Because they were situated near the Mason-Dixon line, Shepherdstown
residents witnessed the realities of the Civil War firsthand. Marching
armies, sounds of battle and fear of war had arrived on their doorsteps
by the summer of 1862. The Maryland Campaign of September 1862 brought
thousands of wounded Confederates into the town's homes, churches and
warehouses. The story of Shepherdstown's transformation into one vast
hospital recounts nightmarish scenes of Confederate soldiers under the
caring hands of an army of surgeons and civilians. Author Kevin R.
Pawlak retraces the horrific accounts of Shepherdstown as a Civil War
hospital town.