the town to occupancy of Union and Confederate troops. Typewritten with many corrections. 25 pages plus front and back covers. Cover entitled " Recollections of Stuart’s Raid". 9.25" x 7".
Some excerpts from "Recollections of Stuart's Raid"
“As I look back over the fifty years which have passed since the war cloud hung so black over the land, and two contending armies, father against son, and brother against brother were engaged in the fiercest battle of the Civil War, one to be crowned with victory and the other doomed to disappointment and defeat, the vision comes to be so vividly, that it seems but yesterday I joined my young companions in the cry, ‘The Rebels are coming! The Rebels are coming!.”
…’But although the coming of the confederates had been looked forward to with dread, the visit after all seemed more like a friendly evening call than the invasion of an enemy.”
She recalls the Confederates came three times to Westminster. She mentions J.E.B. Stuart being delayed getting to Gettysburg and the cause of that delay June 29th that she was to speak. She described her future Brother-in-law Mr. Pearson sounding the alarm to the “sleeping infantrymen” while my brother and others hastened to warn the Cavalry on the hill.” It appeared that Westminster might become the battle ground. Mr. Francis Shriver rode “daringly” into town with the cavalry but escaped capture.
“The charge, the fight and the retreat through the town lasted but a few moments in reality, but thus, anxious and frightened knowing not what was in store for us, it seems hours that were passed behind our closed doors.”…
“As it was , the gallant charge was made against an unknown number, which subsequent events proved far too many for them, and after a few minutes of sharp, quick fighting, they turned and retreated, back through the down, disputing every inch and firing as they road.
War was now to us a stern reality. ‘Some body’s Darling was lying cold in death, at our very doors, as a result of those few moments of conflict between sons of one common Country, one nationality and one tongue.”
Mary’s remembrances show a town deeply divided. She describes her “unbounded” joy at the site of the Blue Coats, which made her “on the outs” with other kids her age. “I was the only ‘Union Shreiker” in the crowd …we were practically enemies while the soldiers were here.”
“Besides on the day of the skirmish, Gene. J.E.B> Stuart noting my antagonism, admits the pronounced joy of my companions, had shown me unusual courtesy, had called me his little captive, and given me the much wished for kiss and therefore I was an object of envy and under the ban.”
Mary’s sister Fannie, however “was a Southern sympathizer” tried to hold Mary’s hand back as she cheered and waved the Union soldiers. “But there is an old saying that brass buttons are irresistible, and so before the week had passed Southern sympathizers found Yankee officers not so black as they had been painted.”
She goes on to talk about how now the men of both armies “fraternize together and talk over old times calmly with out prejudice, and as each Memorial Day comes around, and the men who faced each other on the field of battle, lay with trembling fingers, their floral tributes alike on graves of friend and foe, we feel the war indeed is over, and nought remains but memory.”Acquisition
Accession
1955.528Source or Donor
Carroll County CommissionersAcquisition Method
Gift