If you’re anything like me, you’ve spent the last couple of weeks preparing to completely reinvent yourself in the New Year; complete with a new wardrobe, a revived gym membership, or a reading list of those books you’ll definitely get to this year. But sometimes rebuilding from the ground up isn’t fancy planners and pre-made salads. Dentonians found this out the hard way when a fire leveled Denton’s entire commercial district on the evening of July 4th, 1865. But was this blaze an accidental consequence of carelessness, or was it a manifestation of the tensions concentrated in Caroline County during the Civil War years?
In my opinion, most wars are not over until long after the last shot is fired. But as far as conventional wisdom goes, the Civil War ended in April, 1865, after four bloody years of fighting. In true Eastern Shore fashion, the population was uniquely divided on the issues of slavery and the need for a Civil War in general. Maryland, while a slaveholding state below the Mason-Dixon line, did not secede from the Union. But the state government didn’t willingly endorse the Union’s military operations either. Civilian Confederate sympathizers violently attacked Union Army regiments moving through Baltimore at the beginning of the war. And according to the personal diaries of some slaveholders, once politically passive individuals on the Eastern Shore became extremely vocal about their protest of the War and anti-slavery rhetoric. This caused President Lincoln’s administration to be wary of eventually losing Maryland to the Confederates– which would be a strategic nightmare considering Washington D.C. would then be enveloped by a Confederate Maryland and Confederate Virginia.
One day I’ll dedicate more time to the context of Caroline Countians’ feelings about the debacle, but today is not that day. All you need to know for our purposes is that in response to the impossible threat of D.C. being surrounded by rebel states, Union troops occupied pretty much the entirety of Maryland at the direction of the federal government to ensure we remained Union. To say that many residents of Caroline County were unimpressed with the Union Army’s presence would be an understatement. Some, including a Federalsburg man by the name of Nathan J. Corkran, actively participated in the rampant illegal smuggling of stolen resources to the Confederates in Virginia via the Chesapeake Bay’s waterways. In August of 1862 a slew of Caroline Countians with Confederate leanings were arrested and jailed at Fort McHenry in Baltimore for treason– which while technically justified by American law, didn’t really help to quell the locals’ opposition.
One of the regiments sent to keep an eye on Caroline County baracked in the Tuckahoe Neck Quaker Meeting House which still stands on Meeting House Road in Denton, a stone’s throw away from the commercial district. So why is all this relevant to the fire of 1865? Because it was these Union soldiers who were eventually blamed for the calamity.
Picture it: the deadliest war in American history has just ended, the United States comes out on top, the Eastern Shore can finally start to heal its fractured communities, and it’s the 4th of July– a pretty big celebration is to be expected. The Cecil Whig boasted that 3,000 “loyalists” (Unionists) gathered in Downtown Denton and had a “proud time.” Unfortunately, the evening ended in tragedy as a catastrophic fire spread throughout Denton.
Pretty much the only unquestionable fact about this event is that it was started by a firework– called a “rocket” or “fire ball” by differing newspaper reports. Fun fact: fireworks were already a July 4th staple before the actual July 4th even happened. Founding father and second President of the United States John Adams wrote to his wife Abigail on July 3rd, 1776 that he thought “illuminations” (early fireworks) ought to commemorate the events of the day that was to follow “for ever more.” Anyways, the type of firework used this fateful night on July 4th, 1865 was a makeshift “ball of wrapping thread saturated with ethereal oil” which was lit on fire and thrown in the air. (What could possibly go wrong with that?)
As a result of the great fire, the town of Denton was completely devastated. The townspeople held a meeting on the following day, during which they appointed D. Blockson, G.M. Russum, C.E. Tarr, and Miss H. Bonwill to travel to large Nothern cities and beg for funds to rebuild. The New York Times even ran an advertisement requesting personal donations after Mr. Russum contacted Rev. A. Manship, a Dentonian living in New York City. The Times wrote “The entire business portion of the town was burned… Not a store, shop or hotel was left; and many families left totally destitute.” In order to garner sympathy from these former Union strongholds, those dispatched to acrew donations had to sell the story of a fantastic July 4th celebration gone wrong, and dissipate any mention of the County’s Confederate presence. This is evident in the language of the Times report. The damage was estimated to be around $50,000 as of immediate reports, this amount would today be upwards of a million dollars, and very little of those whose businesses or homes were affected had insurance. To make matters worse, newspapers reported that thousands of dollars worth of materials recovered from the burning buildings were then stolen in the chaos.
The mystery remains as to the question of personal responsibility. The Denton newspaper Union reported that it was started by “some careless person” throwing the fireball into the window of T.T. Martin’s saloon. The saloon was closed that day in honor of the July 4th festivities. The Baltimore Sun, reprinting information provided by the Denton Journal on July 10th, elaborates that the fireball was thrown into the attic window of the establishment. Despite it being reported that the town of Denton considered the fire to be caused by “incendiarism” (arson), no suspect was named. Rather, an entire group took the fall: the Union Army soldiers holed up at the Meeting House.
Current State and County websites claim that the fire of 1865 was started by Union soldiers. While my search did not (yet) turn up any primary sources which make this claim, it is written in the 1920 book The History of Caroline County, From its Beginnings. I could give you about 15 reasons that this book is not a truly reliable source, but this seems to be the earliest mention of the fire being the work of mischievous Union soldiers.
So was it really their fault? Maybe. I would venture to say these soldiers didn’t want to be in Denton any more than the people of Denton wanted them there. And if you’re going to commit arson, doing it with a dangerous but generally accepted mode of political celebration like fireworks on one of the most exciting events of the year would be the way to do it. I don’t happen to think balls of burning thread just fall into attic windows, but I wasn’t there, so I’m obligated to say it could have been an accident or perhaps a prank gone wrong.
Either way, many Dentonians had to begin anew– coincidentally at a time when the entire country was struggling to pull themselves out of the ashes of the Civil War. So if 2024 was a really bad year for you, remember that at least you aren’t living in Denton circa 1865. And if they could rebuild, you can too– just maybe don’t go blaming old enemies for all your woes.