Scotland in St. Mary's County, Maryland — The American Northeast (Mid-Atlantic)
"The Bean Pot"
The Government sold the buildings and contents of the military depot and POW camp at public auction on Jan 18th 1866. The newspaper ad stated the buildings would be sold separately and other items in lots to suite purchasers.
According to information passed down thru generations of the Fenhagen family who had possession of the iron cauldron you see inside the monument, this pot was used at the POW camp to prepare food for the prisoners.
They referred to it as “the bean pot”.
The pot would have been used in one of the nine cook houses in the POW camp. There are several references to the bean soup by former prisoners recorded in diaries and letters. Nineteen year old Major J.E. Paddison of the Battery Buchanan, C.S. Signal Corps, stated, “A cup of bean soup with one or two yankee beans floating in it was our breakfast.” Reverend Malachi Bowden, 2nd. GA. Inf., declared ”I have found our food to be a small cup of soup with a stray yankee bean in it here and there and a piece of fat pickled pork as large as your hand. This together with two or three cuts of loaf bread issued twice a day completed our menu”. Clark Lewis, Co. K, 22 VA. Inf. “Sometimes the meal would be corn bread and a cup of greasy soup with hardly any meat in it. The soup always seemed to give us scours. Right after eating it you headed for the larine like clockwork.”
The Fenhagen family used the pot for numerous purposes. Surviving family members state that in the early 1900’s Harry Fenhagen (1878-1851) used the pot to render lard. Mrs. Shirley Fenhagen McKay (1936-) remembers her grandmother stirring the fat for hours to prevent it from burning and sticking to the pot. Harry passed the caldron to his son Loubertus Fenhagen (1903-1984). Loubertus used the pot to heat tar for coating pound nets used to trap fish in the area tidal waters.
Upon his death, the pot was kept and preserved by his daughters until donating it to CMP for display. Plaque and Bean Pot gift of the Fenhagen family of Scotland Maryland
Topics. This historical marker is listed in this topic list: War, US Civil. A significant historical month for this entry is June 1954.
Location. 38° 4.404′ N, 76° 20.424′ W. Marker is in Scotland, Maryland, in St. Mary's County. Marker is on Maryland Route 5. The memorial is located in Confederate Memorial Park. Touch for map. Marker is in this post office area: Scotland MD 20687, United States of America. Touch for directions.
Other nearby markers. At least 8 other markers are within 2 miles of this marker, measured as the crow flies. Point Lookout Prison (a few steps from this marker); Point Lookout Prisoner-of-War Camp (a few steps from this marker); Maryland and the Confederacy (a few steps from this marker); Point Lookout Prison Camp (within shouting distance of this marker); Point Lookout Confederate Cemetery (about 500 feet away, measured in a direct line); a different marker also named Point Lookout Confederate Cemetery (about 500 feet away); a different marker also named Point Lookout Confederate Cemetery (about 600 feet away); Storm Blocks the Route to Freedom (approx. 1.6 miles away). Touch for a list and map of all markers in Scotland.
Credits. This page was last revised on June 16, 2016. It was originally submitted on October 13, 2012, by Don Morfe of Baltimore, Maryland. This page has been viewed 600 times since then and 17 times this year. Photos: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. submitted on October 13, 2012, by Don Morfe of Baltimore, Maryland. • Craig Swain was the editor who published this page.