Jesse McNeill, son of John Hanson McNeill of McNeill's Rangers Jesse led the Rangers’ most famous exploit in February 1865. Without firing a shot, Lt. Jesse McNeill guided a band of roughly sixty men into Cumberland, Maryland, slipped past Federal pickets, and captured Union Generals George Crook and Benjamin Kelley from their hotel rooms. John B. Gordon, one of General Lee’s most trusted lieutenants, declared that “in daring and dash it was one of the most thrilling incidents of the entire war.

10 Minute Quilt block