Frederick and the Road to Independence
Richard D. L. Fulton
During the American Revolutionary War, from 1775 to 1783, somewhere around 28,000 Marylanders had served in the Continental Army and in local militia units, a number that included hundreds of volunteers from Frederick County.
However, the seeds of the eight-year insurrection against the King of England had initially been sown in Frederick City, the causation of which was spawned by an earlier war: the French and Indian War.
The French and Indian War was fought from 1754 to 1763 between Great Britain, which had included the engagement of British troops, colonists, and friendly, aboriginal allies, and France, which had included the French military, the French colonists, and France’s aboriginal allies.
Although the British had prevailed in the war in 1763, achieving the victory had proven to have been so costly that England began to impose a variety of taxes on the American colonies to recoup some of the costs of the war.
The Stamp (Tax) Act Rebellion
Of all the various taxes imposed on the British colonies in America, the Stamp Act of 1765 proved to be one of the more egregious, and Frederick County would make history as having been the first colonial government to officially condemn the act.
The Stamp Act required that a tax stamp be attached to legal and commercial documents, as well as to land grants, court papers, and playing cards and dice, according to massar.org (Massachusetts Sons of the American Revolution).
On November 23, 1765, the Frederick County Court, then comprised of 12 magistrates, declared the Stamp Act as having been invalid. The Frederick court-generated repudiation led to a general public protest, which, massar.org had noted, the Frederick residents had celebrated by organizing “an elaborate funeral procession,” led by the ‘Colours (sic) of the Town’s Company’ and drummers, the townspeople carried a large banner, followed by a coffin covered in anti-Stamp Act slogans.… The Frederick Town citizenry symbolically laid to rest the corpse of the Stamp Act – age 22 days.”
November 23, 1765, then became known as Repudiation Day in Maryland and has been officially celebrated as a “half-bank day” in Frederick on November 23 each year. In 1766, the British Parliament repealed the Stamp Act, but it didn’t, however, end the efforts of England to tax the colonies… which included the even more infamous Tea Tax of 1773.
John Hanson, Frederick Patriot
John Hanson moved to Frederick City (as the city was once known to distinguish itself from Frederick County) in 1769, whereby, in 1775, he served as the chairman of the Frederick County Committee of Observation (which was involved in the assemblage of militia units to join the armed forces which were then being assembled in Boston.)
Additionally, Hanson served as a commissioner, assigned in 1776 to assist with establishing an arms and ammunition factory in Frederick. In 1777, he was appointed by Frederick County as a loan officer, to assist in raising funds for the Continental Congress.
But perhaps his greatest patriot accomplishment was when he had served as a delegate to the rebel Continental Congress from 1780 to 1783 – a rather hazardous pursuit, given that the Revolutionary War had not yet even been concluded – since his service as a delegate had led to even greater status in his role in the Revolutionary War.
In 1782, Hanson signed the Articles of Confederation, which had officially established the Continental Congress and the first United States of America, which resulted in his having been elected president of the Congress, thus actually deeming him, although arguably, the first president of the United States.
Under Hanson’s “presidency,” the “first consular service was established, a post office department was initiated, a national bank was chartered, progress was made towards taking the first census, and a uniform system of coinage was then adopted (amongst many other accomplishments), according to the Architect of the Capitol.
The Catoctin Cannonballs
Located in Cunningham Falls State Park lies the remains of the Catoctin Iron Furnace, which had been founded by brothers Roger, James, Baker, and Thomas Johnson in 1776 on the heels of the discovery of rich iron-ore deposits in the Catoctin Mountains, according to the National Park Service.
As an aside, Thomas Johnson subsequently became the first governor of the State of Maryland.
Even though the furnace operated at the outbreak of the American Revolution, production there had focused primarily on iron products for area farmers and even iron stoves. At some point during the war, the Johnson brothers directed that cannon balls be manufactured at the furnace for the Continental Army, according to visitfrederick.org. Their “inspiration” seems likely to have come from John Hanson (as discussed above).
According to a historic marker, which had been donated to the Maryland Park Service by Sgt. Lawrence Everhart Chapter of the Maryland Sons of the American Revolution, the furnace had manufactured and delivered 958 ten-inch bombshells, weighing over 31 tons, to the Continental Army in 1780.
Some of the artillery rounds produced were used a year later at the Siege of Yorktown, the conclusion of which had effectively ended the Revolutionary War, and England’s defeat.
Some sources have claimed that cannons had also been manufactured at the factory, but the claim seems to have, as yet, not been substantiated.
Housing Enemy Combatants
Maryland escaped the destruction of the Revolutionary War inflicted upon many of the other seaboard states, in spite of supplying thousands of troops to the war effort, as well as arms and ammunition, and leadership in the rebel Continental Congress.
But Maryland had also provided yet another service to the war effort by providing housing for captured enemy combatants. The two primary sites employed during the revolution to house prisoners of war were Frederick City and Fort Frederick in Washington County (which was part of Frederick County when the Revolutionary War had commenced).
The prisoner-of-war facility in Frederick City was/is located on what now constitutes the grounds of the Maryland School for the Deaf.
According to visitfrederick.org, the compound, which would initially house enemy prisoners, was originally intended to be comprised of “two, two-story, L-shaped, stone buildings (one of which remains standing), and a parade ground were planned on a site occupying a hilltop.” The compound was initially intended to have served as the barracks for the Maryland State Militia, but the war had broken out before this could be accomplished.
As a result of the outbreak of the war, it was decided to build the facility as a prisoner-of-war compound. According to the Daughters of the American Revolution (dar.org), British and Hessian (German) prisoners-of-war were employed in building the barracks in 1777.
Although referred to as the Hessian Barracks today, the compound had initially housed both British and Hessian prisoners who had been captured primarily at the battles of Saratoga, Trenton, and Yorktown, according to the DAR.
One of the two barracks was demolished sometime around 1871.
Fort Frederick was originally constructed in 1756 to provide for the defense of Maryland during the French and Indian War. In 1777, the Continental Congress directed that the fort would house British and German prisoners of war in the wake of the battles of Saratoga and Yorktown.
Fort Frederick housed some 1,000 prisoners from 1777 to 1783.
To explore Frederick County’s Revolutionary War-related activities further, please visit the websites of Visit Frederick (visitfrederick.org), Fort Frederick State Park (via dnr.maryland.gov), and the Catoctin Iron Furnace (via nps.gov).
John Hanson of Frederick
Stamp Act Wayside
Catoctin Furnace Historic Marke
