Point Lookout, MD – How about a war story? How about one very few people even know about? Let’s go back in time.
The American Civil War in the mid -19th century brought many changes to Southern Maryland, a slave holding territory whose sons and fathers shuffled across the Potomac River and fought under the command of none other than Stonewall Jackson, one of the most famous of the Confederate generals.
During the war, President Abraham Lincoln suspended the writ of habeas corpus and placed Southern Maryland under military occupation. Union soldiers placed encampments in Charles, Calvert and St. Mary’s counties.
The most notorious Union presence in Southern Maryland was that of Point Lookout Prison Camp for Confederates which began operation in 1863 at the site of a field hospital. Confederate soldiers captured at the Battle of Gettysburg were imprisoned there. Many local citizens–including the editor of The St. Mary’s Beacon in Leonardtown who wrote a scathing editorial about the Union occupation, calling Lincoln a despot–were imprisoned there as well.
In the war’s closing chapters, as rebel soldiers were deserting by the hundreds, the CSA was facing defeat when the famous Confederate General Robert E. Lee ordered General Bradley T. Johnson to attempt 
to fill the depleted ranks of the Confederacy by freeing Southern prisoners at Point Lookout. Lee first came up with the idea during the winter of 1863, but Johnson had to withdraw when the sudden movement of Union troops made the effort impossible.
Lee, undaunted, sent Johnson orders July 8, 1864, to initiate another attempt to free the Point Lookout prisoners. The attack was to be two-pronged. Johnson was ordered to first burn all of the railroad bridges and sever all lines of communication on Baltimore’s northern perimeter, which would disrupt telegraph service between the city and Washington, DC. Then he was to proceed to Point Lookout overland and attack, bolstered by a naval force scheduled to arrive from the south under the command of Col. John Taylor Wood in a coordinated effort.
The released prisoners were then to march to Bladensburg to join Gen. Jubal A. Early, who had been given his own orders to invade Washington.
In essence, it is doubtful if the plan had any real merit for the South. Many of the prisoners endured emaciation, malnutrition, malaria and any number of maladies from their captivity and whether any of them would have had the strength or stamina to march from the southernmost tip of St. Mary’s County to Bladensburg is unlikely.
The first part of the plan was carried off without a hitch. Johnson dutifully destroyed railroad bridges and cut telegraph lines between the two cities so effectively, the general later wrote that, “Mr. Abraham Lincoln did not know whether the United States had seceded or not.”
The second phase of Lee’s bold plan was shucked off the tracks before it ever got started. Details of the plan were published in Richmond Times Dispatch. The element of surprise was lost and the attack never came.
The whole scenario raised alert levels at the prison and for a brief period of time, the hopes of the prisoners. The planned attack prompted Union forces to undertake fortifications at Point Lookout and three forts were constructed on the northern perimeter of the prison camp, including Fort Lincoln, the remains of which can still be seen today.
At least 3,389 rebel prisoners are estimated to have died at Point Lookout Prison. Many of their names can be found of the marble obelisks marking their final resting place.
Contact Joseph Norris at joe.norris@thebaynet.com