The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1905-04-13
MarYIand's Bloody Frontier War With
Indians.
AN INTERESTING LOVE STORY
BraddOck's Famous rlarch Through
the Valley andi lncursion Which
Followed Indian Atrocities
Thomas and TIichael Cresap.

erlck, Washington county.
On one of the eastern foothills OF
the Allegheny Mountains, overlook
ing the Potomac river and about 80
miles west of Baltimore, stands old
Fort Frederick. 1t is an imposing
ruin still in fair state of preserva-
ton. The walls are of stone about
20 feet in height, or feet in thick.
ness at the base and feet at the top.
Across the fort from curtain to cur
tain the distance is about 5000 feet.
The inclosed space is several acres in
extent, including the large areas at
the bastiOns. The barracks and the
great oaken door have disappeared,
but the walls are in remarkably good
repair. Just north of the fort passes
the old National Turnpike road, which
in the olden time was the great artery
of communication between East and
West At the foot of the hill upon
which the fort stands is the Chesa-
peake and Ohio. Canal, begun by Pres
ident John Quincy Adams as a nation
al work July a, 1928, the same day
that Charles Carroll, of Carrollton,
laid the corner stone of the Baltimore
and Ohio Railroad. This canal is the
legal successor Of George Washing
tons Potomac Navigation Company,
which he designed as a commercial
chain to hold theI.territory west of
Allegheny Mountains to the Union.
Across thescanal and river few hun
dred yards away are the mountains
OF West Virginia Between the fort
and the canal is the Western Mary
land Railroad and across the river the
Baltimore and Ohio.
Fort Frederick was erected by the
Colonial government of Maryland in
the autumn of 115j to protect the col
onists from the Indian raids which
followed the defeat of General Brad
dock that year. 1t was then upon
the extreme western limit OF the
fringe of settlements which extended
along the Atlantic coasts ard which
extended along the Atlantic coast and
which at that time reached less than
100 miles from tide water. The lovely
Maryland valley which Fort Freder-
ick overlooks and for the immediate
protection of which it was erected
had received its first white settlers
not 20 years before. 1t was cut off
from the older portion of the Colony
by the Blue Ridge Mountains, but
when General Braddock marched
through great deal of land had been
granted TO settlers by Lord Baltimore
and colonsts were rapidly coming
This valley is one of the fairest pOr-
tions of the Union. 1t is the northern
extension of the Valley of Virginia.
1t extends across Maryland between
the North and South Mountains and
across Pennsylvania to Western New
York. The portion of this valley
which lies in Maryland, between the
Mason and Dixon line and the Poto-
mae river, is drained into the Poto-
mac by the Antietam and Conoco-
cheague creeks, and Hagerstown,
with some $4,000, population, is the
chief town.
Through this valley marched the
army of British regulars under Brad
dock in May, 1865. The brave but
conceited and hard-headed general
drove at their head in an old coach
which he had bought in Annapolis,
and swore profuselY as he bounded
and bounced over the limestone rocks
of a primitive trail in a country where
wheel vehicles were at that time al
most unknown. Braddock had been
detained at Frederick by lack OF
wagons to transport his baggage DR.
Benjamin Franklin had met him
there, had dineG with him, conferred
with him, had provided him with
wagons, becoming personally respon
sible to their owners for their safe re
turn and tor the liberal hire that was
exacted. He had, and this was the
main object of his visit, impressed up
on the mind of Braddock that how
ever derelict Maryland and Virgins
might be in responding to his de
mands, Pennsylvania was all tina
could be desired. The shrewd ole
philosopher had left Braddock will
settled doubts of the result of the
campaign.
Braddock's army crossed Souti
Mountain into the valley of the An
tietam (whst is now Washington
county, Maryland by the pas
through which the National pike wa
afterward made and where the battl
of South Mountain was fought il
1892, and passed near the northern
limits of the Antietam battlefield. A
Conocheague settlement, on the Poto
mac, at the mouth of Conococheagu
creek, this being the last frontier SET
Element of the Colony, great guam