Williamsport, Maryland at the beginning of the Civil War was a crossroads of travel and commerce. It was the point where the Great Wagon Road – the highway dating back to Native American times linking Pennsylvania with the Shenandoah Valley – forded the Potomac River. A ferry on a wire cable also crossed the river at the beginning of the war. The Chesapeake & Ohio Canal paralleled the Potomac River, connecting with Cumberland to the west and Georgetown in the District of Columbia to the east. The canal crossed the Conococheague River on an aqueduct that can still be seen today, and had a large basin for canal boats at the Cushwha Warehouse, a town landmark since the 1700s.

Today you can walk the C&O Canal Towpath, walk across the Conococheague Aquaduct, visit the Cushwha Warehouse and see the view from Doubleday Hill.

The Civil War in Williamsport

Williamsport’s excellent ford and road connections north and south saw it repeatedly used during the Civil War. In one of the opening moves of the war Patterson’s Union troops crossed into Virginia in July of 1861 and skirmished with Jackson’s Virginians a few miles to the south. To defend against a Confederate crossing Abner Doubleday, one of the heroes of Fort Sumter and a future Union general, placed an artillery battery on the hill along the river that bears his name today.

In September of 1862 Jackson’s Confederates made the crossing, interestingly also moving from north to south as they returned from the invasion of Maryland to Virginia on their way to surround and capture Harpers Ferry. In June of 1863 major parts of Lee’s army crossed going north on the way to Gettysburg. In July they returned. It was at this time that Williamsport came close to joining the list of great battles of the war, when Lee was trapped by high water on the Potomac as he tried to return to Virginia. Lee’s army prepared to fight a last ditch defense of Williamsport with their backs to the flooded river before a franticaly constructed makeshift bridge allowed him to slip across before Meade could coordinate an attack.

Historical markers in and around Williamsport:

along the C&O Canal Towpath at the Cushwa Basin:

C&O Canal Aqueduct – Stonewall Changes Course wayside marker
Gettysburg Campaign – Invasion and Retreat wayside marker
Williamsport – The Beginnng and the End wayside marker

at Doubleday Hill:

Abner Doubleday memorial
Light’s Ford and Lemen’s Ferry wayside marker
Doubleday Hill wayside markers (two almost identical markers at the top and bottom of the hill)

outside of town (see maps for individual pages):

One of Lee’s Ammunition Trains historical marker
The Wagoner’s Fight wayside marker