Staging Ground

In November 1861, a force of about 4,500 United States officers, soldiers, cavalrymen, and artillerists assembled in and around Snow Hill. Some of the troops camped here on the Worcester County Courthouse yard. Gen. Henry H. Lockwood commanded the expedition, which marched south through the Eastern Shore to Accomack and Northampton Counties in Virginia via the Pocomoke River as a show of Union strength on the Eastern Shore. Lockwood's orders were to reassure the civilian population, restore lighthouses to working order, and to disarm and disperse any Confederates that his command encountered.

???When Lockwood began marching south on November 14, his force included a diverse collection of units, including detachments of the 4th and 14th Wisconsin Infantry, 2nd Indiana Infantry, 1st Michigan Infantry, 2nd Delaware Infantry, 1st Eastern Shore Maryland Home Guard, Capt. Ormand F. Nims's Boston Battery (six brass rifled field pieces), Capt. Thomas S. Richard's Company of Independent Cavalry (later Co. M. 1st Pennsylvania Cavalry), Col. William H. Purnell's Legion, and 500 of Dury?e's Zouaves (Col. Abram Dury?e's 5th New York Infantry). The expedition followed the Pocomoke River to Newtown (present day Pocomoke City) and then marched overland to Drummondtown in Virginia. Lockwood encountered small numbers of Confederate troops and rudimentary defenses at Newtown and also in Virginia at Temperanceville and Drummondtown. The Confederates fled, and many of them threw their weapons aside as they escaped. Lockwood, along with his family, occupied the Drummondtown house of Dr. Peter F. Brown, who had fled across the Chesapeake Bay. The expedition was considered successful and ended on November 22.

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Snow Hill Town
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