The Rebels MacGill

A local doctor and father of 11, Charles MacGill (1806-1881) was a co-founder of the Hagerstown Herald and was a major general in the Maryland Militia.

On September 30, 1861, Union troops came to his home to arrest him "on the authority of the Secretary of State". Believing it a violation of his Constitutional rights, he pushed two Federal soldiers down the first steps of his home and his daughter attacked the soldiers with a buggy whip. A scuffle ensued in which his son was wounded by a saber cut to the neck.

MacGill was sent as a political prisoner to Fort Warren in Boston. There he befriended Confederate Major (later Brigadier General) Hiram Granbury, and arranged to have Granbury's young cancer-stricken wife transported to Hagerstown. In July, 1863, he opened a hospital for sick and wounded Confederate soldiers that arrived in the Gettysburg Campaign. He left with the Confederate army and served in the Confederate Medical Corps through the end of the War.

Four of his sons also served in the Confederate army: William, James and Davidge served as privates in Company C, of the 1st Maryland Cavalry. His son Charles G.W. (1833-1907) was commissioned surgeon of the 2nd Virginia Infantry Regiment (Stonewall Brigade). MacGill returned to Hagerstown after the War, but then moved to Richmond, Virginia



to be nearer some of his children. The younger Dr. MacGill settled in Catonsville, outside Baltimore. James MacGill (1844-1923) settled in Virginia where he married Lucy Lee Hill; daughter of General A.P. Hill. He became a prominent leader in the Virginia organization of the United Confederate Veterans.

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Show me all markers in:  Hagerstown, MD  |  Washington County  |  21740  |  Maryland  |  United States of America

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