Point of Rocks

At Point of Rocks, formerly Trammelstown, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad reached the banks of the Potomac River from Baltimore along a narrow strip of bottomland that provided passage beyond the Blue Ridge’s Catoctin and South Mountain ranges. Decades earlier, this strip had been the subject of a court fight when the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal and the railroad both sought to use it. During the Civil War, the rail line here became an important means of supply and communication. In May 1861, Col. Thomas J. Jackson, later Gen. “Stonewall” Jackson, persuaded the railroad to consolidate its coal shipments during a specific time period, then captured 56 locomotives and more than 300 rail cars by halting all train traffic east of Point of Rocks. In 1864, Confederate Lt. Col. John S. Mosby attacked the Union garrison here in what became known as the “Calico Raid” or the “Crinoline Raid.” Throughout the war, pro-Union families living in Loudoun County, Va., crossed the river here to shop.

Point of Rocks, Maryland · United States