Tragedy Along the Potomac: Alcohol Fueled a Deadly Interaction Between a Union Soldier and a Maryland Teenager on July 21, 1861

Follow this link to hear Civil War Times Editor Dana B. Shoaf discuss the tragic murder of a Maryland teenager by a New Hampshire soldier on July 21, 1861, the same day the First Battle of Manassas raged in Virginia. The fascinating but sad event was only recently discovered when Shoaf chanced upon affidavits written the day of the event by a soldier and other civilians who witnessed the slaying not far from the Potomac River. To top it off, Shoaf found the slain civilian’s grave in an abandoned cemetery. Walt Whitman famously said, “The real war will never get into the books.” Well, in this case, it did.