Doubleday Hill

Doubleday Hill was the site of an early Union battery that was established at Williamsport, Maryland on a hill that overlooked a prominent ford on the Potomac River.

Capt. Abner Doubleday, a West Point graduate, commanded a battery at Fort Sumter and fired the first Union reply to the Confederate bombardment. Assigned to Maj. Gen. Robert Patterson’s Department of Pennsylvania, on June 18, 1861Doubleday brought a three-gun “heavy battery” to Williamsport, consisting of artillery pieces that fired twenty- and thirty-pound projectiles. He established his battery on a hill that overlooked a prominent ford over the Potomac River, which became known as “Battery Hill” or “Doubleday Hill.” The battery helped protect Patterson’s army when it crossed the river on July 2 and engaged Confederate forces in the Battle of Falling Waters.

Owned by the town of Williamsport, in 1897 three iron cannon were placed on the hill, and a flag pole was later installed, to commemorate the site’s importance. In 2012 the town of Williamsport received a grant to, in part, restore Doubleday Hill to its appearance in 1861.