The Hagerstown Mail offices were located on the second floor of this building during the Civil War. Due to the newspaper's pro-Southern columns, the Mail's editor and co-owner, Daniel Dechert, was arrested in 1862 and sent to Old Capitol Prison in Washington DC, and held until he took the "Oath of Allegiance". Following the defeat of Federal Maryland troops by Maryland Confederates in the Battle of Front Royal, Virginia, Dechert's newspaper was sacked and burned by a Unionist mob.

John Wagoner's barber shop was located in this corner of Public Square during the Civil War. Wagoner, a free black, operated a popular establishment, catering mostly to white customers. In November 1861, the ship was looted by a mob of Union soldiers. Grocery stores and other businesses, owned by men whose sons joined the Confederacy, also were targets from time to time.

The Ransom of Hagerstown
On July 6, 1864, General John McCausland's Confederate cavalry demanded a ransom of $20,000 under penalty of destruction by fire. It was within this building that General McCausland first met City Councilman Matthew Barber to make his ransom demands.

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Show me all markers in:  Hagerstown, MD  |  Washington County  |  21740  |  Maryland  |  United States of America

Hagerstown Ransomed
Hagerstown
Gettysburg Campaign
Treatment of the Wounded
First Battle of Hagerstown
Second Battle of Hagerstown
The Ransom of Hagerstown
The Last Confederate Incursion North of the Potomac River
John Brown
First Hose Company

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