Armed Combatants Waged a War of Graffiti
Mark Stroud photo, May 2012 (Graffiti Soldiers) During the Civil War, Landon House in Urbana, Frederick County, was occupied first by Confederate troops, then by Union troops, and on the house’s walls they waged a battle of graffiti. Writing about this episode in 1973, the house’s then-owner, Marion Stancioff, quotes at length from a 1910 volume, Regimental History of 155 th Pennsylvania Volunteers (Antietam to Appomattox) . I have broken up the long paragraphs for ease of online reading. Clearly, the young Pennsylvanians were delighted to bivouac in what had been a girls’ school. One of the rendezvous affording a night's shelte r for the broken down and foot-sore inexperienced soldiers was a Young Ladies' Seminary building rece n tly vacated. There were many rooms and dormitories in the building, also a fine orchard of ripe apples and peaches adjoining, and plenty of limpid water, all of which made it for a night’s lodging a most welcome discovery. All the rooms on the ...