Editing Barbara Fritchie

{{For|the play based on this historical character|Barbara Frietchie}}
{{short description|American patriot during the American Civil War}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=June 2018}}
{{Infobox person
| name          = Barbara Fritchie
| image         = Barbara Frietchie "'Strike if you will, this old gray head. But spare your Country's Flag,' she said" - - M.B. Brady & Co., National Photographic Portrait Galleries, No. 352 Pennsylvania LCCN2017660636 (cropped).jpg
| image_size    = 
| caption       = Fritchie in 1862
| birth_date    = December 3, 1766
| birth_place   = Lancaster, Pennsylvania
| death_date    = December 18, 1862
| death_place   = Frederick, Maryland
| known_for     = Becoming a Unionist folk hero during the Civil War
| spouse        = John Casper Fritchie (m. 1806)
| signature     = 
| religion      = 
}}
'''Barbara Fritchie''' (née '''Hauer'''; December 3, 1766&nbsp;– December 18, 1862), also known as '''Barbara Frietchie''', and sometimes spelled '''Frietschie''',<ref>{{cite journal| last1=Quynn| first1=Dorothy Mackay| first2=William Rogers| last2=Quynn| title=Barbara Frietschie| url=https://archive.org/details/msa_sc_5881_1_147/mode/2up| journal=Maryland Historical Magazine| location=Baltimore| publisher=Maryland Historical Society| date=September 1942| pages=227-254| volume=XXXVII| issue=3| access-date=January 24, 2025}}</ref> was a [[Union (American Civil War)|Unionist]] during the [[American Civil War|Civil War]]. She became part of American folklore in part from a popular poem by [[John Greenleaf Whittier]].

==Early life==
Fritchie was born Barbara Hauer in [[Lancaster, Pennsylvania]]. On May 6, 1806, she married John Casper Fritchie, a glove maker.  Her father-in-law, John Caspar Fritchie, was one of seven British loyalists convicted of high treason against the United States in Frederick, Maryland, in June 1781, based on a plot to free British prisoners in Frederick and join with General Cornwallis in Virginia.  All seven were convicted and sentenced to be hung, drawn, and quartered.  Four of the defendants were pardoned, but Fritchie and two of his co-conspirators were executed two months later (whether to the full extent of the sentence or simply by hanging being unclear).<ref>{{cite web |last=Travis |date=2019-02-05 |title=“You shall be carried to the gaol of Fredericktown” (Part 2) |url=https://emergingrevolutionarywar.org/2019/02/05/you-shall-be-carried-to-the-gaol-of-fredericktown-part-2/ |access-date=2024-06-02 |website=Emerging Revolutionary War Era |language=en}}</ref>

==Career==
[[File:Barbara Fritchie Monument - panoramio.jpg|thumb|right|Memorial to Fritchie at Mount Olivet Cemetery]]
She became famous as the heroine of the 1863 poem "Barbara Frietchie" by [[John Greenleaf Whittier]] in which she pleads with an occupying [[Confederate Army|Confederate]] general, "Shoot if you must this old gray head, but spare your country's flag."

Three months after this alleged incident, Frietchie died. She was buried alongside her husband, who died in 1849, in the German Reformed Cemetery in [[Frederick, Maryland]]. Later, in 1914, her remains were moved to [[Mount Olivet Cemetery (Frederick)|Mount Olivet Cemetery]] and a memorial was erected there in her honor.<ref name=Quynn674>{{cite encyclopedia| last1=Quynn| first1=William R.| title=Frietschie, Barbara Hauer| encyclopedia=Notable American Women, 1607–1950: A Biographical Dictionary| editor-first=Edward T.| editor-last=James| location=Cambridge, Massachusetts| publisher=The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press| year=1974| volume=1| page=673| isbn=978-0-6746-2731-4}}</ref>

===Poem===
[[File:Barbara Fritchie 1766-1862 in US Civil War.jpg|thumb|upright=1.1|Fritchie waves the flag in an 1867 engraving]]
Whittier's poem was published in the October 1863 edition of ''[[The Atlantic|The Atlantic Monthly]]''.<ref name=Quynn674/> The poem brought him strong national attention at a time when the magazine's elite northern audience was seeking emotional resonance in response to the Civil War.<ref>{{cite book| last=Kilcup| first=Karen L.| title=Who Killed American Poetry? From National Obsession to Elite Possession| location=Ann Arbor, MI| publisher=University of Michigan Press| date=October 25, 2019| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0Qy1DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA6&dq=Who+Killed+American+Poetry?+From+National+Obsession+to+Elite+Possession&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj105qY8I-LAxW97skDHWhoFQUQ6AF6BAgGEAM#v=onepage&q&f=false| page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=0Qy1DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA6&dq=Who+Killed+American+Poetry?+From+National+Obsession+to+Elite+Possession&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj105qY8I-LAxW97skDHWhoFQUQ6AF6BAgGEAM#v=onepage&q&f=false 155–56]| isbn=978-0-472-13155-6}}</ref> No firsthand account of the actual incident survives, and disputes over the poem's authenticity came up almost immediately after it was published.<ref name="WaPoMcCartney">{{cite news| last1=McCartney| first1=Robert| title=Barbara Fritchie didn't wave that flag|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/barbara-fritchie-didnt-wave-that-flag/2012/09/15/0c25ecec-ff3a-11e1-8adc-499661afe377_story.html| access-date=November 29, 2017| newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]| date=September 15, 2012}}</ref> However, her descendants successfully promoted her reputation, and the city of [[Frederick, Maryland]], has used her name and image to attract tourists ever since the early 1900s.<ref name="WaPoMcCartney" />

The flag incident as described in the poem likely never occurred at the Barbara Fritchie house, although Fritchie was a Unionist and did have a Union flag. Friends of hers stated that she shook a Union flag at and insulted Confederate troops, but other neighbors said Fritchie, over 90 years old, was ill at the time.<ref>Jones, J. William (1900). [https://archive.org/details/confederateveter08conf/page/112 "The Barbara Fritchie Myth"]. ''[[Confederate Veteran]]''. Volume 8, pp. 113–114.</ref> In fact she did wave a union flag—but at Ambrose Burnsides's Union troops on September 12, 1862.<ref name=seilheimer>{{cite journal| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VERLAAAAYAAJ&q=Barbara+| title=The Historical Basis of Whittier's "Barbara Frietchie"| first=George G.| last=Seilheimer| volume=2| journal=Battles and Leaders of the Civil War| pages=618-619; 622| access-date=January 24, 2025}}</ref> 

The actual woman who inspired the poem may have been Mary Quantrell, who lived on Patrick Street,<ref name=seilheimer/> and who, in a letter to the editor published in ''[[The New York Times]]'' in February 1869, wrote that her flag, waving from a second-story window, had been ripped down and trampled by Confederate soldiers passing through in 1862, then picked up and held close by her daughter. Further, when Confederate troops moving west from Frederick and passing through [[Middletown, Maryland|Middletown]] demanded the removal of a Union flag flying from a window in the George Crouse family home, young Nancy Crouse took it down, draped it over her body, and returned to the front door to taunt them, and was not challenged, an act earning her the sobriquet of "the Middletown Maid".<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.fredmag.com/the-legend-of-barbara-fritchie/ |title=The Legend of Barbara Fritchie |date=November 15, 2020}}{{dead link|date=January 2025}}</ref> 

In addition to confusing Fritchie with Quantrell, the poem was likely embellished, as Whittier was a distant poet working from second- or third-hand accounts of the incident and other similar ones.<ref name=heart>{{cite book| quote=On June 24, 1863 while passing through [[Greencastle, Pennsylvania]] [[George Edward Pickett]] wrote in a letter to his wife that a defiant young girl had waved a union flag at his soldiers| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ngMIAQAAIAAJ&q=wave+that+too&pg=PA15| first=George Edward| last=Pickett| title=The Heart of a Soldier| pages=.82-83| publisher=S. Moyle| year=1913}}</ref> The Confederate general in the poem most likely was not Stonewall Jackson,<ref name=seilheimer/><ref name=heart/> but another Confederate officer (probably [[A. P. Hill]]),<ref name="WaPoMcCartney"/> since none of the men with General Jackson that day remembered the incident—although while passing through Middletown, Maryland, two young girls did wave Union flags in the presence of General Jackson, who bowed, removed his hat and laughed the incident off.<ref name=seilheimer/> Gen. Jackson and Barbara Fritchie both died before publication of the poem. Historians and reporters noted other discrepancies between the patriotic poem and witness accounts.<ref name="WaPoMcCartney" /><ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.fredericknewspost.com/archive/the-many-stories-of-barbara-fritchie/article_4497d2b9-e8c4-5802-8452-5a41d5116504.html |title=The many stories of Barbara Fritchie |first=Jamie |last=Bussey |date=July 1, 2007 |newspaper=The Frederick News-Post}}</ref>

==Legacy==
===Barbara Fritchie House===
[[File:Barbara Fritchie House MD2.jpg|thumb|upright=1.1|Barbara Fritchie House]]
The Barbara Fritchie House is located at 154 West Patrick Street in [[Frederick, Maryland]].<ref name=Varhola253>{{cite book |last1=Varhola |first1=Michael J. |first2=Michael H. |last2=Varhola |title=Ghosthunting Maryland |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m-YsDgAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=varhola+ghosting+maryland&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj-ytHu64-LAxWfhIkEHf-VND0Q6AF6BAgGEAM#v=onepage&q=fritchie&f=false |location=Cincinnati |publisher=Clerisy Press |date=October 1, 2010 |page=253 |isbn=978-1-5786-0414-2}}</ref> It is a 1927 reconstruction, based on the original house, which was washed away during a storm.<ref>{{cite news |first=Nancy |last=Lavin |url=http://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/economy_and_business/tourism/barbara-fritchie-house-slated-for-sale-at-public-auction/article_21d838db-7798-5875-a4bf-e4fec3342c54.html |newspaper=[[The Frederick News-Post]] |date=October 2, 2012 |title=Barbara Fritchie House slated for sale at public auction |access-date=June 15, 2018}}</ref> The site had since become a shrine to the legend. In 1943, [[Winston Churchill]], who knew the poem from memory, insisted he pass by the house during a trip through Frederick with President [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]].<ref name=Quynn674/> When the house was open to the public, some volunteers there claimed that Fritchie haunted it and reported seeing her rocking chair move on its own.<ref name=Varhola253/>

The house began to fall into disrepair in the early 21st century. In 2015, it was purchased by the Ausherman Family Foundation. In January 2018, it was purchased by Bryan and Charlotte Chaney with the intent of repairing and reopening it for overnight stays through [[Airbnb]].<ref>{{cite news |first=Mallory |last=Panuska |url=https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/economy_and_business/real_estate_and_development/new-owner-buys-barbara-fritchie-house-to-turn-it-into/article_30a38feb-8b07-5ab2-9d25-a90e0c1ecb9b.html |newspaper=The Frederick News-Post  |date=January 12, 2018 |title=New owner buys Barbara Fritchie House to turn it into period-style Airbnb |access-date=June 30, 2018}}</ref>

===Cultural references===
[[File:Barbara Frietchie - film poster.jpg|thumb|upright=1.1|Poster for the 1924 film ''Barbara Frietchie'']]
[[Clyde Fitch]] adapted the story for the play ''Barbara Frietchie'' (1899), which ran for 89 performances and was criticized for its further departure from historical fact. It was revived several times and inspired the [[Dorothy Donnelly]] and [[Sigmund Romberg]] [[operetta]] ''[[My Maryland]]'' (1926), which ran for 312 performances.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/56923022 |title=The Oxford Companion to American Theatre |date=2004 |publisher=Oxford University Press |others=Gerald Martin Bordman, Thomas S. Hischak, Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-991647-4 |edition=3rd |location=[[New York City]]] |pages=52–53 |oclc=56923022}}</ref>  The play was adapted for film in [[Barbara Frietchie (1915 film)|1915]] and [[Barbara Frietchie (1924 film)|1924]]. 

One of the Mid-Atlantic states' top-ten horse races was named in her honor; it is one of only seven Grade I or Grade II races run in the state of Maryland. The [[Barbara Fritchie Handicap]] is an American race for thoroughbred horses, run at Laurel Park Racecourse in Laurel, Maryland, each year. A Grade II race, it is open to fillies and mares age three and up, running seven furlongs on the dirt. It offers a purse of $300,000 and has been run since 1952.

In 1935, [[Edsel Ford]] expanded [[The Dearborn Inn]] through the addition of a ''Colonial Village'' behind the main building.  The village consists of buildings whose exteriors are "exact replicas of houses famous in American history". Among the homes recreated are the [[Edgar Allan Poe]] House; the [[Walt Whitman Birthplace State Historic Site|Walt Whitman Birthplace]] and the Barbara Fritchie House. The interiors are divided into suites and afford guests the same comforts as those in the main structure.<ref>{{cite web| title=The Dearborn Inn Expansion| url= https://www.thehenryford.org/explore/blog/the-dearborn-inn-expansion/| date=March 7, 2014| website=[[The Henry Ford]]| access-date=January 24, 2025}}</ref>

The Barbara Fritchie Classic motorcycle races run annually on July 4; top riders from all over compete on the dirt oval at the Frederick County Fairgrounds. The race has been running for almost 100 years.

Musician [https://michaelclem.com/ Michael Clem] of the Virginian folk group [http://www.eddiefromohio.com/ Eddie from Ohio] penned the tune "Miss Fritchie" and recorded it on the group's third album, ''I Rode Fido Home''.<ref>{{cite web| title=I Rode Fido Home: Track Listing| url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/i-rode-fido-home-mw0000037057#trackListing| website=[[AllMusic]]| access-date=January 24, 2025}}</ref>

''[[Stan Freberg|Stan Freberg Presents the United States of America Volume Two: The Middle Years]]'', a radio play, parodied the story, with a man attempting to cajole Mrs. Fritchie into staging the supposed incident, but finds her appalled to hear it involves offering to be shot. [[Tyne Daly]] portrayed Fritchie.

Circa 1962, an episode of the [[The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends|"Rocky and Bullwinkle"]] segment "[[Bullwinkle's Corner]]" acted out a humorous version of Whittier's poem, starring [[Bullwinkle J. Moose]] ([[Bill Scott (voice actor)|Bill Scott]]) as Fritchie and [[Boris Badenov]] ([[Paul Frees]]) as Jackson - who shoots her red long underwear off the line. As Bullwinkle/Frietchie reaches out the window and grabs it, "'Shoot, if you must, this old gray head; but spare my union suit,' she said." When Boris/Jackson prepares to shoot, she points a cannon at him from her window, tells him to march on, and says, "I may be patriotic, but I'm not crazy."

James Thurber included this poem with his pictures in his ''[[Fables for Our Time and Famous Poems Illustrated]]''.

[[Ogden Nash]]'s poem "Taboo to Boot", about the joys of scratching an itch, contains the following stanza:
:I'm greatly attached
:To Barbara Frietchie.
:I'll bet she scratched
:When she was itchy.

== See also ==
* {{portal-inline|American Civil War}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
{{commons}}
{{wikisourcepar2|Barbara Frietchie|Full text of Whittier's poem}}
* [http://www.dcmemorials.com/index_indiv0006802.htm Fritchie gravesite] in [[Frederick, Maryland]]
* [http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?MarkerID=2693 Historical Marker Database: Barbara Fritchie House]
* [http://barbarafritchie.org/ Barbara Fritchie House] official website

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Fritchie, Barbara}}
[[Category:1766 births]]
[[Category:1862 deaths]]
[[Category:Burials at Mount Olivet Cemetery (Frederick, Maryland)]]
[[Category:People from Frederick, Maryland]]
[[Category:People from Lancaster, Pennsylvania]]
[[Category:People of Maryland in the American Civil War]]
[[Category:Women in the American Civil War]]