Military
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In the predawn darkness of February 21, 1865, Confederate Lt. Jesse McNeill and his partisan rangers rode into Cumberland from the west on this road to capture Union Gens. Benjamin F. Kelley, who commanded the troops guarding the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, and George Crook. McNeill's men overpowered two guard units and deceived others by claiming to be scouts from New Creek, then seized Kelley at the Barnum Hotel and Crook at the Revere House. After taking the two generals prisoner, the rangers left town by way of Baltimore Street, turned onto the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal towpath, and crossed the Potomac River into West Virginia at Wiley's Ford. The daring raid stunned Federal officials, who quickly arranged a prisoner exchange for the two generals.
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Cumberland, Maryland · United States
