In 1861, during the early part of the Civil War, Union General Benjamin F. Kelley established Camp Washington on the Washington Bottom Farm to secure the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in this area. Located between Romney and Cumberland, Maryland, the site stood near the wire bridge over the South Branch of the Potomac River. Despite a large Federal presence here and elsewhere, Confederate raiders struck periodically along the lengthy rail line, and troops from both sides moved through Romney, with Confederate forces occasionally occupying this campsite. Early in the summer of 1861, after Federal forces temporarily withdrew, Confederate Lieutenant Colonel Turner Ashby of the 7th Virginia Cavalry established his headquarters here. His younger brother Richard Ashby died here from wounds sustained in an engagement on Kelly’s Island on the Potomac River on June 28. Turner Ashby took his brother’s death hard, and his grief intensified his determination to fight. Almost a year later, on June 6, 1862, Turner Ashby was killed in action south of Harrisonburg, Virginia. His remains lie in Stonewall Cemetery in Winchester, Virginia. Richard Ashby was first buried in Indian Mound Cemetery in Romney, but after the war his body was disinterred and reburied beside his brother.