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The Frederick Barracks was also the starting point of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, with Captain Meriwether Lewis in command. An Army Inspector�s office was established there where the Expedition�s supplies were amassed from the cities of New York, Philadelphia, Lancaster and Baltimore.
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During the War of 1812, United States troops were quartered there.
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From 1840, and for several years thereafter, a portion of the Barracks was used by special permission of the Legislature as a cocoonery, with a white mulberry orchard, consisting of ten acres, in an adjoining lot. The State granted the use of the Barracks building to test the experiment of silk-culture, which created much discussion throughout the country.
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In June 1843, a military encampment was held in the Barracks, known as Camp Frederick, under the command of Colonel James M.
Coale.
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The Frederick County Agriculture Society held its exhibitions and Fairs on the Barracks grounds from 1853-1860. Due to the Civil War, no exhibitions were held again until 1868.
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During the Civil War, after the Battle of Antietam in 1862, the Barracks, along with all other available buildings in Winchester, served as a hospital to house the estimated four thousand wounded soldiers from both the North and the South.
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After the Civil War, in 1867, the State of Maryland chose the Barracks grounds for the location of the Maryland Institute for the Deaf and Dumb. Before the construction of the first building in 1871, the school met in the old Barracks. Of the two stone buildings of the Frederick or Hessian Barracks, the West Barracks building was demolished in 1874 to supply materials to erect the Maryland School for the Deaf�s new brick building. The other original building still exists and is listed with the National and State Registry of Historic Sites
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After the construction of the School�s Old Main Building, the Barracks was put to various uses, including storage, living quarters for staff members, and more recently, as a School Museum. Attempts were made to keep the Barracks in good repair when money was available. By the 1970s it was evident that extensive repairs and reconstruction would be necessary. In 1971 a two phase renovation project was begun, careful to maintain the Barracks� Colonial character.27
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