Monocacy National Battlefield Foundation

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Monocacy National Battlefield Foundation The official 501(c)3 charitable nonprofit partner of the Monocacy National Battlefield.

The Monocacy National Battlefield Foundation works with the National Park Service to preserve and enhance the historic value and natural beauty of the Monocacy National Battlefield and its environment.

October is National Arts and Humanities Month, which is a collective recognition of the importance of culture in America...
10/05/2026

October is National Arts and Humanities Month, which is a collective recognition of the importance of culture in America. October also happens to be Alfred Waud's birth month, one of the greatest sketch artists of the Civil War.

In 1861, Waud joined the Army of the Potomac as a special artist for New York Illustrated News and Harper's Weekly. Two of Waud's drawings from the Civil War include the B&O Railroad Bridge shown crossing the Monocacy River near the Monocacy Junction.

The illustration from 1863 entitled “Monocacy R.R. Bridge” provides a unique look at a moment in history of the reconstructed bridge following Jackson’s 1862 assault on the Monocacy Junction during the Antietam Campaign. Published in Harpers Weekly, August 15, 1863, p.521, as part of: Reminiscences of the Maryland Campaign. Library Of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA. LC-DIG-ppmsca-21619.

The second illustration, “Destruction of the R.R. bridge, over the Monocacy River near Frederick, Md”, created published on 1864 [July 9], depicts a scene of “the damage caused by the Confederate raid.” Library Of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA. LC-DIG-ppmsca-20951.

The Foundation gifted a museum quality artifact of a US Civil War 138th Pennsylvania Volunteers Medal w/ 6th Corps Badge...
10/03/2026

The Foundation gifted a museum quality artifact of a US Civil War 138th Pennsylvania Volunteers Medal w/ 6th Corps Badge & Emblems to the Monocacy National Battlefield on Thursday, October 1, 2026. At this time, no further information regarding the artifact is available. The artifact is in the museum archives of the Monocacy National Battlefield at the visitor center.

The regiment was initially held in reserve upon arriving via the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad at Monocacy Junction. They were subsequently committed to action on the far left of Brigadier General James B. Ricketts’s Sixth Corps division line, extending toward the skirmish line near Araby Church Road. They faced intense Confederate infantry attacks alongside other Union forces, lacking heavy cover other than standard fence lines and rolling terrain as the Union troops were forced back later in the afternoon. Their service on the battlefield is honored alongside the 67th and 87th Pennsylvania regiments at the Pennsylvania Monument, located on the east side of Araby Church Road.

September marks International Underground Railroad Month.Frederick County is home to two National Underground Railroad N...
09/25/2026

September marks International Underground Railroad Month.

Frederick County is home to two National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom sites - Catoctin Furnace and the Best Farm/L'Hermitage at Monocacy National Battlefield.

The images from the Best Farm capture the land and some of the buildings worked by the enslaved at L’Hermitage located at Tour Stop 1.

Roll up your sleeves for National Public Lands Day this Saturday!Join Monocacy National Battlefield for a volunteer clea...
09/22/2026

Roll up your sleeves for National Public Lands Day this Saturday!

Join Monocacy National Battlefield for a volunteer cleanup day. Bring your family, friends, and a pair of work gloves to lend a hand in preserving the grounds of the battlefield.

🇺🇸 Be part of the effort. Volunteer. Make a difference.

Today in 1862, President Abraham Lincoln and his Cabinet discussed a preliminary version of what would become the Emanci...
09/22/2026

Today in 1862, President Abraham Lincoln and his Cabinet discussed a preliminary version of what would become the Emancipation Proclamation. Four months later, on January 1, 1863, Lincoln issued the final proclamation, declaring enslaved people in areas still in rebellion against the United States to be free. The proclamation marked a significant transformation in the Union’s war aims, making the destruction of slavery an explicit objective of the war.

09/16/2026

We're back and better! The African American Civil War Museum warmly welcomes you to our reopening. New space and new exhibitions like you've never seen. Join us in our journey from the slave ship to the Civil War to the ballot box. The countdown starts now!

AfricanAmericanHistory

We are set up and ready for “In the Streets” 2026 here on Main Street in downtown Frederick. It’s only 9:21 AM and the e...
09/12/2026

We are set up and ready for “In the Streets” 2026 here on Main Street in downtown Frederick. It’s only 9:21 AM and the events have started. Come join the action with us.

During the First World War many soldiers suffered hysteria type of reactions that were called Shell Shock. Shell shock r...
09/10/2026

During the First World War many soldiers suffered hysteria type of reactions that were called Shell Shock. Shell shock resulted from psychological trauma experienced on the battlefield. Decisive discussions and descriptions of shell shock and hysteria laid the foundation for the modern notions of dissociation and PTSD.

Freud observed neuroses caused by the trauma of war. During the First World War, military physicians were faced with soldiers suffering from psychotrauma with often unheard of clinical signs and there was a new surge of interest in hysteria. The shell-shock experience helped to break down the distinction between the sane and the insane. Freud treated several soldiers who returned from the WW1 and understood the ill effect of combat trauma on human psyche. For instance his Hungarian patient Anton von Freund, a soldier of Dardanelles.

In 1918 at the Fifth International Psycho-Analytical Congress that was held in Budapest, Freud read a paper on The Psycho-Analysis of War Neuroses. War neuroses can be addressed as an early model of traumatic stress disorder, such as acute stress disorder or post-traumatic stress disorder. Just before and after the end of World War I, he took on an activist role and in his writings and speeches, redirected the concept of war trauma from individual failure to a larger issue of community responsibility.

Danto, E.A.(2016).Trauma and the state with Sigmund Freud as witness.Int J Law Psychiatry. ;48:50-56.

By the time Union and Confederate soldiers met at Monocacy on July 9, 1864, military medicine had undergone generations ...
09/09/2026

By the time Union and Confederate soldiers met at Monocacy on July 9, 1864, military medicine had undergone generations of change. The development of professional military medical education in Europe during the late 18th and early 19th centuries reflected a growing realization that armies needed physicians and surgeons specifically prepared to care for the wounded of war.

In 1785, Emperor Joseph II established the Medical-Surgical Military Academy (the Josephinum) in Vienna to address severe shortcomings in the medical care of the imperial army. For instance, field surgeons, who had hitherto only acquired very basic techniques, would henceforth also be trained in surgery.

In order to provide students with the best possible education, learning aids such as wax models (made of white bees wax), medical instruments and a specialist library were provided. The special wax models of human body parts that were produced in Florence for this purpose were intended to provide practical preparation for future anatomical and obstetric procedures. Joseph II commissioned 1,192 such models, with a total value of 30,000 gulden.

These models allowed aspiring army field doctors and surgeons to minutely study the human body's nervous, muscular, and vascular systems, preparing them directly for complex surgeries.

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