Oakland Manor

Oakland Manor. Story of Two Sides. , During the war, the Oakland farm was home to participants on each side. George R. Gaither, a prosperous Baltimore merchant, purchased the property including the house (completed 1811) in 1838. His son, George R. Gaither; Jr, served as captain of a local militia unit, the Howard Dragoons (mounted infantrymen). Most of the Dragoons were local landed gentry and slave owners. They trained here to learn the intricate movements of mounted combat and sometimes staged parades for the public., After the Baltimore Riot of April 19, 1861, the Howard Dragoons helped keep the peace there, but Gaither and most of his men decided to join the Confederate army. In May they rode to Leesburg, Virginia. The unit was periodically reassigned as Co. K, 1st Virginia Cavalry; Co. M, 1st Maryland Cavalry; and Co. K, 2nd Maryland Cavalry. Gaither was captured at Manassas Junction on August 27, 1862, and exchanged. He resigned in 1863, suffering from hemorrhoids, a common affliction among cavalrymen. On July 15, 1865, he signed the oath of allegiance., Brothers Moses, William, and Joseph Shipley were slaves who labored here and on neighboring farms. In 1863, they enlisted in the 9th U.S. Colored Troops (LTSCT), a regiment recruited in Maryland. William Shipley was killed at Deep Bottom near Richmond, Virginia, in August 1864. Moses Shipley survived the war. Joseph Shipley survived but suffered, like many thousands of veterans, from what is today called post-traumatic stress disorder. Increasingly confused and disoriented, he sometimes marched and shouted about the war in public. Family members committed him to successive mental institutions from late in the 1860s until his death in 1928., (captions) , USCT recruiting broadside - Courtesy Duke University Library , Oath of Allegiance, George R Gaither Jr. - Courtesy Library of Congress