St. Thomas Episcopal Church
Unintended Target
Before you, at the top of Church Street, stands St. Thomas Episcopal Church, which became an unintended target of Gen. Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson’s artillery on January 5-6, 1862. Jackson had led his force from Winchester, Virginia to destroy as much of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad and the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal as possible while driving Federal units before him to Hancock. He reached the Potomac River south of the town on January 5 and demanded that Gen. F. W. Lander and his Union command surrender, shelling them from Orrick’s Hill (named for the home of Confederate congressman Johnson Orrick). When Union reinforcements arrived, Jackson decided to withdraw and march to Romney (in present-day West Virginia) on January 7. Before he departed, however, he ordered Col. Harry Gilmore to plunder a supply train of rifles, ammunition, and other supplies.
With Jackson’s departure, the threat to Hancock ended. The U.S. troops here prevented a Confederate invasion of the North.
Marker is on Church Street south of Main Street (Maryland Route 144), on the left when traveling south.
Courtesy hmdb.org
