Monument City » Old Town

Wells & McComas Monument (Baltimore, MD)

admin — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 16:53:07 +0000

Location

E Monument Street & N Aisquith Street (Street View)

GPS: 39° 17′ 52.66″ N 76° 36′ 6.84″ W

History

Daniel Wells and Henry McComas were apprentice saddle makers in Charm City during the War of 1812. By 1814, the teenagers were part of Captain Edward Aisquith’s Militia Rifle Company, preparing for an eventual English attack. After successfully sacking Washington DC, including the White House, The British decided to swing by Baltimore in hopes of eliminating the pirates and privateers stationed in the notorious port. General Robert Ross was in command of the invading land troops that approached the town’s western boundaries in September of 1814. Ross had a military background spanning 30 years and had served in the Napoleonic Wars. As the Aisquith Company positioned itself on the North Point Peninsula, an area fortified a year earlier in fear of an impending British invasion, General Ross, noticing the American positions, found refuge on the local farm of Robert Gorsuch. Here he had breakfast cooked for him while waiting for the rest of his army to arrive. Brigadier General John Stricker, in charge of the 3,000 plus soldiers advancing the British land assault, ordered a group of 230 men with one cannon to flush General Ross out of the Gorsuch farm. Wells and McComas were a part of this small brigade, their defining moment arriving swiftly. Riding on a white horse (or a black horse, depending on the source), General Ross was shot in the battle, mortally wounded by the American Militia. Daniel Wells and Henry G. McComas have been given equal credit for the historical deed, each sacrificing their life in the progress. Another American soldier was shot at the scene, 24 year-old Aquilla Randall, credited with being the first United States fatality of the Battle of North Point, was found near the bodies Wells and McComas, all three had fired their weapons.

Noted local poet and Baltimore historian Christopher T. George has shed light on the possibility a sniper, and not Wells and McComas, killed General Ross at the Battle of North Point. As a reference George cites a passage in the book The British Invasion of Maryland, 1812-1815 by William Matthew Marine. The volume contains a conversation between an American, Henry Wilson, and an English gentleman claiming to have been General Ross’s aide de campe at the Battle of North Point. The British soldier reports that Ross’s mortal wound was “caused by a musket ball and a buck-shot”, his testimony running counter to the notion the wound was caused by musket ball only. The Independent Blues militia of the 5th Regiment used this modified method, loading ‘buck and ball‘, for their weapons. George also wrote that: “the unit’s commander, Capt. Aaron R. Levering [of Independent Blues], is alleged to have seen an officer ride up at the head of the enemy line. He is deported to have ordered his men, ‘Take good aim, there’s an officer.’ The militiamen saw the British officer fall from his horse and from the description of his uniform it was thought that it was Ross.”

Notes

In 1854, a committee gathered with the notion of erecting a monument to Wells and McComas. On September 10, 1858, after securing and investing the funds for the project, the bodies of the teen militiamen were exhumed and placed in the Maryland Institute. Thousands of people visited the coffins during the three days leading up to September 12th, the anniversary of the Battle of North Point, when the official cornerstone for the memorial was laid. On that day, the bodies of Wells and McComas were paraded to Ashland Square, the site of internment, and placed below the obelisk’s foundation in ceremonial fashion. The 21-foot monument was finally completed in 1873 and is made of Baltimore County marble. The Obelisk portion, resting on a two-step granite pedestal is comprised of two large pieces of marble, weighing 14 and 8 tons respectively.

Nearby

Fallsway Fountain

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Mayor Ferdinand Claiborne Latrobe Monument (Baltimore, MD)

admin — Mon, 25 May 2009 21:15:07 +0000

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Location

N Broadway & E Baltimore Street (Street View)

GPS: 39° 17′ 30.13″ N 76° 35′ 37.96″ W

History

Dedicated on June 1, 1914 and rededicated on June 11, 1997, this monument to Ferdinand Claiborne Latrobe is by artists Edward Berge and J. Maxwell Miller. Baltimore-born Ferdinand Latrobe (1833-1911) served seven non-consecutive terms as mayor of Baltimore, between 1875-1877, 1878-1881, 1883-1885, 1887-1889, and finally again in 1891-1895. Along with Thomas D’Alesandro, Sam Smith and William Donald Schaefer, Latrobe is one of four Baltimore mayors who have been immortalized in outdoor monumental form. Clayton Colman Hall writes in his book, Baltimore, “To write a personal history of General Ferdinand Claiborne Latrobe is in effect to write the history of the most important events concerning the growth and improvement of the city of Baltimore for more than half a century.” Responsible for a slew of civic works and improvement projects, Colman explains that “It is not flattery to say that he was acknowledged to be the most prominent and popular citizen of Baltimore, and in his private as well as in his official capacity did more for the advancement and improvement of the city of Baltimore than any other one man.” Latrobe also was responsible for the re-organization of the Maryland militia under the Act of 1868, which he authored. Ferdinand Latrobe was the son of John Hazelhurst Boneval Latrobe and grandson of Benjamin Henry Latrobe, figures of no small import in Baltimore, as well as national, history. Latrobe is quoted as having said, in 1894, about the first incarnation of the Baltimore Orioles baseball team, “We have always had the most beautiful women and the finest oysters in the world, and now we have the best baseball club.” Latrobe is also known to have been an avid breeder of Chesapeake Bay Retrievers.

Notes

Latrobe’s memorial stands at the southern-most end of a row of monuments which stretches north along Broadway, next in line being Thomas Wildey, and Jose Marti. A few short blocks to the east is the western entrance of Patterson Park, in which resides several other city monuments.

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Jose Marti Memorial Bust (Baltimore, MD)

admin — Thu, 07 May 2009 21:35:52 +0000

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Location

N Broadway & E Fayette Street (Street View)

GPS: 39° 17′ 39.00″ N 76° 35′ 38.40″ W

History

Like another monumental figure in the Baltimore landscape, Simon Bolivar, José Julián Martí Pérez (1853-1895) was a pivotal figure in opposition to Spanish control of Central and South America. Marti, however, is a hero to the island nation of Cuba, claimed equally by all political factions. He is considered to be the “Apostle of Cuban Independence” and was a revolutionary patriot writer of great reknown, whose writings helped galvanize support for the unsuccessful 1895 colonial rebellion in Cuba. Baltimore’s memorial bust of Jose Marti was dedicated in 1998, under sponsorship by neighboring Latin American communities. Around the pedestal upon which the Marti bust rests are soil samples from 21 Latin American countries, Tampa & Key West (FL) and New York City.

Notes

Though not a career soldier himself, Marti was so passionately dedicated to the cause of Cuban Independence that he died fighting for it on the front-lines during the Battle of Dos Ríos. New York City’s Central Park boasts an equestrian monument to Marti, which is atypical of such memorials, depicting Marti at the moment of his death. A 358 foot tower and monument to Marti adorns the Plaza de la Revolución in Havana and was often used by Castro to address audiences of nearly a million. In 1999, a hand-picked Cuban baseball team defeated the Baltimore Orioles 12-6, while hundreds of anti-Castro protestors gathered at Marti’s bust in opposition.

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