Casualties of War

During the last months of the Civil War, two Union deserters were executed on Bolivar Heights, where military discipline for desertion seldom resulted in execution. William Loge, convicted of being a deserter, bushwhacker, murderer and assassin, was hanged near this spot on December 2, 1864, exactly five years after abolitionist John Brown's hanging in nearby Charles Town. Three months later, on March 3, 1865, deserter Thomas Murphy of the 6th U.S. Cavalry died here before a firing squad. A temporary burial ground with primitive wooden markers also grew as sickness spread through the camps, and most soldiers who died on Bolivar Heights succumbed to dysentery, typhoid, or yellow fever. After the war ended in April 1865, soldiers returned home, Union remains were moved to the National Cemetery in Winchester, Virginia, and only shallow remnants of the once-formidable fortifications remained on Bolivar Heights.

Lovettsville, Maryland · United States