Blackistone Lighthouse

Blackistone Lighthouse. Saved by Keeper's Pregnant Wife. , During the night of May 19, 1864, Confederate Navy Capt. John Goldsmith and a dozen men slipped past a nearby Union Potomac Flotilla gunboat and disembarked here from the 30-foot sloop Swan. They intended to destroy the Blackistone lighthouse, which projected through the roof of the lightkeeper's living quarters. Goldsmith, a St. Mary's County resident and former owner of St. Clement's Island, was also a former neighbor of lighthouse keeper Jerome McWilliams and his pregnant wife, Fanny. McWilliams persuaded Goldsmith that burned the house and light would be detrimental to his wife's health and the unborn child. Goldsmith and his crew left the building intact, destroying just the lens and lamp, and taking 15 gallons of oil. While waiting for replacement equipment, Keeper McWilliams used a handheld lamp to light the tower each night., In his report of the incident, Potomac Flotilla Commander Foxhall A. Parker wrote, "I am of the opinion that while there are so many rebel sympathizers in Maryland and on the eastern shore of Virginia none of the light-houses there located are safe without a guard on shore to protect them." Federal troops were soon stationed on St. Clement's Island, Piney Point Lighthouse, and the lightship off Smith's Point., Years later, when Mrs. Josephine McWilliams Freeman (the McWilliams' granddaughter) served as lightkeeper, she often recounted this story to visitors, using pieces of broken lens glass to illustrate it. She was appointed keeper in 1876 and served for 37 years. She is one of only 49 women to ever serve as a lightkeeper in the United States.