Existing comment:
North Market Street
"Now I shall see Cousin J.
-- Gettysburg Campaign --
On June 28, 1863, Gen. John F. Reynolds rode into Frederick to visit his cousin Catherine Reynolds Cramer and her sisters near the intersection of North Market and Second Streets. She would have much to write the rest of her family on July 1 about this reunion with him. Her delight was obvious: "When we heard the Army of the Potomac was really coming my first and constant thought was, 'now I shall see Cousin J.'"
Reynolds visited his cousin that Sunday afternoon before leaving to confer with his new commander, Gen. George G. Meade. Catherine prepared a meal for him, hoping that he would return after the meeting. While waiting, she and her sisters "gave supper to 17 soldiers who came in at different times asking to buy bread as all shops had sold out and they had nothing all day." It was late when Reynolds finished his work for the day. He did not return, and Catherine never saw him again. John Reynolds was killed on the first day of fighting at Gettysburg.
Confederates returned here a year later, as Gen. Jubal A. Early forced the city of Frederick to ransom itself for $200,000. The ransom, provided by local banks in bushel baskets of cash, was paid here at the former City Hall on July 9, 1864, the day of the nearby Battle of Monocacy, "the battle that saved Washington." |