The Road to the Battle of Gettysburg Passed Through Frederick County

You can't fully understand the Battle of Gettysburg without spending time in Frederick County, Maryland during your visit.

That might sound like a bold claim - but follow the Civil War Trails Gettysburg Campaign markers through our historic towns, green hills, and lush valleys, and you'll see exactly what we mean.

This network of interpreted stops traces the marching routes of both Union and Confederate armies as they converged on that fateful Pennsylvania crossroads in late June 1863. Many of those routes run through Frederick County - across covered bridges and passing family-owned farms, through communities that watched history march by their front doors in that fateful summer.

Jump to:

• The Road to Gettysburg
• A Night of Pandemonium in Downtown Frederick
• Sleep Where History Happened
• The Medical Cost of Gettysburg and the Civil War

Loy's Station Covered Bridge - Union soldiers crossed here on their march north to Gettysburg in June 1863

The Road to Gettysburg

The Civil War Trails Gettysburg Campaign takes you to places more visitors to Gettysburg need to experience. At the historic village of Catoctin Furnace, an iron-making operation that supplied the Union war effort, workers watched thousands of Union soldiers march past their doors. The trail winds through Emmitsburg and by the stunning National Shrine of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton. During the Gettysburg Campaign, the grounds served as a camp for the United States Army and the Daughters of Charity served as nurses in the aftermath of the battle.

Joseph Hooker (left) and George Meade (right) 

Then there's Prospect Hall, the palatial mansion on Frederick's outskirts where one of the most consequential command decisions of the Civil War took place. On June 28, 1863 - just three days before the battle began - General Joseph Hooker was relieved of command of the Army of the Potomac. His replacement, General George Meade, would lead that army to victory at Gettysburg.

Where to learn more:

Follow the Civil War Trails Gettysburg Campaign markers as they wind across Frederick County's historic covered bridges and past local vineyards. Pick up a trail map at the Visit Frederick Visitor Center at 151 S. East Street in Downtown Frederick or use our online Civil War Trails guide to Frederick County.

A Night of Pandemonium in Downtown Frederick

The Union’s Army of the Potomac marched through Downtown Frederick on its way north to Gettysburg - and on the night of June 30, 1863, the eve of the battle, things got out of hand.

Union soldiers gathered on North Market Street in Frederick, Maryland in 1862

Journalist Whitelaw Reid was there that night and captured the scene in a letter written right here in Downtown Frederick:

"Frederick is Pandemonium. Somebody has blundered frightfully; the town is full of stragglers, and the liquor-shops are in full blast. Just under my window scores of drunken soldiers are making night hideous... The worst elements of a great army are here in their worst condition; its cowards, its thieves, its sneaks, its bullying vagabonds, all inflamed with whiskey, and drunk as well with their freedom from accustomed restraint."

Frederick County was famous for its rye whiskey. The soldiers had found it. The following day, July 1, 1863, the sound of guns to the north could be heard as the Battle of Gettysburg began. The stragglers marched north, feeling a little worse-for-wear after their rowdy evening in Frederick.

Where to learn more Explore Downtown Frederick's historic district today - locally owned restaurants and shops, craft breweries, distilleries, and a winery occupy buildings that stood on these same streets that night in 1863. Just promise to be more responsible than the Union Army was on June 30, 1863.

Sleep Where History Happened 

You can do more than visit these sites - you can stay in buildings that witnessed the Gettysburg Campaign firsthand. The Forgeman's House at Catoctin Furnace is a beautifully preserved 19th-century property right on the route of the US Army's march to Gettysburg in June 1863. Stay the night and learn more about the historic village at the Museum of the Ironworker across the street. 

Springfield Manor is just south of Catoctin Furnace and offers historic rooms overlooking the marching routes to and from Gettysburg.

The Forgeman House in Catoctin Furnace - Union soldiers marched outside on their way toward Gettysburg 

In Downtown Frederick, the Visitation Hotel occupies a historic building in the heart of the district that soldiers passed on their march north. It also served as a hospital in the fall of 1862 after the Battle of Antietam.

Visitation Hotel was once home to a Catholic girls' school and a convent during the Civil War

Waking up where history happened changes how you experience it.

The Medical Cost of Gettysburg and the Civil War

No visit to this region is complete without time at the National Museum of Civil War Medicine in Downtown Frederick. Here you'll encounter the staggering human cost of Gettysburg - and discover how the catastrophe of that battle forever transformed American medicine.

The Hessian Barracks served as US General Hospital #1 during the Civil War and treated wounded from Antietam, Gettysburg, and Monocacy. Today, one of the two buildings remains on the grounds of the Maryland School for the Deaf

The stories of the doctors and nurses who worked under those conditions, and the personal accounts of the wounded, hit differently after an experience at Gettysburg National Military Park or following the Civil War Trails route.

Where to learn more: The National Museum of Civil War Medicine is located at 48 East Patrick Street in Downtown Frederick. Plan your visit here.

The events that unfolded across Frederick County in the summer of 1863 are inseparable from the story of Gettysburg.

Come find that history here - on the trails, in the historic buildings, and in the streets where the United States Army spent one very memorable night before marching into one of the most important battles ever fought on American soil.

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