Chuck Lawliss Read online

  In 1987 the property became the Morrison-Clark Inn after being renovated by William Adair, who supervised the renovation of the White House. He preserved the historic exterior and many of the interior details, including four pier mirrors and Carrara marble fireplaces. Many of the guest rooms contain historic features, and are decorated with period furnishings and original art. The handsome Morrison-Clark Restaurant, one of the finest in the capital area, was cited by Gourmet magazine in 1997 as one of “our readers’ top tables.”

  The Morrison-Clark house magically transports guests back in time to a luxurious mansion in Lincoln’s Washington.

  Address: Massachusetts Ave. and 11th St., NW, Washington, DC 20001; tel: 202-898-1200 or 800-332-7898 (reservations); fax: 202-289-8576.

  Accommodations: Fifty-four rooms and suites.

  Amenities: Gourmet restaurant (202-289-8580), period furnishings, minibar, hair dryer, voice-mail, twice-daily maid service and nightly turndown, complimentary newspaper, fitness center, parking garage under building.

  Rates: $$-$$$. All credit cards and personal checks.

  Restrictions: No pets.

  Ford’s Theatre and

  Petersen House

  Washington, DC

  On the evening of April 14, 1865, John Wilkes Booth, a well-known actor and Southern sympathizer, slipped into the presidential box at Ford’s Theatre and shot President Abraham Lincoln in the back of the head. Lincoln, unconscious, was carried across the street and placed on a bed in the Petersen house, where he died the next morning.

  Leaping from the box to the stage, Booth broke his leg but managed to hobble out of the theater, mount his horse, and flee the city. Booth was shot to death in a barn at Port Royal, Virginia, on April 26.

  The theater was purchased by the government shortly after the assassination. It was first used as offices and later as the Army Medical Museum. It was restored in the 1960s. Box 7, where Lincoln was shot, has reproductions of the original furniture, including the president’s rocking chair, in which he sat on the fateful night.

  The Petersen house belonged to a German immigrant, William Petersen, a tailor who ran it as a boardinghouse. The ground-floor bedroom where Lincoln died has been restored along with the front parlor where Mrs. Lincoln waited through the night, and the back parlor where Secretary of War Edwin Stanton interviewed witnesses to the shooting. The government purchased the house in 1896.

  Ford’s Theatre and the Petersen House National Historic Site, 511 and 516 10th St., NW, Washington DC 20002, are open daily, 9:00-5:00, except Christmas. A museum in the theater contains the murder weapon, the flag that covered Lincoln’s coffin, the clothing he wore the night he was shot, and other memorabilia connected with the assassination. For information phone 202-426-6924.

  In Maryland, some fifteen miles south of Washington on U.S. 31, are two sites connected with Booth’s flight from Washington.

  Surratt House and Tavern, 9118 Brandywine Rd., Clinton, MD 20735 (once named Surrattsville). John Surratt, one of John Wilkes Booth’s co-conspirators, hid weapons in this tavern and post office operated by his mother, Mary. Althoug she allegedly had no knowledge of the murder plot, a military court found her guilty of aiding the conspirators, and she was hanged. The jury failed to agree on the guilt of her son, and the charges against him were dropped. Booth stopped here briefly on his flight from Washington, to retrieve a weapon he had hidden here. Open March through December 11, Thursday-Friday, 11:00-3:00, and Saturday-Sunday, 12:00-4:00. Admission is $1.50 for adults, $1 for seniors, and $.50 for children five to eighteen. For information phone 301-868-1121.

  Dr. Samuel A. Mudd Home and Museum, just off Poplar Hill Rd. in Waldorf, MD, is the home and plantation of the doctor who set Booth’s leg. Dr. Mudd was sent to Fort Jefferson Prison on Dry Tortugas Island, Florida, but was pardoned by President Andrew Johnson in 1869. Open April through November, Wednesday, 11:00-3:00, and Saturday-Sunday, 12:00-4:00. For information phone 301-645-6870.

  MARYLAND

  Antietam Battlefield

  Sharpsburg, Maryland

  On September 17, 1862, the bloodiest day in American history, more than 23,000 men were killed or wounded here as the Army of the Potomac, commanded by General George McClellan, turned back General Robert E. Lee’s first invasion of the North.

  A Union soldier had stumbled on Lee’s tactical plan wrapped around some cigars. Knowing what to expect, McClellan moved cautiously. But by not committing his reserves, he lost the opportunity to crush Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia.

  The battle, critical because a Confederate victory probably would have brought British aid to the Confederacy, was a tactical draw but a strategic victory for the North, allowing Lincoln to issue the Emancipation Proclamation. Lee withdrew the day after the battle, McClellan did not pursue, and he was soon relieved of command by Lincoln.

  Antietam National Battlefield is north and east of Sharpsburg, along MD 34 and 65, both of which routes intersect either U.S. 40 or 40A and I-70. A museum in the Visitor Center contains battle artifacts and shows an audiovisual orientation program hourly. Musket and cannon demonstrations and historical talks are given regularly in the summer. Open daily, 9:00-5:00, and 8:30-6:00 in the summer. Closed Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Day. Admission is $2 for adults, children under seventeen free. For information phone 301-432-5124.

  Although Antietam is in Maryland, Gettysburg in Pennsylvania, and Harpers Ferry in West Virginia, they are quite close to one another and all three can be seen on a long weekend. Antietam is ninety minutes southwest of Gettysburg; Harpers Ferry is only thirty minutes south of Antietam. The information desks at each will direct you to the others.

  Piper House

  Sharpsburg, Maryland

  On the morning of the Battle of Antietam, much of the action took place in the cornfield of the Piper Farm. In the afternoon, there was savage fighting at the nearby Bloody Lane. James Longstreet, the general Lee called his “Old War Horse,” briefly used this 1840 simple log-and-frame farmhouse as his battlefield headquarters. After the battle, the house and barn were pressed into service as a field hospital that treated both Confederate and Federal wounded. The Piper House, on the national battlefield, is popular with people who want to explore the scene of the bloodiest single day in the war; practically all the important sites are within walking distance.

  Innkeepers Louis and Regina Clark, who lease the property from the Park Service, enjoy telling guests the farm’s interesting history. The house is decorated in period antiques. The Piper House is one mile north of the town of Sharpsburg on Rte. 65, just before the Visitor Center at the battlefield.

  Address: PO Box 100, Sharpsburg, MD 21782; tel: 301-797-1862.

  Accommodations: Three double rooms, all with private baths.

  Amenities: Air-conditioning, parking, easy walk to Visitor Center.

  Rates: $$, including full breakfast. Visa, MasterCard, and personal checks.

  Restrictions: No children under ten, no pets, restricted smoking.

  Inn at Antietam

  Sharpsburg, Maryland

  From the front porch of this Victorian farmhouse trimmed with gingerbread, you look across the road and field to Bloody Lane. To the right of the house is the National Cemetery, and you can walk down the road to Burnside’s Bridge.

  The fighting that went on here is in sharp contrast to the charm and comfort the house offers. The house has been carefully restored in the style of the Civil War period by innkeepers Cal and Betty Fairbourn.

  The living room has walnut rococo revival furniture, and guest rooms have Eastlake dressers. One guest room, in the smokehouse behind the main building, has a paneled sitting room with a fireplace and a loft bed. The master suite has a massive antique four-poster bed.

  A full breakfast is served on Royal Copenhagen china in the formal dining room. A portrait of General Lee hangs just outside the dining room and lithographs of the Battle of Antietam hang in the hall.

  Address: 220 E. Main St.,
PO Box 119, Sharpsburg, MD 21782; tel: 301-432-6601; fax: 301-432-5981.

  Accommodations: Four suites, all with private baths.

  Amenities: Air-conditioning, off-street parking, biking.

  Rates: $$. American Express and personal checks.

  Restrictions: No children under six, no pets, no smoking.

  Barbara Fritchie House

  Frederick, Maryland

  Barbara Fritchie was a ninety-five-year-old widow when she stood at the gate of her house waving a Union flag as Stonewall Jackson’s troops marched by in September 1862. When told to put the flag away, she said, “Shoot, if you must, this old gray head, but spare your country’s flag.” In John Greenleaf Whittier’s famous poem, Jackson told his troops: “Who touches a hair on yon gray head dies like a dog! March on!”

  Churchill and Roosevelt visited the house during World War II, and Churchill, a student of the Civil War, proudly recited the entire poem from memory.

  Damaged by a flood, the original Fritchie house was torn down in 1927. The replica, built in 1927, displays some of Ms. Fritchie’s furniture and personal possessions.

  The Barbara Fritchie House and Museum, 154 W. Patrick St., Frederick, MD 21701, is open April through September, Monday and Wednesday-Saturday, 10:00-4:00, and Sunday, 1:00-4:00. Docent tours. Gift shop. Admission is $2 for adults, $1.50 for seniors and children under twelve. For information phone 301-698-0630.

  Monocacy Battlefield

  Frederick, Maryland

  Confederate general Jubal Early, boldly bound for the virtually defenseless Washington, DC, was met here on July 9, 1864, by green troops commanded by General Lew Wallace. Early won the battle, but it cost him a day and gave reinforcements time to arrive at Washington’s defenses. Early was thrown back at Fort Stevens in the District of Columbia, and retreated to Virginia, ending the last Confederate attempt to carry the war to the North. At the battlefield a monument is inscribed with Wallace’s words: “These men died to save the National Capital, and they did save it.”

  Monocacy National Battlefield, 4801 Urbana Pike, Frederick, MD 21704, is open from Memorial Day-Labor Day, seven days a week, 8:00-4:30; the rest of the year Wednesday-Sunday. Admission is free. The Visitor Center contains artifacts of the battle. To reach the battlefield from Frederick, take MD 355 south, and just beyond the railroad overpass, turn left. A stone mill marks the site of the battle. For information phone 301-662-3515.

  Spring Bank Inn

  Frederick, Maryland

  A Rhode Island regiment, on its way from Sharpsburg, encamped where this 1880 brick farmhouse now stands, two and a half miles north of the center of Frederick, and an easy drive from the Monocacy battlefield.

  The restored house is an attractive blend of Gothic revival and Italianate features—etched glass on the front door, faux-marble mantels, William Morris wallpaper, random-width floors, a fresco on the ceiling of one of the guest rooms.

  Ray and Beverly Compton, the owners and hosts, were honored by the Historical Society of Frederick for restoring the house to its past glory. Porches shade three sides of the house and there are ten acres of farmland to the rear.

  Frederick is known for the quantity and quality of its antique shops. Beverly knows who sells what and where to go for the “good stuff,” and will share her expertise with guests.

  Address: 7945 Worman’s Mill Rd., Frederick, MD 21701; tel:

  301-694-0440; E-mail: [email protected].

  Accommodations: One double with private bath, four doubles share two and a half baths.

  Amenities: Air-conditioning, off-street parking, cable TV in parlor.

  Rates: $$, including continental breakfast. All major credit cards.

  Restrictions: No children under twelve, no pets, no smoking.

  PENNSYLVANIA

  Beechmont Inn

  Hanover, Pennsylvania

  This inn, a Georgian town house built in 1834, is near the town square. During the Battle of Gettysburg, fought twenty miles to the west, some of the fighting splashed over into this town.

  General H. Judson Kilpatrick clashed here with Jeb Stuart, Lee’s cavalry leader, and was forced to retreat down the street in front of the house. He passed by again when George Armstrong Custer forced the Confederates back through the center of town.

  The fighting here prevented Stuart from arriving at Gettysburg until the second day of the battle, a delay that kept Lee from receiving a report on the strength and location of Union forces. Many historians believe this was an important factor in the Union victory.

  Owners William and Susan Day are proud of their inn, furnished with antiques from the Federal period and with upstairs guest rooms named after Civil War generals. A downstairs suite has a private entrance onto the inn’s garden courtyard, which is shaded by a century-old magnolia tree. A gourmet breakfast is a highlight of a stay at Beechmont, and specialties include apple-baked French toast and a California egg puff.

  Address: 315 Broadway, Hanover, PA 17331; tel: 717-632-3013.

  Accommodations: Four double rooms and three suites, all with private baths, one with whirlpool and some with fireplaces.

  Amenities: Fishing, riding, swimming, and boating in nearby state park, three public golf courses, antiques shops.

  Rates: $$. All major credit cards, personal checks, and cash.

  Restrictions: No children under twelve, no pets, no smoking.

  Cashtown Inn

  Cashtown, Pennsylvania

  Before and after the Battle of Gettysburg, the Army of Northern Virginia passed through this crossroads village. General A. P. Hill made his headquarters at the 1797 inn, and it was here that he gave General Henry Heth permission to take troops into Gettysburg to look for a rumored supply of shoes.

  Early in the afternoon of July 1, 1863, Lee stopped by the inn to see Hill as he made his way toward the sound of the guns. More recently, actor Sam Elliott (who played Union general John Buford) made his headquarters here during the filming of the movie Gettysburg.

  Also in residence here is a ghost. Sightings have been reported of a Confederate soldier in slouch hat and tattered uniform. He occasionally startles guests staying in Room 4, and he is blamed for unexplained rapping at the door of the room.

  Ghost or no, Dennis and Eileen Hoover run a good inn: the rooms are comfortable, there is a tavern, the food in the dining room is good, and some interesting Civil War art and photographs hang on the walls downstairs. Cashtown is eight miles west of Gettysburg.

  Address: PO Box 103, 1325 Old Rte. 30, Cashtown, PA 17310;

  tel: 800-367-1797 or 717-334-9722; fax: 717-334-1442.

  Accommodations: Five guest rooms and two family suites, all with private baths.

  Amenities: Air-conditioning, off-street parking, full-service restaurant.

  Rates: $$-$$$. American Express, Visa, MasterCard, Discover,

  and personal checks.

  Restrictions: Children allowed only in family suites, no pets, restricted smoking.

  Gettysburg Battlefield

  Gettysburg, Pennsylvania

  In June 1863, Lee marched his army north through Maryland and into Pennsylvania in the hope that a major victory on Northern soil would compel the Union to sue for peace. He was pursued by George Meade, recently appointed commander of the Army of the Potomac. They met by chance at Gettysburg.

  A rumor spread that a warehouse in Gettysburg was full of shoes, which the rebels badly needed. A small force rode off to investigate and ran smack into a Federal patrol, and that chance encounter escalated into one of the greatest battles ever fought in the Western Hemisphere.

  On the first day, July 1, the rebels struck Federal troops at McPherson Ridge, just west of town. The outnumbered Federals were driven back to a position on Cemetery Ridge, south of town.

  On the second day, Lee took up a position on Seminary Ridge, parallel to the Union position on Cemetery Ridge, and ordered an attack against both Union flanks. General James Longstreet hit the left at Little Round Top, leaving U
nion dead on the Wheat Field and overrunning the Peach Orchard. In the evening, General Richard Ewell struck the Union right at East Cemetery Hill and Culp’s Hill. None of the three attacks was able to dislodge Meade from Cemetery Ridge.

  On the fateful third day, Lee, over Longstreet’s objections, ordered an all-out assault aimed right at the center of the Union line. His artillery began a bombardment of Cemetery Ridge, touching off a two-hour artillery duel. In the afternoon, Lee sent some thirteen thousand men across the mile of open field toward the “little clump of trees” that marked the Union center. The attack, known as Pickett’s Charge, never really had a chance. A handful of rebels breached the Union lines, but to no avail. Only one in three Confederates survived the charge.

  The next day, July 4, the remains of Lee’s army headed for the Potomac and home. Its losses were irreplaceable, and Lee could never again launch a major offensive. A lot of fighting lay ahead, but although no one realized it, the Confederacy had lost the war.

  Gettysburg National Military Park, 97 Taneytown Rd., is open daily, 6:00-10:00; the Visitor Center, 8:00-5:00. Admission to the park is free. Most visitors take a self-guided tour through the park’s approximately five thousand acres and thirty-five miles of roads. An audio cassette offers a mile-by-mile auto tour, and is available in the Visitor Center bookstore. For information phone 717-334-1124. A ninety-minute tape and a player may be rented at the National Civil War Wax Museum, 297 Steinwehr Ave. For information phone 717-334-6245.