Point Lookout State Park

Point Lookout State Park. Hammond General Hospital. Hammond General Hospital, opened at Point Lookout, Maryland, in August 1862, was named for Surgeon General William A. Hammond. The massive structure, built to accommodate 1,400 amen, was set on piles about two to three feet above ground and covered nearly all the area between the Potomac River and the Chesapeake Bay. It was well over 500 feet in diameter and had 16 wings, each 175 by 25 feet, radiating out from an open central area like the spokes of a giant wheel. One wing contained the hospital offices, and the others were wards. A covered circular walkway connected all the wings at the center. Within the central hub stood four buildings measuring 77 Feet by 25 feet: the chapel, half-diet kitchen, library and reading room, and baggage room. An elevated 20,000-gallon water tank, l6 feet in diameter and 30 feet, high, occupied the center of the hub when completed in late spring 1863. Its purpose was to flood the hospital in the event of fire. The hospital officially closed its doors in August 1865, and all the structures were soon sold, demolished, or auctioned. , (sidebar) Before the Civil War, Point Lookout was a popular waterfront recreation community. Supporting a hotel, wharf, and outbuildings, about one hundred cottages dotted the low, flat, sandy tip of land. Recreation became less important, however, as the country prepared for war. North of here, about a mile, was located the nation’s largest Confederate prisoner-of-war encampment. Camp Hoffman had more than 52,000 Confederate prisoners pass through its gate.