Silver Spring Historical Society

July 11, 2026, is the 162nd anniversary of the depicted event that appeared in the August 6, 1864, Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper. Captioned, "The back of the Blair Mansion - rebels carousing near the garden vase. - From a sketch by our special artist, E. F. Mullen," the drunken carousing by Confederate soldiers took place near today's Acorn Park.

The park, located at East-West Highway and Newell Street, is all that remains of Silver Spring founder Francis Preston Blair's plantation, “Silver Spring.” The bivouacked troops where part of Gen. Jubal Early's forces who were engaged in the Battle of Fort Stevens in Washington, DC. They had broken into Blair's wine cellar and consumed the stock.

For additional information, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Fort_Stevens
https://www.nps.gov/cwdw/index.htm