The Magnolia Station Raid
After the Battle of Monocacy on July 9, 1864, Colonel Gilmor's command, along with Brig. Gen. Bradley T. Johnson's infantry, made a series of raids around Baltimore going as far east as Magnolia Station in Harford County, Maryland and Fork, Maryland. On July 10, 1864 Major Harry Gilmor of the 2nd Maryland Cavalry was given 135 men of the 1st and 2nd Maryland, and directed to cross Baltimore County into Harford County at Jerusalem Mill, and destroy the railroad bridge of the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad at Magnolia Station, northeast of the city. Early on the morning of July 11, Gilmor's cavalrymen reached Magnolia Station, located just off present-day I-95 near Joppa. There they proceeded to wreck two trains, one northbound and one southbound. After first evacuating the passengers and looting the cars, the troopers set fire to one of the trains and backed it over the trestle, thus partially destroying the bridge. To further sweeten the pot, aboard the northbound train was an unexpected prize—convalescing Union Maj. Gen. William B. Franklin. This raid was always regarded as one of the most daring ever attempted by detached cavalry on either side during the war.
Later in the day on July 11, 1864, Gilmore's advance group were passing the home of Ishmael Day on Sunshine Avenue in Fork, Maryland. Day was a Union sympathizer, and knowing Gilmor's troops were passing through, hung a large Union flag across the road. In the advance guard unit, Confederate color bearer and Ordnance Sergeant Eugene Fields told Day to take the flag down. After Day refused, an argument followed and Ishmael Day shot Sgt. Field at close range with a shotgun. Gilmor's men burned Day's home and Day immediately fled, cowering under a cider press for days until the passing troops were gone. The mortally wounded Sgt. Field was taken, accompanied by Gilmor, to Wright's Hotel operated by W.O.B. Wright on Harford Road, where Field later died.
Read more about this topic: Harry Gilmor
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