Sherman-Fisher-Shellman House

Confederate General Bradley T. Johnson and Colonel Harry Gilmor made this house their headquarters for a few hours in July 1864 during their raid through Maryland.

Gen. Bradley Johnson and Col. Harry Gilmor spent a few hours in the house during their raid through Maryland in July 1864. The house was built by Jacob Sherman in 1807 and later inhabited by the Shellman family for eighty years. Mary Bostwick Shellman, who lived in the house as a girl, recalled:

“Soldiers often passed through Westminster during the remaining months of the war but it was not until the summer of 1864 that the Cavalry force, under the command of Genl. Bradley J. Johnson and Major Harry Gilmore made their famous raid extending to the very doors of Baltimore, that we were again visited by the Rebels.  Our house was made headquarters during their brief stay, they only remaining a few hours.”

Earlier, in 1863, a fourteen-year-old Shellman had another, perhaps more intimate encounter with a Confederate General. She and other children were out in the streets watching General J.E.B. Stuart and his cavalry ride by, and unable to contain herself, she yelled out ‘Johnny Reb’ at Stuart. Her derision did not fall upon deaf ears.

“Gen. J.E.B. Stuart, noting my antagonism, amidst the pronounced joy of my companions, had shown me unusual courtesy and called me his little captive, and given me the much wished for kiss, and therefore, I was an object of envy and under the ban.”