Hospital No.1, located on the grounds of the old Hessian Barracks in Frederick, becomes the most innovative hospital in a vast hospital national network that coped with all the death and destruction during the Civil War.
Frederick suffers through every day of the War. After the Battle of Antietam (1862) it cares for more wounded than the town’s population. Advances at Hospital No.1 include eliminating hospital gangrene and using plastic surgery for disfiguring wounds.
Another major Civil War hospital is at Point Lookout in St. Mary’s County, now a state park.
In 2000 the National Museum of Civil War Medicine (NMCWM) opens in downtown Frederick, the first museum devoted entirely to the story of the medical challenges associated with the four years of conflict.
Alex Haley finds his roots
Alex Haley publishes a popular book, Roots, in 1967 and, with a TV Miniseries, creates a new national interest in enslavement in America. He launches the book from the Annapolis wharf where his ancestor Kunta Kinte was brought in chains 200 years ago.
