Harry Gilmor's Raid

(Wikipedia) Gilmor's Raid, also known as The Magnolia Station Train Raid, was a foraging and disruptive cavalry raid that was part of an overall campaign against Union railroads, led by Maj. Harry W. Gilmor with 135 men from the First and Second Maryland Cavalry regiments. It was authorized by Confederate Lt. Gen. Jubal Early during his Valley Campaigns of 1864, which threatened Washington, D.C., during the American Civil War.
As Early advanced north and east toward Baltimore, Maryland, a Union force led by Maj. Gen. Lew Wallace met Early's forces and was defeated in the Battle of Monocacy on July 9, 1864. The cavalry brigade of the Second Corps, led by Brig. Gen. Bradley T. Johnson advanced further eastward into Maryland, led by cavalry forces under the command of Maj. Harry W. Gilmor. Upon reaching Westminster, Maryland, on July 10, Gilmor attacked Union cavalry forces, driving them out. Johnson's main cavalry force continued pressing Wallace's retreating Union troops, pursuing them into Cockeysville-Hunt Valley, Maryland, north of Baltimore, and then turned south destroying tracks and trestle bridges along the North[ern] Central Railroad. Upon reaching Timonium, Maryland, Johnson divided the Second Corps cavalry brigade. Continued

Images: 1. "The invasion of Maryland--capture of a train on the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad at Magnolia, near Gunpowderb sic [B]Ridge, July 11" 2. Harry Gilmor. 3. Bradley Johnson. 4. Wade Hampton and Bradley Johnson, long after the war.

Fort Towson

(Wikipedia) Fort Towson was a frontier outpost for Frontier Army Quartermasters along the Permanent Indian Frontier located about two miles (3 km) northeast of the present community of Fort Towson, Oklahoma.
It was established in May 1824, under Col. Matthew Arbuckle, on the southern edge of Indian Territory to guard the Spanish border. It was named for Nathaniel Towson, Paymaster General of the Army.
... The last remaining Confederate Army troops, commanded by General Stand Watie, surrendered to Union forces at Fort Towson on June 23, 1865, following the Battle of Doaksville. Continued

Hampton mansion opens for holiday open house, tours

(Towson Times) Hampton National Historic Site will host its Yuletide Weekend with evening tours, carriage rides and special programs Friday through Sunday, Dec. 11-13.
On Dec. 11 and 12, evening open house tours of the mansion, the largest private home in the United States when completed in 1790, will be held from 6 to 8 p.m.
Period rooms and the Great Hall, decorated by docents and volunteers, reflect different eras in the history of the mansion presenting two centuries of yuletides past. Continued

Clynmalira, a place of history

(Baltimore Sun) Clynmalira, owned by Dick and Nancy Councill, rests in grand fashion on what was originally a 5,000-acre manor surveyed in 1705 for Annapolitan Charles Carroll, the attorney general. The Carroll family made little use of the land until the 19th century, when Carroll's great-great-grandson Henry Carroll built the house in 1822 out of bricks made on the property, in what is now northern Baltimore County. Continued

Photos: Clynmalira, 1936 (Library of Congress).

Landmark status argued for carriage house

(Baltimore Sun) The 19th-century Farmlands Carriage House in Catonsville is at the center of a tug-of-war between pressing school needs and the wishes of preservationists. The solid stone building, one of the oldest in the county, served as a stable for a wealthy maritime merchant during the early 1800s. Today, the Baltimore County Board of Education owns it and uses it as a maintenance shed for Catonsville High School. Continued

Owner seeks to remove 'historical' tag from house: Preservationists fear move could start 'chain reaction'

(Towson Times) The Baltimore County Landmarks Preservation Commission on Nov. 12 voted to charge the owner of a vacant Victorian house in Lutherville with "demolition by neglect," an allegation that could lead to the owner being fined -- and ordered to bring the historic house up to code.
The commission's claim will be reviewed by an administrative hearing officer for Baltimore County Code Enforcement.
Located at 302 North Avenue on a 1-acre property on the northeast corner of North and Franke avenues, the Weisbrod-Carroll House was built in 1892, according to county records. Continued

Photo: An example of the "Carpenter Gothic" style of house (Library of Congress).

Daniel Brewster

(Wikipedia) Daniel Baugh Brewster (November 23, 1923–August 19, 2007) was a Democratic member of the United States Senate, representing the State of Maryland from 1963 until 1969. He was also a member of the Maryland House of Delegates from 1950-1958, and a representative from the 2nd congressional district of Maryland in the United States House of Representatives from 1959-1963. Daniel Baugh Brewster, Jr. was born on November 23, 1923, in Baltimore County, Maryland, in the Green Spring Valley Region. Continued

1852 house razed amid preservation talks

(Baltimore Sun) Cockeysville has lost another facet of its history to the wrecking ball, despite the efforts of residents who were working to preserve elements of the 19th-century tenant house built by Judge Joshua Cockey II. The ramshackle two-story structure that dates to 1852 was razed a week ago to make way for a parking lot. Continued

Dundalk family wants to bring sibling's remains home

(Baltimore Sun) A gray headstone marks the Bayne family plot in a Baltimore cemetery. Etched in the polished granite are the names of a mother, a father and their eldest son, a soldier lost in World War II.But the remains of Pfc. Robert B. Bayne are interred far from his parents, most likely in an unknown soldier's grave in St. Avold, France. On this Veterans Day, his surviving brothers, 81-year-old twins Kenneth H. and Calvin C. Bayne, remain determined to bring the sibling they called Buddy home from the war that claimed his life in 1945. Continued

Lutherville Volunteer Fire Company marks 100th anniversary

(Towson Times) It's always something.
In 1910, the Lutherville Volunteer Fire Company was worried about raising the $25 (plus freight) it would cost to purchase a Model 130, 400-pound steel alloy fire alarm bell.
Officials of the company even hoped there might be enough money left over to paint the hose wagon. Continued

Photo: Library of Congress

Howard Rollins

Howard Ellsworth Rollins, Jr. (October 17, 1950 – December 8, 1996) was an American television, film, and stage actor. He is perhaps best known for his portrayal of Coalhouse Walker, Jr. in the film Ragtime, and for his portrayal of Virgil Tibbs in the NBC/CBS television series In the Heat of the Night. The youngest of four children, Rollins was born in Baltimore, Maryland where he studied theater at Towson State College nearby. Continued

The Woodstock Races

(Wikipedia) The Battle of Tom's Brook was fought on October 9, 1864, in Shenandoah County, Virginia, during Philip Sheridan's Shenandoah Valley Campaign of the American Civil War. It resulted in a significant Union victory, one that was mockingly dubbed The Woodstock Races for the speed of the Confederate withdrawal. Continued

- Harry Gilmor, "Four Years in the Saddle."

Photo: General Custer saluting Confederate General Tom Rosser at the Woodstock races, Oct. 9, 1864 (Alfred Waud/Library of Congress).

Vintage Hampton National Historic Site Garden Photo

(From the Smithsonian Institution's flickr photostream) - The elaborately planned boxwood garden was not laid out until 1810 and is typical of that period of gardening, a remarkable example of the revival of the intricately designed knot gardens of the 17th century. Each generation has cared for the old and added something of its own. (1930)

Sparks students celebrate old and not-so-old school buildings

(North County News) - Sparks Elementary School is throwing a party to celebrate 10 years of existence at its Belfast Road location and to honor the 100-year history of the stone building on Sparks Road that was destroyed in a 1995 fire.
The festivities are Oct. 3, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., and include a visit from Joe Hairston, Baltimore County schools superintendent, as well as current and former students, teachers and administrators. Continued

Photos: Falmanac. We have more pictures of the old school building here.

Dixon S. Miles: Bad General or Worst General?

(Wikipedia) - Dixon Stansbury Miles (May 4, 1804 – September 16, 1862) was a career United States Army officer who served in the Mexican-American War and the Indian Wars. He was mortally wounded as he surrendered his Union garrison in the Battle of Harpers Ferry during the American Civil War. Continued

Miles sorry ass is buried in St. James Cemetery, Monkton, Maryland. Photo by Kim Choate. Photo of Miles is from the Library of Congess.

Unclogging the Patapsco

(Baltimore Sun) - Since Tropical Storm Agnes ended its working life abruptly in 1972, Union Dam has stood in the Patapsco River as a broken monument to a bygone industrial era, but it's also an obstacle to migrating fish, a swimming hazard and a potential threat to a large sewer pipe.
Its remaining time can now probably be measured in months. Fueled by federal stimulus money, efforts of state and federal officials and river advocates are expected to be realized in the coming weeks with a demolition crew rumbling into Patapsco Valley State Park on the Baltimore- Howard County line to begin dismantling the 209-foot-long concrete hulk. Continued

Photo: Union Dam (B&O RR Photo Tours)

Louisa Ann Swain

(Wikipedia) - Louisa Ann Swain (1801, Norfolk, Virginia – January 25, 1880, Lutherville, Maryland) was the first woman to vote in a general election in the United States. She voted on September 6, 1870, in Laramie, Wyoming.
Born Louisa Gardner, she was the daughter of a sea captain who was lost at sea while she was a child. She and her mother moved to Charleston, South Carolina, where her mother died. Orphaned, Louisa went to Baltimore to live with an uncle, Ephraim Gardner. While in Baltimore, she met and, in 1821, married Stephen Swain, who operated a chair factory. Continued

Historic black church may be reborn as museum

(Baltimore Sun) - The 19th-century laborers pooled their money and did what they could to build this biscuit box of a church along Offutt Road in the southwest corner of Baltimore County. Atop a stone foundation they put up four walls, eight windows, a peaked roof, three rows of pews, a pulpit for inspiration and a wood stove for warmth - and called the thing done. Continued

Photo: Louis Diggs

Rich history of 110th comes to an end in Pikesville: National Guard unit traces roots to Revolutionary War

(Baltimore Sun) - When Ferd H. Reuwer served in Maryland's 110th Field Artillery in the early 1930s, they still used horses to haul cannons around the unit's training site in Pikesville.The horses were phased out in 1935, but the National Guard unit carried on, storming Omaha Beach on D-Day in 1944, turning out for the riots in Baltimore after the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968 and guarding Washington after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Continued

Iryl D. Grafton, restaurant owner, has died

(Baltimore Sun) - ... During the 1950s and 1960s, she owned and operated the Twin Kiss soft ice cream stand in Bel Air. She also had been co-owner of the old Hamburger Junction at Joppa and Harford roads, with Jim Gentile, noted Orioles first baseman and power slugger of the early 1960s. Continued

Photo: Hamburger Junction (carneymaryland.org).