B4 EZ RE THE WASHINGTON POST.WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 22 , 2021
said.
Mosby responded in the letter:
“None of this is true. In fact, the
truth is that the lead suspect in
the shooting of the police officer,
who is currently fighting for her
life, was supposed to be under the
supervision of your state agency
at the time of that horrific of-
fense.”
Hogan spokesman Michael
Ricci said Tuesday in an email to
The Washington Post: “This is just
sad at this point — for her, for the
city, for the state.”
A spokeswoman for the state’s
probation and parole agency dis-
agreed with Mosby’s assessment,
saying the suspect was under lo-
cal government — n ot state —
supervision from a handgun
charge.
Mosby said she plans to ask
state legislators to audit how state
agencies monitor violent offend-
ers on probation and parole.
The suspect in the stabbing
death of a 69-year-old grand-
mother in a church bathroom last
month had been released fromNATIONAL PARK SERVICE
TOP: The Pennsylvania Monument in 1908 was the second
monument constructed on the battlefield at Monocacy Junction.
ABOVE: The back of Samuel M. Weigel’s identification disk.state supervision weeks before
the homicide, Mosby notes. Ho-
gan has cited the killing of Evelyn
Player as an example of out-of-
control violence that needed im-
mediate intervention, rather thanpolicies favored by Democrats
aimed at addressing the root
causes of poverty and crime.
On Tuesday, a Department of
Public Safety and Correctional
Services spokeswoman, Lt.DREW ANGERER/GETTY IMAGES
Hogan, shown here in August, told Fox News on Sunday that Mosby
was “a big part of the problem” of continued violence in Baltimore.Latoya Gray, said the agency was
required by law to release that
suspect because his supervision
had ended.
Mosby’s letter accompanies 30
pages of data meant to rebut Ho-
gan’s assertion that her office hasfailed to put violent offenders in
prison, detailing how conviction
rates for violent crimes over the
previous 10 years have stayed con-
sistent at 88 percent or greater.
In November, Hogan held a
news conference in which he sin-
gled out Mosby, saying that “we
also need a prosecutor who will
actually prosecute violent crimi-
nals.”
Hogan raised the possibility of
withholding further funding
from her office. And as he deliv-
ered remarks in Annapolis, Ho-
gan’s staff sent Mosby a letter
requesting detailed data and say-
ing her state funding would be
“under evaluation.”
In supplying the data, much of
which Mosby said was published
on her website, she noted that the
governor has been silent on rising
crime in other parts of the state,
and she directly addressed how
the governor has treated her.
“I deeply regret having to re-
spond to you via a public letter but
after my numerous attempts at
collegiality, I recognize your enti-
tlement, your privilege, and your
political posturing are guiding
your disrespectful refusal to meet
or even speak with me for the past
two years,” she wrote.
In an interview, Mosby said the
governor crossed a line when he
implied her employees were fall-ing down on the job.
“I’ve taken the high road. I’ve
allowed him to disrespect me for
seven years. But what he’s not
going to do is he’s not going to
disrespect the hard work and the
commitment of my prosecutors,”
Mosby said. “You can come for me,
Mr. Governor. But you’re not go-
ing to come for the hard-working
prosecutors that dedicate their
lives every single day to ensuring
violent repeat offenders are held
accountable when your state
agencies aren’t doing the same
thing.”
Hogan and Mosby’s relation-
ship has long been strained, but it
further deteriorated this year as
the city logged more than 300
homicides for the seventh consec-
utive year and Hogan’s remarks
about Mosby sharpened.
In May, Hogan told reporters
that while he has met with other
city leaders, Mosby “shouldn’t
even bother” asking for a meeting.
“I have no interest in meeting
with her while she’s under federal
investigation,” Hogan said, refer-
ring to a criminal tax investiga-
tion of Mosby and her husband,
Baltimore City Council President
Nick Mosby (D). Supporters have
alleged the couple have been un-
fairly targeted.
Hogan has said Marilyn Mosby
will not prosecute crimes.
In March, she announced her
office would stop prosecuting
nonviolent crimes, including
drug possession, prostitution and
minor traffic cases.
She had temporarily suspend-
ed those prosecutions in 2020 in
an effort to curb the spread of the
coronavirus in jails, but she re-
solved this spring to permanently
end them. She said data showed
both a 20 percent drop in violent
crime and that people of color
were disproportionately likely to
be prosecuted.
“The era of ‘tough on crime’
prosecutors is over in Baltimore,”
Mosby said at the time. “We have
to rebuild the community’s trust
in the criminal justice system, and
that’s what we will do, so we can
focus on violent crime.”
[email protected]BY ERIN COX
Baltimore’s top law enforce-
ment officer issued an open letter
to Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan on
Tuesday, accusing the Republican
governor of “incessant dog-
whistling” about the city’s crime
in a racially charged effort to
further his political ambitions.
Responding to Hogan’s public
attacks by on her and her prosecu-
tors, Baltimore State’s Attorney
Marilyn Mosby (D) said the gover-
nor has failed to take responsibili-
ty for the ways state agencies
contribute to the city’s violence —
including by failing to keep tabs
on a man suspected of ambushing
a Baltimore police officer last
week.
The five-page letter, which she
also reads aloud in a video to him,
accuses Hogan of refusing to com-
municate or collaborate with
most of the city’s Black leaders
during his seven-year tenure. She
implies that his unwillingness to
meet with her — and eagerness to
publicly villainize her — is racist
and unproductive.
Instead, she said, “it’s clear that
you would much rather attack,
disparage, and continue to use the
City of Baltimore as your punch-
ing bag, in order to score political
points with your conservative
base.”
The high-profile condemna-
tion of Hogan’s leadership comes
as the term-limited governor
shapes his political future, includ-
ing a potential bid for the White
House built on a platform of unit-
ing the country through biparti-
sanship. It also highlights his frac-
tured relationship with Mary-
land’s largest city, whose leaders
and residents have q uestioned
the governor’s actions.
On Sunday, Hogan told Fox
News that Mosby was “a big part
of the problem” of continued vio-
lence in Baltimore, responding to
a question that mentioned the
attempted murder of Officer Keo-
na Holley, who is on life support.
“We have a prosecutor in Balti-
more City that refuses to pros-
ecute violent criminals, and that’s
at the root of the problem,” Hogan
MARYLAND
Baltimore’s Mosby ramps up Hogan feud, accusing him of ‘ dog-whistling’
JULIO CORTEZ/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Baltimore City State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby (D) in late 2019. In a letter Tuesday, Mosby accused
Gov. Larry Hogan (R) of using her city “as your punching bag, in order to score political points.”“He’s not going todisrespect the hardwork and thecommitment of myprosecutors.”
Marilyn Mosby (D),
Baltimore City state’s attorneyJana Friesen McCabe, chief of
resource education and visitor
services at the battlefield, said
that Weigel’s disk was obtained
for $1,700 from a reputable arti-
facts dealer on eBay and that the
battlefield received it in October.
It is probably made of a copper
alloy and was premade with one
side blank, where the soldier’s
details could be stamped. That
side bears Weigel’s name, regi-
ment, company and hometown,
Bendersville, Pa.
The other side has a shield
with a stars-and-stripes design
and the phrase “Against Rebel-
lion 1861.”
“They were mass-manufac-
tured” in 1861, McCabe said.
“The ‘1861’ isn’t a reflection of
when he purchased it. It’s more
the start of the war and the
production of those disks.”
Weigel’s might have been pur-
chased from one of the traveling
vendors, or “sutlers,” who fol-lowed the armies. The vendor
may have etched it for him, she
said.
The battlefield has another ID
badge that bears the name and
details of another soldier from
Company G — Sgt. Nicholas G.
Wilson, who was also wounded
in the battle. His badge is made
of silver and in the shape of a
shield.
The 138th Pennsylvania had
been rushed about 300 miles in
36 hours by boat and train from
outside Petersburg, Va., to the
Monocacy battlefield to face a
large Confederate force that was
suddenly bearing down on Wash-
ington.
The regiment was part of a
scratch Union detachment that
was thrown together along the
river to halt or slow the rebels,
who were only about 40 miles
from the capital.
The Northern soldiers were
outnumbered more than 2 to 1and were forced to retreat. But
they slowed the Confederate on-
slaught and foiled the capture of
Washington.
“What these men did was
really incredible,” McCabe said.
“They were so badly outmanned
and outgunned, and they chose
to fight anyway a battle that they
knew they couldn’t win.... They
saved Washington, D.C.”
The price was the “hasty aban-
donment of the field, our dead,
and many of the wounded,” a
history of the regiment states.
Five men were killed. Weigel and
32 others were wounded, and
21 men were captured.Weigel, who was 24 at the
time, survived. He died in 1922 at
age 82, according to the Park
Service.
His disk has been added to the
battlefield’s museum collection
but is not yet on display.
Weigel was mustered out of
service on June 30, 1865, almost
three months after the war end-
ed.
“After the war he married
Martha Ann Harmon and had
four children, two boys, two
girls,” and later six grandchil-
dren, McCabe said in an email.
His 1922 death certificate lists
him as a widower and a retired
carpenter.
In 1908, Pennsylvania dedicat-
ed a 35-foot-high granite monu-
ment on the battlefield to the
138th Pennsylvania and two oth-
er regiments that fought there.
An inscription reads: “In com-
memoration of the bravery, sacri-
fices, and patriotism of the...
regiments that fought on this
battlefield July 9, 1864.”
Two hundred veterans attend-
ed the event, and many were
photographed at the monument.
Weigel, then 69, probably
lived nearby in southern Penn-
sylvania and could have been
among them, McCabe said.
[email protected] From Retropolis, a blog
a bout the past, rediscovered, at
washingtonpost.com/retropolis.BY MICHAEL E. RUANE
Pvt. Samuel M. Weigel had
already seen extensive combat by
the time his veteran Union regi-
ment reached the battlefield
near Maryland’s Monocacy River
in July 1864.
Twenty-seven of his comrades
in the 138th Pennsylvania Infan-
try had been killed at the Battle
of the Wilderness near Freder-
icksburg, Va., that May, including
five from his outfit, Company G.
Seven more from the regiment
had been killed at the Battle of
Cold Harbor outside Richmond
in June.
He had no doubt seen the fate
of friends who had fallen, with
nothing to identify their bodies
for return to their families. So on
July 9, when he was seriously
wounded at the Battle of Mono-
cacy, near Frederick, Md., he was
probably wearing a metal disk
bearing his name, regiment and
hometown.
The National Park Service re-
cently announced that the Mono-
cacy National Battlefield Foun-
dation has donated what appears
to be the identification disk Wei-
gel was probably wearing that
day.
“It is amazing that after
157 years, this ID disk is return-
ing to the battlefield,” Andrew
Banasik, superintendent of
Monocacy National Battlefield,
said in a statement. “This small
piece of metal is a tangible
reminder of the price paid by so
many to save Washington.”
About 1,200 Union soldiers
were killed or wounded in the
battle.
Civil War ID badges that sur-
vive are rare, the Park Service
said. There were no government-
issued military “dog tags” during
the war. And soldiers were terri-
fied that if they were killed, in
the chaos of battle, their bodies
would never be identified.
So a man might write his name
on a piece of paper and pin it to
his uniform before going into
combat. He might stencil his
name on his clothing. Or he
might buy his own ID badge.
RETROPOLIS
Union soldier’s identification disk returns to battlefield
NATIONAL PARK SERVICE ARCHIVES
Surviving badges rare;
museum’s collection at
Monocacy gets a boost“What these men didwas really incredible.”
Jana Friesen McCabe,
Monocacy National Battlefield