THE CIVIL WAR
During the Civil War, Montgomery County was subject to occupation by federal military forces. The homes of suspected pro-southerners were occasionally raided. Meetings held by Confederate sympathizers were monitored and vocal anti-Union speakers were arrested. Printing of the local newspaper, the Montgomery County Sentinel, was interrupted several times when its pro-South editor was arrested. [MCHS]
In June 1863, while traveling north toward Pennsylvania, Confederate General J.E.B. Stuart captured 150 Union wagons just south of what is now the corner of Veirs Mill Road and Rockville Pike. A month later, Stuart passed through the county again, returning from raids in Pennsylvania. [MCHS]
A year later, in 1864, General Jubal Early attempted to lead Confederate troops on a raid of Washington. At Monocacy Creek, Early’s troops defeated Union forces and then marched south through Montgomery County, stopping to camp in Rockville. They then marched toward Silver Spring and their unsuccessful attack on Fort Stevens in the District of Columbia. [MCHS]
As the 1865 map shows, the Luxmanor area was still sparsely settled farmland at the time. [MB] According to Mrs. Levina Bolten, who refurbished the old Riley house in 1939, she had spoken with a neighbor who had been born in the house. The neighbor related that her grandmother had also been been born there, and the grandmother had told the story that, as a young girl, she had climbed into the old loft above the kitchen and watched the Confederate soldiers of General Early’s army as they gathered calamus roots while camping on the land on their way to Washington. [WS1]
During their retreat, Early’s force moved north again and the Confederate cavalry skirmished with Union troops in the streets of Rockville.
As a result of the war, approximately 5,500 African American slaves in Montgomery County were emancipated in 1864. [MCHS]
This detail from Matenert & Bond’s 1865 map of Montgomery County, Maryland highlights “District 4,” around Rockville. The arrow points to the Riley farm, at the edge of the farmland that is now Luxmanor. The complete map appears below.
Confederate General Jubal Early
