---

Battle of South Mountain • Turner’s Gap • Fox’s Gap • Crampton’s Gap

---

The “GATH: The Man And His Mountain” wayside marker stands in front of Gathland Hall, the residence of author and Civil War correspondent George A. Townsend. It is south of Gapland Road next to a small parking area. Gathland Hall is one of two buildings that still survive on the estate, which once numbered over 20 buildings. It is now a Maryland State Park with a large picnic shelter and parking area and is crossed by the Appalachian Trail.

From the wayside marker:

GATH: The Man and His Mountain

George Alfred Townsend, known by his pen name of “GATH”, was born in Georgetown, Delaware, in 1841. One of the youngest and most renowned special correspondents of his time, he reported on politics and war in both the United States and abroad. In 1860, Gath’s natural talent and classical education earned him a job with the Philadelphia Inquirer. In 1861 he transferred to the New York Herald, where he reported on the Civil War. Noted for investigative journalism, his reports and commentaries were accurate, informative, and descriptive. He had begun a prolific writing career.

After the war, in 1865, Gath married his high school sweetheart, Elizabeth Evans Rhodes of Philadelphia. Bessie, as she was known, loved his writing. In 1884, Gath observed that “mankind is always interesting, but is also fatiguing.” Wanting a summer retreat he built his baronial Gapland estate on this property over a ten year period. In 1896, Gath unveiled Gapland’s crown jewel, his War Correspondents Memorial Arch. He dedicated it to his colleagues, both North and South, who reported on our Civil War.

Eventually Gath’s prose style became less popular and no longer sustained his lavish lifestyle. In 1903, after the death of Bessie, he slipped into perpetual morning to the detriment of his health. He became a virtual recluse. Townsend left  Gapland in 1911 and moved to the residence of his daughter and son-in-law in New York. He began his memoirs but died in 1914 before he could finish them. Buried beside Bessie in a Philadelphia cemetery, he never returned to Gapland. Today, despite a rich literary legacy and this marvelous estate, Gath is a largely forgotten figure.

A prolific writer, GATH wrote numerous poems and plays, two texts on political economy, and five historical novels during his career. The Entailed Hat was perhaps his most popular book.

Donated to the people of the United States by The Friends of South Mountain Battlefield.

From the caption to the photo:

George Alfred Townsend

From the entry to Gathland Hall:

Welcome to Gathland Hall

Welcome to Gathland State Park and one of the remaining structures of George Alfred Townsend’s Gapland estate.

George Alfred Townsend (1841-1914) was a prominent political newspaper journalist and author who during the Civil War had been one of America’s first war correspondents. In 1884, while traveling in Western Maryland, he was attracted to this piece of land in Crampton’s Gap, near the Civil War battle sites of Antietam and South Mountain. He purchased a 100 acre site on which his built his retreat, which he named “Gapland.”

This building was part of Gapland Hall, one of the largest buildings on Townsend’s estate. It now houses a museum with exhibits about Townsend’s life and career, his Gapland estate, the War Correspondents Arch he built here, and the Civil War correspondents honored by the memorial.