Sykesville

Sykesville. Joe Hooker's Close Call. In late June 1863, Gen. J.E.B. Stuart's Confederate cavalry pounded through this area on a raid while, to the west, Gen. Robert E. Lee and the main body of the Army of Northern Virginia marched northward. Before dawn on June 29, several former area residents guided Stuart's column north from Cooksville. At Old Frederick Road (present-day State Rte. 99) the force divided, and elements range east to Sykesville and Marriottsville., Gen. Fitzhugh Lee's brigade continued north on Washington Road to Hood's Mill and occupied the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad there, cutting telegraph lines to disrupt communications between Frederick and Washington. Stuart soon learned that Gen. Joseph Hooker has been relieved of command of the Army of the Potomac the day before at Frederick and might return to Washington on a special train about 10:30 A.M. that day., The Confederates burned a small wooden bridge over Piney Branch about half a mile east of Hood's Mill and tore up several sections of tracks to stop the train and capture the Union General. An alert engineer on an earlier train spotted them, however, and backed up to Frederick to warn Hooker, thereby thwarting the scheme., (captions) , This 1860s tintype shows the Sykes Hotel that stood on the bank of the Patapsco River. The railroad tracks and telegraph lines in the foreground continued across the river into Howard County. A Patapsco River flood in 1868 destroyed the Sykes Hotel. Courtesy Sykesville Gate House Museum of History , Sykesville - Courtesy Historical Society of Carroll County , Cutting telegraph wire , Gen. Fitzhugh Lee , Gen. Joseph Hooker