Cumberland, MD

In the morning we walked the Fort Cumberland Trail which led us past the train depot where an old steam engine was leaving the station.

Built in 1754, Fort Cumberland...

stood on the present site of Emmanuel Episcopal Church.

George Washington visited Cumberland several times in his life.  He was here in 1748 at age 16 as a surveyor and several times as a colonial officer assisting the British in the French and Indian War.

On one occasion his headquarters were located in a small cabin inside Fort Cumberland.  The original cabin was preserved and now sits in a park across the street from where the fort was located.

British General Edward Braddock, who was Washington's commanding officer during the French and Indian War, constructed a road from Cumberland to the area that is now Pittsburgh for the passage of his soldiers and supplies in order to attack the French at Fort Duquesne.  This road became the first to cross the Appalachian Mountains and eventually was improved by the federal government and extended as far as Vandalia, Illinois.  It was the first road used in westward expansion and is now commonly called the National Road or Pike; its beginning in Cumberland has been marked with a monument. 

 Allegany County Library

Allegany County Courthouse

Private home

Mural at the tourism office

In the afternoon we traveled to Frederick, Maryland, where we enjoyed the passing scenery in spite of some drizzle.

 We visited the historic district,...

saw the new public library,...

and spent a couple of hours in the National Museum of Civil War Medicine.

A battlefield surgeon's amputation kit.

An engraving of battlefield medicine by Winslow Homer titled The Surgeon at Work at the Rear During an Engagement (1862) showing a surgeon's assistant wearing a "hospital backpack."

A hospital backpack and its contents.

A sheepskin condom

Early in the evening we visited Olivet Cemetery where we visited the grave of Francis Scott Key, author of the Star-Spangled Banner.

Olivet Cemetery is also the final resting place of many Confederate soldiers, including 408 unknown  soldiers and many children who died in battle.  Young people were often allowed to join both armies as musicians, flag bearers, and other non-combatants.

We're staying in a bear den in the Shenandoah Mountains tonight and may not have wi-fi access.  So, we'll be back ASAP; or not.