Strategic Position

In 1861, during the early part of the Civil War, Union Gen. Benjamin F. Kelley established Camp Washington here on the Washington Bottom Farm to secure the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in this area. Located between Romney and Cumberland, Maryland, the site was close to the wire bridge over the South Branch of the Potomac River. Despite the large Federal presence here and elsewhere, Confederate raiders struck periodically along the lengthy rail line. Troops from both sides moved periodically through Romney, and Confederate forces occasionally occupied this campsite.

Confederate Lt. Col. Turner Ashby, 7th Virginia Cavalry, established his headquarters here early in the summer of 1861, after Federal forces temporarily withdrew. His younger brother, Richard Ashby, died here from wounds sustained in an engagement on Kelly's Island on the Potomac River on June 28. Turner Ashby took his brother's death hard, and his grief intensified his determination to fight. Almost a year later, on June 6, 1862, Turner Ashby was killed in action south of Harrisonburg, Virginia. His remains lie in Stonewall Cemetery in Winchester, Virginia. At first Richard Ashby was buried in Indian Mound Cemetery in Romney, but after the war his body was disinterred and re-buried beside his brother.

"Poor Dick went into the war like myself, not to regard himself or our friends, but to serve our country in this time of peril. ...His country has lost the services of a brave man with a strong arm, which he proved upon her enemies in losing his life. ...He was buried with all the honors of war, and never was greater respect paid to the memory of one man; it was indeed a triumph of his bravery. I had him buried in a beautiful cemetery in Romney." — Turner Ashby to his sister Dora, Camp Washington, July 7, 1861

(captions)
(top center) Gen. Benjamin F. Kelley; Gen. Turner Ashby Courtesy Library of Congress
(lower right) Civil War camp, 1861 - Courtesy Library of Congress

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