Point Lookout Civil War Light Keeper

By Carl L. Sell Jr. · Originally published April 2016 · p. 22

Point Lookout Civil War Light Keeper By Carl L. Sell Jr. SCOTLAND, Md. — In recent years, many people who have lived in or visited the keeper’s quarters at the Point Lookout Light swear they heard movements and voices from long ago. Imagine if you could hear the spirit of Pamelia Edwards, the keeper during the Civil War. She could tell of the rapid buildup of first a large Union hospital in 1862 and then an even larger prison camp the following year just north of the lighthouse. Then, she could tell of their quick destruction soon after the war ended 150 years ago. Thereafter, nothing was left except the lighthouse and one small building. Edwards served as lighthouse keeper from April 7, 1855, until she apparently was replaced on June 4, 1869, by the new administration of President Ulysses S. Grant. Her father, Richard Edwards, had been appointed keeper in April 1853. He died three months later and his daughter, Martha, assumed the duties after a replacement nominee had withdrawn. Two years later, Martha apparently got married and passed the torch, so to speak, to her sister, Pamelia. The 1860 census listed Permelia (sic) Edwards, 44, as the lighthouse keeper and her brother, Elkanah, 23, as the assistant keeper. The Point Lookout lighthouse was built to warn ships of nearby shoals and mark the location where the Potomac River meets the Chesapeake Bay. The government bought the land for $1,150 and awarded a contract worth $3,350 for the construction. It took a little over five years from the approval of the project until the opening of the lighthouse on Sept. 30, 1830. Before the war Point Lookout had been a popular summer resort with a hotel and cottages. Pamelia Edwards kept the light burning as a beacon for the ships delivering supplies, wounded and prisoners or passing by on their way to the huge Union port at City Point on the James River. In 1862, the federal government leased land near the lighthouse to build a hospital Union wounded. Hammond Hospital, named for the new Surgeon General of the United

States, William Alexander Hammond, opened on Aug. 17, 1862. It was built like the spokes of a wheel and initially included room for a small number of prisoners, mostly residents of the area accused of aiding the Confederacy. After Gettysburg, a large prison was created north of the hospital, capable of handling 10,000 Confederates. By December 1863 9,000 captives were living in old army tents in what a representative of the Federal Sanitary Commission described as deplorable conditions. When completed, the prison and the hospital consisted of 50 buildings, including the lighthouse. More than 4,000 prisoners died there before the war ended. Because of a fire in 1921 that destroyed records, little is known about Pamelia’s 14 years as the lighthouse keeper at Point Lookout. There apparently was an incident on Jan. 6, 1862, involving “certain acts savoring of disloyalty on the part of the keeper reported.” Edwards no doubt was exonerated, as her term continued. Other later entries show her ordering supplies and repairs. After the war, the prisoners were paroled and released, the hospital was closed and the property abandoned. Plans were advanced for a mass grave and monument for those who died at the prison. Bodies were reinterred at the site and names were engraved on the monument. Some areas returned to a resort with the opening of the large hotel that stood on the site until it burned in 1878. The lighthouse remained in operation and underwent numerous changes, including the installation of a turbine powered by a windmill to provide electricity for the light, the first of its kind in the continental United States. Previously, the light was an open lamp fueled by whale oil that was reflected by the use of lenses. The property was transferred to the Coast Guard in 1939. The light went out after 135 years on Jan. 11, 1966. Today, the lighthouse sits on the southernmost water’s edge of Point Lookout State Park and is owned by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. In the 1970s, the lighthouse became a rental property and strange sounds and voices began to be heard. Several séances produced stories of footsteps, singing, talking and other noises that were attributed to the keepers’ spirits. Some of the voices were said to be female, including one singing “Living in the Lighthouse.” Pamelia Edwards remains a mystery. Although records of All Faith Episcopal Church in Charlotte Hall list her as being buried at the church, her gravesite is unknown. Her date of death is listed as March 28, 1893, at age 76. The Point Lookout Lighthouse Preservation Society was formed in 2006 to assist in restoring the facility. Donations to support the society can be sent to PO Box 135, Saint Leonard, MD 20685. The Descendants of Point Lookout POW Organization owns a threeacre Confederate Memorial Park next to Point Lookout Confederate Cemetery, which is a National Cemetery. The lighthouse is open once a month from April to November.