Hammond House

Hammond House. Used by Both Sides. , The house you see, built by Dr. Allen C. Hamond in 1838, has survived Civil War and a 1978 fire. The 1860s conflict, however, brought irreparable personal loss to the Southern-sympathizing Hammonds. In October 1859, when Hammond's son George Newkirk "Kirk" Hammond (1833-1864), a Virginia Military Institute graduate, learned of John Brown's Raid on the Harpers Ferry armory he joined Capt. E.G. Alburtis' county militia., Alburtis' company marched to Harpers Ferry, freed some of Brown's hostages and forced the raiders to withdraw into the armory fire engine house (now called Brown's Fort). When the Civil War began, Hammond joined Col. J.E.B. Stuart's 1st Virginia Cavalry and became captain of Co. B, the Berkeley Troop. Both George and Stuart were mortally wounded at the Battle of Yellow Tavern on May 11, 1864., During the Antietam Campaign in 1862, Confederate Gen. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson's men camped here on September 11 after cutting the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad at North Mountain Depot north of Martinsburg to prevent surrounded Union forces at Harpers Ferry from escaping by rail. In July 1864, Confederate Gen. John McCausland began his cavalry raid into Pennsylvania from this house. He burned Chambersburg in retaliation for the Federal destruction of houses in the Shenandoah Valley., (Sidebar):, U.S. Rest Stop, Union troops also used this home. In December 1862, Lt. Richard G. Prendergast, 1st New York Cavalry, attacked a 7th Virginia Cavalry detachment nearby, wounding and capturing 13 of them. He reported, "Headquarters Cavalry Picket, Hammond's House, Va., .... I pursued them to the base of Bunker Hill, when ... I halted, and returned unpursued, by Martinsburg, here.", (Captions):, Capt. George Hammond's grave at Hollywood Cemetery, Richmond, Va., Capt. E.G. Alburtis' militia drive John Brown's Harpers Ferry raiders into the fire engine house. George Hammond was wounded during the action. Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, Nov. 5, 1859