McNeill's Cumberland Raid

McNeill's Rangers, led by Jesse McNeill, pulled off a daring raid in which they captured two Union generals in Cumberland, Maryland. Our class traveled to Cumberland to see where this took place. The town has changed since 1865, of course, and the hotels where the generals were taken prisoner are no longer there.

Below we see an old historical marker that was originally mounted on the former Revere Hotel. It was torn down in 1965 and the site is now a parking lot and fast food restaurant.

Capture of Generals B.F. Kelly and George Crook

— Nights, February 21–22, 1865 —

A company of Confederates, young men from Cumberland, Maryland, Hampshire and Hardy Counties, West Virginia, captured several picket posts, obtained the countersign “Bulls Gap,” rode into the city, captured two commanding Union Generals, Kelly and Crook, and Adj. General Thayer Melvin, and sent them to Richmond, Virginia, as prisoners of war, without firing a shot.

General Crook was captured in this building, then known as “Revere House.” Generals Kelly and Melvin were taken from the “Barnum House,” (now Windsor Hotel).

General Lew Wallace was stationed here, in command of a large body of Indiana Zouaves; also Brig. General Hayes, later President of the United States.

This most daring episode of the Civil War created a great sensation all over the country, as at the time several thousand Union troops were stationed in Cumberland.

(The Kenneweg Building—formerly old

Revere House—was located on

this site. Razed in 1964.)

Click to see a more recent interpretative sign for McNeill's Raid which was erected nearby.