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Chronicling America
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Newspaper Hammond Gazette (Point Lookout, Md.) 1862-1864

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About Hammond Gazette (Point Lookout, Md.) 1862-1864

The Hammond Gazette was a weekly newspaper published between 1862 and 1864 for the staff and patients at the Hammond General Hospital, a Civil War military facility at Point Lookout, Maryland. Located on the extreme tip of a peninsula formed where the Potomac River joins the Chesapeake Bay, Point Lookout had a lighthouse and resort hotel with a steamboat landing prior to the war. Its remote, easily defended location and access via steamboat to the eastern military theater made Point Lookout an attractive location for a hospital. The medical facility was established in 1862 and named for Surgeon General William A. Hammond. Images of the hospital show a distinctive circular spoked design of 16 separate ward buildings housing 1,400 beds attached to a central administrative hub. The complex also had a dining building, chapel, library, staff housing, and associated support structures. It treated wounded soldiers from both sides of the conflict. The hospital closed after the cessation of hostilities in the summer of 1865.

The Hammond Gazette filled the demand for news among those confined at the isolated location of the hospital. Out-of-town newspapers were available in limited quantities, but the Gazette met a need similar to the regimental and military camp newspapers produced on mobile presses that flourished during the Civil War. The founding publisher was Charley Greer, but through much of its short life, the Gazette was published by George Everett. Captain Everett, a solder for the Union, was the white commander of Company D of the 38th United States Colored Troops (USCT) stationed at Point Lookout. In addition to the Gazette, Everett published a color lithograph of the hospital and prison camp in 1864 that preserves a birds-eye view of the installation.

The paper contained poetry, humor, news from the war and other current events, local news (including new arrivals at the adjacent prisoner of war camp), and lists of officers and patients in the hospital. Surviving letters from hospital patients indicate that they sent clippings from the Gazette to their friends and family to better describe conditions at Point Lookout.

The situation for the patients and staff at the Hammond General Hospital took a dramatic turn in the summer of 1863 when Union authorities selected Point Lookout for a prisoner of war camp. In the aftermath of the Battle of Gettysburg, officials scrambled to find places for the thousands of captured prisoners. Over time, the prison camp at Point Lookout housed a maximum population of 20,000—the largest on either side in the war. Surviving letters and diaries of captured Confederates paint a grim picture of living conditions. The poorly housed prisoners faced mosquito infestations in summer and harsh exposure in winter. They also sorely resented the decision, which they saw as punitive, to assign black soldiers from USCT regiments as guards. One Confederate prisoner, John Jacob Omenhausser of Virginia, recorded camp life in a series of watercolor illustrations he sold to his captors and fellow prisoners as souvenirs.

Provided By: University of Maryland, College Park, MD

About this Newspaper

Title

  • Hammond Gazette (Point Lookout, Md.) 1862-1864

Dates of Publication

  • 1862-1864

Created / Published

  • Point Lookout, Md. : Charley Greer & Co.

Headings

  • -  Point Lookout (Md.)--Newspapers
  • -  Maryland--Point Lookout
  • -  United States--Maryland--Saint Mary's--Point Lookout

Genre

  • Newspapers

Notes

  • -  Weekly
  • -  Vol. 1, no. 1 (Nov. 17, 1862)-
  • -  Ceased in 1864?
  • -  "For the benefit of the sick and wounded in Hammond General Hospital."

Medium

  • volumes

Library of Congress Control Number

  • sn82002197

OCLC Number

  • 8254980

ISSN Number

  • 2832-7233

Additional Metadata Formats

Availability

Rights & Access

The Library of Congress believes that the newspapers in Chronicling America are in the public domain or have no known copyright restrictions. Newspapers published in the United States more than 95 years ago are in the public domain in their entirety. Any newspapers in Chronicling America that were published less than 95 years ago are also believed to be in the public domain, but may contain some copyrighted third party materials. Researchers using newspapers published less than 95 years ago should be alert for modern content (for example, registered and renewed for copyright and published with notice) that may be copyrighted. Responsibility for making an independent legal assessment of an item and securing any necessary permissions ultimately rests with persons desiring to use the item.

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Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

Hammond Gazette Point Lookout, Md. -1864. (Point Lookout, MD), Jan. 1 1862. https://aj.sunback.homes/item/sn82002197/.

APA citation style:

(1862, January 1) Hammond Gazette Point Lookout, Md. -1864. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://aj.sunback.homes/item/sn82002197/.

MLA citation style:

Hammond Gazette Point Lookout, Md. -1864. (Point Lookout, MD) 1 Jan. 1862. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, aj.sunback.homes/item/sn82002197/.