Harry Gilmor Harry W . Gilmor ( January 24 , 1838 – March 4 , 1883 ) served as Baltimore City Police Commissioner in the 1870s , but he was most noted as a Confederate cavalry officer during the American Civil War . Gilmor ' s daring raids , such as The Magnolia Station Raid gained his partisan s fame as " Gilmor ' s Raiders " . Early life . Gilmor was born at " Glen Ellen " , the family estate in Baltimore County , Maryland . He was the son of Robert Gilmor and Miss Ellen Ward , daughter of Judge William H . Ward . Harry was the fifth of eleven children . Civil War . During the American Civil War , as a member of Captain Charles Ridgely ' s Baltimore County Horse Guards , Gilmor was arrested and imprisoned in Fort McHenry following the occupation of Baltimore by Federal troops . Upon his release , he traveled South and eventually rejoined the fighting serving , for a while , under General Turner Ashby . He was again captured during the Maryland Campaign and spent five months in prison . During the Gettysburg Campaign , Major Gilmor was assigned command of the First Maryland Cavalry and Second Maryland Cavalry , supporting Brig . Gen . George Steuart ' s infantry brigade . Gilmor was the provost marshal of the town of Gettysburg while it was occupied by the Confederates July 1 – 4 . The Magnolia Station Raid . After the Battle of Monocacy on July 9 , 1864 , Colonel Gilmor ' s command , along with Brig . Gen . Bradley T . Johnson ' s infantry , made a series of raids around Baltimore going as far east as Magnolia Station in Harford County , Maryland and Fork , Maryland . On July 10 , 1864 , Major Harry Gilmor of the 2nd Maryland Cavalry was given 135 men of the 1st and 2nd Maryland , and directed to cross Baltimore County into Harford County at Jerusalem Mill , and destroy the railroad bridge of the Philadelphia , Wilmington , and Baltimore Railroad at Magnolia Station , northeast of the city . ( Today , the location is just off I - 95 near Joppa . ) Early on the morning of July 11 , Gilmor ' s cavalrymen reached the station and proceeded to wreck two trains , one northbound and one southbound . After evacuating the passengers and looting the cars , the troopers set fire to one of the trains and backed it over the trestle , thus partially destroying the bridge . Aboard the northbound train was an unexpected prize — convalescing Union Maj . Gen . William B . Franklin . This raid was regarded as one of the most daring by detached cavalry on either side . Later on July 11 , Gilmore ' s advance group passed the home of Ishmael Day on Sunshine Avenue in Fork . Day , a Union sympathizer , had hung a large Union flag to greet Gilmor ' s troops . Confederate color bearer and Ordnance Sergeant Eugene Fields , a member of the advance guard unit , told Day to take the flag down . Day refused , an argument followed , and Day shot Field at close range with a shotgun . Gilmor ' s men burned Day ' s home and Day immediately fled , hiding under a cider press for days until the passing troops were gone . Gilmor accompanied Field to Wright ' s Hotel ( operated by W . O . B . Wright on Harford Road ) , where the sergeant died . Later raids . Gilmor was eventually ordered to take his command to Hardy County , West Virginia , and attack the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad . There , he was captured on February 4 , 1865 , and was held as a prisoner of war at Fort Warren in Boston Harbor until July 24 , 1865 . Postbellum life . After the war , Gilmor moved to New Orleans , where he married Miss Mentoria Nixon Strong , daughter of Jasper Strong and Eliza Julia Nixon . Gilmor and his wife had three children . Gilmor wrote his war memoirs , entitled " Four Years in the Saddle " ( New York , Harper & Bros . , 1866 ) . He soon returned to Maryland and was elected a colonel of the cavalry in the Maryland National Guard . He also served as the Baltimore City Police Commissioner from 1874 to 1879 . Gilmor died in Baltimore , plagued by complications from a war injury to his jaw . He was buried in Loudon Park Cemetery in an area now known as " Confederate Hill . " At his death , Baltimore police stations flew their flags at half - staff . Gilmor ' s funeral was a large local event with many dignitaries present to honor this war hero .