Silver Spring in the Civil War
On July 11-12, 1864, General Jubal Early's 20,000 Confederate troops marched down Georgia Avenue (formerly Seventh Street Turnpike), in their attack on Fort Stevens in the District of Columbia (1). Francis Preston Blair's vacant home (2) "Silver Spring" (currently the location of Acorn Park) was seized as headquarters for Early. Confederate soldiers swarmed over the area camping on the grounds of U.S. Postmaster General Montgomery Blair's summer home (3) "Falklands," and Mary Blair's summer home (4) the "Moorings," later named "Jesup Blair House" and still standing in Jesup Blair Park.
The weary Confederates having just left a bloody battle at Monocacy two days prior, stopped to rest and regroup in Silver Spring, then called Sligo, thus allowing time for Union General Frank Wheaton's troops to arrive from Petersburg, Virginia. Explosions ripped the air. Remnants of the deadly conflict such as cannon balls and artillery shells have been found in the Woodside community, formerly the Wilson farms. Richard Wilson was sympathetic to the Southern Cause and his farm house (5) (which still stands) reportedly served as headquarters for Early's second in command, former U.S. Vice President John C. Breckenridge. His brother John remained loyal to the North. Ironically, Union soldiers damaged John Wilson's farm and killed John and Richard's father.
In the aftermath of the struggle, "Falklands" lay in smoldering ruins. Bodies and debris lay scattered about the community; casualties numbered in the hundreds. Sligo Post Office served as a Confederate hospital. Proper interment of hastily buried Confederates took place later in the Cemetery at (6) Grace Episcopal Church under the direction of the pastor, James Avirett, former chaplain wth Ashby's Cavalry, C.S.A. A monument to honor these men was erected on the church grounds in 1896. To remember the Union effort, local citizens renamed the nearby (7) Leesboro after General Wheaton.
Marker is at the intersection of Georgia Avenue (Maryland Route 97) and Spring Street, on the left when traveling north on Georgia Avenue.
Courtesy hmdb.org
