Barbara Fritchie House

This home now operates as a museum dedicated to Barbara Fritchie, the heroine of John Greenleaf Whittier's famous 1864 ballad who allegedly stood up to Confederate troops as they marched through Frederick.

Barbara Fritchie (1766-1862) was a 95-year-old widow who became an American folk legend when, according to poet John Greenleaf Whittier's 1864 ballad, she defiantly waved a Union flag from her upstairs window as Confederate General Stonewall Jackson's troops marched through Frederick on September 10, 1862. In the poem, she boldly declared: "Shoot, if you must, this old gray head, but spare your country's flag!"

The legend captivated wartime America, though historians have since questioned its accuracy. Spoilsport researchers point out that Jackson's column never actually passed her West Patrick Street home that day, and several neighbors reported the elderly Fritchie was bedridden during the Confederate occupation. The true heroine may have been Mary Quantrell, a 38-year-old mother of six who operated a girls' school nearby and whose confrontation with Confederate soldiers was witnessed by seven people. Regardless of historical truth, the poem brought Whittier national fame and the story became so iconic that in 1943, Winston Churchill -- who knew all 60 lines by memory -- insisted on stopping at the house during a trip through Frederick with President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Barbara Fritchie was no stranger to American history before her legendary moment. She was a close friend of Francis Scott Key, author of "The Star-Spangled Banner," and together they staged a memorial service in Frederick when George Washington died in December 1799. Her family had its own dramatic history: her father-in-law, John Caspar Fritchie, was executed for high treason in 1781 after being convicted of plotting to free British prisoners and join General Cornwallis in Virginia.

The original house was destroyed by a Carroll Creek flood in 1868 and demolished. The current structure is a three-quarter scale reproduction built by the Barbara Fritchie Society and dedicated on July 4, 1927, believed to incorporate the original 1820s foundation and floor. Today it operates as a historic guesthouse where visitors can stay overnight in the very rooms where Barbara's spirit is said to remain.

Paranormal activity has been reported since the house reopened as a museum. Perhaps most haunting is the impression of a woman discovered on Barbara's bed each morning, as if someone had lain there during the night. A rocking chair rocks by itself, and one staff member reported seeing a pair of disembodied feet visible beneath the quilt draped over it -- as though Barbara sat watching unseen. Lights flicker and turn on and off by themselves, both in the main house and in the basement of the adjacent Hauer House where Barbara grew up.

Standing outside the red brick home at the edge of Mullinix Park, visitors report Barbara's unwavering presence can still be felt through inexplicable flickering lights visible from the street. Ghost tour guides recount her most memorable afterlife antics: Barbara allegedly drops buckets of water onto unsuspecting passersby whose only crime is dressing in gray -- the color of the Confederate army she defied in life. The "Bravest of All in Frederick Town" continues to guard her home from invading rebels more than 160 years after her death, her patriotic spirit as fierce in the afterlife as the legend suggests it was in 1862.

Frederick County, known to many as the most haunted region in Maryland, witnessed three Confederate invasions and thirty-eight skirmishes during the Civil War. The Battles of Monocacy and South Mountain unfolded nearby, and Antietam -- the bloodiest single day in American military history with over 23,000 casualties -- occurred just 19 miles to the west. In a town steeped in Civil War suffering, Barbara Fritchie's ghost stands out as one who refused to surrender even in death.