Crossroads of History
Route 40 & 11 Cross At This Point
In the court house that stood on this site Confederate Gen. John McCausland was given $20,000 in cash and all of the suits, hats, shoes, boots, shirts and socks that could be found as ransom upon his threat to burn Hagerstown in July of 1864.
Over the old National Trail in front of this court house passed thousands of settlers on the way west by wagon, horse and foot in the first half of the 19th century before the building of railroads across the mountains.
The street to the west was once an Indian trail. The armies of the Union and Confederacy used it as the tide of the Civil War ebbed back and forth across the Potomac.
Marker is at the intersection of West Washington Street (U.S. 40) and Summit Street, on the right when traveling east on West Washington Street.
Courtesy hmdb.org
