Now Available...
Baltimore County:
Historical Reflections and Favorite Scenes
War
Qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum.
The famous advice of Flavius Vegetius Renatus, “Whoso desireth peace, let him prepare for war,” could be the motto for Baltimore County's involvement in armed conflict. Far more money and effort have been spent here in preparing for wars than in fighting them. Conflict has often flowed around us but has seldom struck directly.
Indian Wars
From the time of the earliest settlements, the lords proprietary made every effort to coexist peacefully with the aboriginal peoples of the province. As a consequence of this policy, and because Maryland was not directly in the path of French ambitions in the New World, the outbreaks of violence that occurred in Virginia, Massachusetts, and New York did not mar the early history of our colony. Nevertheless, Indian bands roamed through the county in search of game, and fast-moving war parties occasionally travelled the well-worn trails that later became county roads. News of atrocities in other colonies fueled settlers' apprehension, and the legislature authorized the construction of forts along the frontier.
One of the earliest of these defensive structures has survived to the present day and is owned by Baltimore County. Fort Garrison was built in 1695. It requires some imagination to envision a housing development off Stevenson Road, just outside the beltway, as a howling wilderness, but such it was when Captain John Oldham (sometimes spelled Olton or Oulson) commanded a company of mounted rangers who patrolled the trails between the Susquehanna and the Patapsco. The plain, rectangular, 18-by-48-foot fieldstone building features slit-like gun windows and a large fireplace. Its original roof was of stone, to protect against flaming arrows. The soldiers had to climb a ladder to enter through a small doorway high in the wall. Situated at the head of Slaughterhouse Run, the fort commanded the intersection of two Indian trails. Fortunately, the Indians never attacked, though hunting parties of Senecas and Delawares often passed by. Captain Oldham sold the property in 1699. After a number of transfers, it was purchased by Captain John Risteau, High Sheriff of the county. The French and Indian War gave Risteau and the other settlers a few false alarms, but after that, the old fort, conveniently located on Risteau's plantation, close to his charming stone farmhouse, was converted to slave quarters, with a second floor added later in the 1700's. The farmhouse is still standing, among suburban split-levels.
The Revolutionary War
British strategy during the American Revolution concentrated on two theatres of operation, the New England colonies in the north and the Carolinas in the south. Thus, amid the desperate struggle, Maryland's towns and farms were spared from the fire and the sword.
News of the battles of Lexington and Concord reached Baltimore at 10 pm, April 27, 1775. On July 26, 1775, the Maryland Convention adopted the Articles of Association of the Freemen of Maryland, a sort of preliminary declaration of independence, and appointed a Council of Safety, which was in effect a revolutionary military government. Each county elected a Committee of Observation to enforce the orders of the Convention. These committees did not have the authority to inflict punishments, but they could bring people in for questioning. Tories fingered by the Committee of Observation lived in constant fear of vigilantes looking for someone to tar and feather. During this period, Loyalists began taking ship for England.
Meanwhile, military units began to form. Maryland is often called the “Old Line State.” The Old Maryland Line originally comprised two rifle companies raised in response to a resolution of the Continental Congress, June 14, 1775 ...