The C&O Canal runs alongside the Potomac River. The river was a dividing line between the Union and the Confederacy during the Civil War. The canal was strategically important to both sides. Union forces protected the canal and used it for transportation purposes, moving troops, coal, and war supplies. Confederates tried to damage both the canal and boat traffic. It became the subject of many raids by confederate cavalrymen such as Jeb Stuart and John Mosby.
Canal mules were taken for the war efforts of both the North and the South. Both sides used the towpath as a road when war came into the state of Maryland. The people who worked on the C&O Canal were divided by the war. Boatmen joined both sides and fought against former friends and neighbors. Several campaigns were fought on or near the canal. Throughout this page you will learn the different ways the C&O Canal was impacted by the Civil War.
Excerpt from the Western Maryland Historical Library on the C&O Canal and the Civil War
"The Chesapeake & Ohio Canal played a role in the Civil War as a boundary and route of transportation by the Federal Government. The canal at the beginning of the war was still used as a transportation route of flour and other staples from Western Maryland and Southern Pennsylvania to Washington, D.C. However, after the hostilities began the flour trade, which had started to shift to rail transportation instead of canal, left the canal permanently because of the unpredictability of open transportation because of raids by confederates on the canal. As the battle front moved south into Virginia the canal resumed trade and became one of the main sources of Maryland coal transportation to Washington, D. C. This coal was used to power boat navigation, textile mills, and iron furnaces that would fuel the war effort. The C&O Canal was also used as a transportation route for both the Federal and Confederate armies. Confederate Raiders would use the towpath as a highway on their forays across the Potomac River into Maryland to disrupt the transportation of supplies, by both canal and rail, to Washington."
Historical illustration shows troops passing under the Canal at Hancock. Sketch by Theodore R. Davis, Harper's Weekly.
Photo courtesy of the Hancock Museum
Passing under the canal to the ford
Excerpt below from the Western Maryland's Historical Library about the historical illustration.
This image from Harper's Weekly November 8, 1862 shows troops passing under the Canal at Hancock. The description reads:
Hancock, an exceedingly picturesque town of 4000 inhabitants, situated on this side of the Potomac, is now the theatre of considerable military, activity, being occupied by a portion of the right wing of the Army of the Potomac...
The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal is on this side of the river, and the sketch represents a regiment passing through a culvert under the canal on their way to the ford.
More on the Civil War and the C&O Canal
Check out these resources to learn even more about the C&O Canal during the Civil War. Visit the links below for articles, things to do to, and places to visit to see Civil War historical sites today.
The C&O Canal Trust (or Canal Trust) has amazing articles about the Civil War. Checkout the links below to learn more about how the C&O Canal survived the Civil War.
About the C&O Canal Trust
Founded in 2007, the C&O Canal Trust is the official non-profit partner of the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal National Historical Park. Our mission is to work in partnership with the National Park Service to protect, restore, and promote the C&O Canal. The Trust engages communities and individuals to realize the Park’s historical, natural, and recreational potential.
Point of Rocks has been an important crossroads of travel since American Indians established routes through the region. Though quieter these days, the area was bustling with commerce between the 1830s and 1930s. During the Civil War, Point of Rocks found itself in the middle of a battleground, and the village today is a staging point to explore this history.
During the Civil War, troops from both sides frequently crossed the River and the Towpath. Troops traded volleys across the water, skirmished in and near Point of Rocks, and Confederates attacked canal boats and trains, destroyed locks, and raided supply stores. Both the C&O Canal Company and the B&O Railroad reached Point of Rocks by 1832.
Bike Through History
Visit this webpage for a curated guide to bike or visit areas around Point of Rocks to learn more about the Civil War history in the area.
During the 1863 Gettysburg Campaign, the Confederates cut four roads through the canal to pass the southern army, tore out the four corners of the Conococheague Aqueduct, and burned the gates and dislodged two rows of stone at Lock 44.
Battles, skirmishes, and other war-related events impacted the entire C&O Canal and its engineering structures. The Herald of Freedom and Torch Light published an article describing a skirmish at Dam 5.
Photo courtesy of the Western Maryland's Historical Library
Skirmish at Dam 5
Read a transcript of the article below.
THE SKIRMISH AT DAM NO. 5.—
It has been pretty certainly ascertained from persons on the Virginia side of the river that in the late skirmish at Dam No. 5. although there were but a few men firing from this side, the rebels suffered severely, sustaining a loss of five killed and nine wounded. They also left behind them a cannon and about seventy dollars worth of axes, shovels, picks crowbars, and other implements with which they intended to destroy the dam, and which, with the exception of the cannon, were brought over the river on Monday by persons who ventured across for the purpose. About four hundred shot and shell were fired by the rebels, and it is now believed that the Dam has been so weakened by their depredations upon it as to be incapable, unless at once repaired, of withstanding any unusual rise in the river. A few dollars expended upon it now might obviate the necessity of spending a great many thousand next spring.
On Wednesday, Capt. RUSSELL with his Cavalry crossed the river at the Dam, and scoured the country on the opposite side from that point to Williamsport, but did not meet any of the enemy's marauders.
The illustration is of troops going upstream to join General Banks' command.
Courtesy of the New York State Library
Troops going up to join General Banks' command
Exercpt below describes the historical illustration (left).
This illustration entitled SCENE ON THE CHESAPEAKE AND OHIO CANAL. TROOPS GOING UP TO JOIN GEN. BANKS' COMMAND was published in the New-York Illustrated News in November of 1861. Right after that the title is the phrase "Sketched by our special artist". The caption also directs the reader to page 26 for the text.
Although both the caption and the text refer to their "special artist," the artist is not named. It is suggested that there is a "Tho Nast" written in the lower left hand corner.
The Civil War letters of Private Roland E. Bowen, 15th Massachusetts Infantry, 1861-1864, published as From Ball's Bluff to Gettysburg ... and Beyond, describe an incident that this sketch may be depicting. Bowen recalls pickets in the Edward's Ferry region being called out in the middle of the night on a false alarm. The alarm was caused by Colonel Samuel Leonard's 13th Massachusetts Infantry coming down the canal from Harpers Ferry in "5 or 6 Canal boats" [p. 21].
The illustration is of troops going upstream. It is possible that the scene depicts the Harpers Ferry/Sandy Hook/Maryland Heights region.
