June 28, 1863 - JEB Stuart in Rockville; then Paroled Prisoner in Brookeville

June 28, 1863

JEB Stuart's Cavalry causing trouble while trailing the main Rebel army heading North

Rockville, MD

Christ Episcopal Church
https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=174696

https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=201497

Christ Episcopal Church
— Gettysburg Campaign —

Vestrymen Arrested

Early Sunday morning, June 28, 1863, 5,000 of Confederate Gen. J.E.B. Stuart's cavalrymen rode into Rockville and arrested Union supporters. They sought merchant John H. Higgins at his home, but he had already left for Christ Episcopal Church (across the street). Dora, his wife, ran to the church to warn him, fellow vestrymen Judge Richard Johns Bowie, enrollment officer Lawrence Dawson, and enrollment clerk Richard Williams to remain in the vestry room. On her way home, Dora Higgins also warned the Presbyterian minister, John DeSellum, and Capt. John Vinson, but was too late to save provost marshall Mortimer Moulden and postmaster Thomas Bailey. 

Prisoners captured along the way or arrested in town were held in the courthouse a block away. Dora Higgins wrote that "at six [p.m.] ... they carried their prisoners off, compelling Capt. Vinson, tho' too ill to stand alone, to mount a horse, at the point of their sabers, and go with them."

After Stuart left, Dora Higgins returned to the church to inform the vestrymen it was safe. A Confederate rear guard followed her, however, and arrested them. When local secessionists told her that they had taken no role in the arrests, she replied, "I know positively that not one of you could have any influence today, as Gen. Stuart had a written list of all the Union men's names. But some one here furnished that list.""

Ah yes, the chivalrous South: arresting women and clergyman. 

https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=174764

"General J.E.B. Stuart's Confederate cavalry occupied Rockville June 28, 1863, and captured 150 U.S. wagons along the Washington Road. From here they marched to Gettysburg. In July, 1864, General Jubal Early passed through Rockville on his way to and from Washington."

https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=73

Gettysburg Campaign

Invasion & Retreat

You know the drill...

https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=202643

"The Montgomery County Courthouse that stood here from 1840 to 1891 witnessed the turbulent antebellum and Civil War years in Rockville. It was the setting for legal transactions involving both the selling and emancipation of enslaved individuals. Charles Price, a slave trader who co-owned the prominent Price, Birch & Co slave-trading company in Alexandria, Virginia, held property nearby and placed newspaper advertisements to purchase enslaved Montgomery County residents. Fugitives and those charged with the crime of abetting freedom-seekers were tried here. Abolitionist and Underground Railroad operative William Chaplin appeared at a hearing here in 1850 after he was arrested in Silver Spring aiding two fugitives escaping Washington. He was charged in both Washington, D.C. and Montgomery County for his crimes. Facing condemnation from the pro-slavery Rockville community, he fled the state while on bail.

During the Civil War, Union and Confederate troops passed through Rockville. Confederate Gen. J.E.B. Stuart interned prisoners at the courthouse in 1863. The building also served as a hospital for soldiers wounded in engagements in 1864. Rockville's white residents' loyalties were divided, but they all experienced unrest as soldiers from both sides disrupted daily life and demanded or stole supplies, livestock, and horses.

Maryland abandoned slavery by state referendum on November 1, 1864. Rockville was the headquarters of the Montgomery County office of the Freedman's Bureau that opened in September 1865. Headed by a Union veteran, the Freedman's Bureau worked to enforce rights to wages, employment, and property ownership, and assisted Black citizens in their continuing efforts to organize schools for their children.

This courthouse was located here during the Civil War. The present red brick courthouse replaced it in 1891."

Also, some Uncle Tom's Cabin inspiration happened here. 

https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=174752

Adam Robb's Tavern
— Rockville's African American Heritage Walking Tour —

W. Jefferson St. between S. Washington and Maryland Ave.

At this tavern in 1789, Adam Robb purchased Josiah Henson, a five-year-old enslaved boy. His mother worked as a slave nearly ten miles away on Isaac Riley's farm. Henson's 1849 autobiography was the inspiration for Harriet Beecher Stowe's 1852 novel, Uncle Tom's Cabin, which fueled the Abolitionist movement..."

https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=174787

"Racial tensions between African-American and white Methodist church members peaked immediately before the Civil War. Pro-slavery parishioners joined the Methodist Episcopal Church South in 1863. White parishioners of the Rockville Methodist Episcopal Church entered the front door to sit in the sanctuary, while African-Americans used a separate entrance and sat upstairs in the gallery. Some African-American worshipers listened outside from the windows. By 1868, the African-Americans owned this property and renamed their church "Jerusalem.""

https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=174771

Red Brick Courthouse
— Rockville's African American Heritage Walking Tour —

Location: 29 Courthouse Square

After the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln and Congress created the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands to aid newly freed African-Americans. By the time it closed in 1872, the bureau had provided assistance to 4-million former slaves making the transition from slavery to freedom, including those in Rockville.

The county courthouse was the site of an 1866 case brought by the Montgomery County Office of the Freedmen's Bureau to recover money stolen from Rockville's African-American community.

By 1858 local African-American families had raised money through subscriptions to pursue construction of a church and school. The money was entrusted to J. Mortimer Kilgour, who joined the Confederate Army in 1861 and never returned to Rockville.

The Freedmen's Bureau assisted local leaders Daniel Brogdon, Henson Norris, Hillary Carroll and Solomon Williams by accusing Kilgour of theft, tracking down Kilgour and returning some money to the Rockville Colored School Board in 1867."

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June 28, 1863

The Brookeville Academy

Brookeville, MD

"Confederate Gen. J.E.B. Stuart left Rockville with three cavalry brigades, 125 captured Union supply wagons, and more than 400 military and civilian prisoners, arriving in Brookeville that night."

"At every opportunity, prisoners Maj. James C. Duane (Chief Engineer, Army of the Potomac) and Capt. Nathaniel Michler (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers) urged Stuart to parole them. Finally consenting, Stuart prepared paroles at Brookeville and at Cooksville the next morning, slowing his advance.

The prisoners were not fed. Only white men were permitted to stop for water as they crossed streams. The Confederates slashed at blacks if they attempted to drink and shot one who was too weak to continue.

Most civilian prisoners walked home from Brookeville. Thomas Bailey and Mortimer Moulden (Rockville's postmaster and Provost Marshal) refused parole because they feared Eblen, a recuperating young Union soldier, would be shot if he could not keep the pace. They were marched to Cooksville and released the night of June 29. Bailey and Moulden helped Eblen back to Rockville, sometimes carrying him. Altogether, they walked 70 miles."

Also, this happened there.

https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=366