One of Frederick, Maryland's most famous residents was a 95 year old widow, Barbara Fritche, who in 1862 taunted the Confederate troops by waving the Stars and Stripes as they passed through town. The Barbara Fritchie house is located at 154 West Patrick Street, 1 block from Mackintosh REALTORS Historic District office.
John Greenleaf Whitter's poem "The Ballad of Barbara Fritchie" was published in October 1863 in The Atlantic Monthly. This would immortalize Fritchie and raised patriotic spirits throughout the Union at a time when an emotional boost was needed as a response to the Civil War.
The poem would go on to inspire a play and later a film featuring the famous line "Shoot if you must this old gray head, but spare your country's flag."
Barbara Fritchie would never hear the poem that would embed her in American folklore as she passed away in December of 1862.
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