Perryville

Perryville. War Brings Drastic Changes. , On April 18-19, 1861, a week after the bombardment of Fort Sumter in Charleston, S.C., Confederate sympathizers attacked U.S. Army forces en route to Washington in Baltimore, 35 miles southwest of here., On the second day, shots were fired and soldiers died. Telegraph service was cut off. Railroad bridges south of the Susquehanna River were burned, and Washington was in danger of isolation in Confederate territory. In response, Cecil County Unionists guarded the rail lines, hoisting U.S. flags along the way, and Fort Dare was quickly established in Perryville. The town and port became vitally important to the survival of the U.S. government almost overnight., Perryville, a town with few residents, three shops, two inns, and a post office, quickly became a Federal staging area. The army turned the train depot into soldiers' barracks, the ticket office into a military headquarters, and the storage houses into supply centers. The small town of Perryville had turned into a churning wartime nerve center., An April 28 New York Times article declared, "Places are like people. Some are great by natural advantage. Some achieve greatness by the aid of capitalists. And others have greatness thrust upon them. The present site of Camp Dare (Perryville) belongs to the latter category. … This makes Perryville … a center of notoriety.", The article's author also reported that the village was known for "the finest shad that the known world produces … and with them the soldiers have made an early and familiar acquaintance.", [Captions:] , The U.S. Army commandeered the steamer Maryland in the spring of 1861. The steamer transported supplies and soldiers north and south., Railroad map, 19th century, showing lines through Cecil County and Perryville, through Harford and Baltimore Counties to Baltimore City