Oakland
Confederate Railroad Raid
On Sunday, April 26, 1863, a detachment of Confederate Capt. John H. McNeill's partisan rangers under Col. A. W. Harman attacked the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad facilities here in Oakland. They were part of Confederate Gen. William E. “Grumble” Jones’ incursion into West Virginia and Maryland to hamper the rail movements of Federal troops and supplies.
The town was defended by Company O, 6th West Virginia Infantry, a Preston County unit. The Confederates arrived about 11 a.m. and surprised the garrison. When Oakland's citizens emerged from church services, they found the town in possession of the Southerners. The Union commander, Capt. Godwin, was captured at the Lutheran Church on Green Street, and one by one, three more officers and fifty-seven soldiers were rounded up.
Apparently, only one shot was fired in Oakland, when Confederates who thought that a Union officer was recuperating at the Glades Hotel fired a warning shot from a small cannon past the building. After they turned the gun to face the hotel, the manager came out and begged them to inspect the interior rather than opening fire. They found no Federal officer in the building. Meanwhile, a few Confederates rode west to the Youghiogheny River railroad bridge, where they captured the guards at Fort Alice, disarmed them, and burned the bridge.
Marker is on East Liberty Street west of South 2nd Street, on the left when traveling west.
Courtesy hmdb.org
