Civil War Martinsburg
Focus of Contention
Martinsburg, strategically located on the Valley Turnpike, (present day U.S. Route 11) and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, was a major transportation center and the northern gateway to the Shenandoah Valley. Both sides contested for it frequently during the war, and it changed hands many times.
In 1861, from late in May through June, Col. Thomas J. Jackson and his volunteers shut down the railroad, burning bridges and rolling stock. Jackson was here again in October 1862, and on his orders the roundhouse and other buildings were destroyed.
Here in the corner of Martinsburg, the courthouse and other buildings around the square are closely associated with the war. The Berkeley County Courthouse served as headquarters for the provost marshal after Union Gen. Robert Patterson’s army occupied the town on July 3, 1861. Pennsylvania soldiers scribbled in the court record books during the occupation. Belle Boyd, the famous Southern spy, later claimed that she was confined in the courthouse overnight after killing a Federal soldier who invaded her home on Queen Street and insulted her mother. In March 1862, Union forces again occupied Martinsburg and established headquarters in the courthouse. Charles J. Faulkner, U.S. minister to France when the war began and later a member of Jackson’s staff, described seeing the county records loaded on wagons to be taken to Winchester for safekeeping. Faulkner’s home, Boydville, was constructed about 1812 for his father-in-law and still stands nearby. Rear Admiral Charles Boarman, a veteran of both the War of 1812 and the Civil War, lived at 208 South Queen Street, located on the square. During Confederate Gen. Jubal A. Early’s Washington raid, part of his army occupied Martinsburg in July 1864.
Marker is at the intersection of East King Street (U.S. 11) and South Queen Street (U.S. 45) on East King Street.
Courtesy hmdb.org
