Maryland exile George H. Steuart, leading the 2nd Maryland Infantry regiment, is said to have jumped down from his horse, kissed his native soil and stood on his head in jubilation. Harpers Ferry and the Civil War Chronology [1] In the leadup to the American Civil War, it became clear that the state was bitterly divided in its sympathies. On May 13, 1861 General Benjamin F. Butler entered Baltimore by rail with 1,000 Federal soldiers and, under cover of a thunderstorm, quietly took possession of Federal Hill. One prisoner in seven died, for a total of 4,200 deaths by 1865. Four soldiers and twelve civilians were killed in the riot. Despite some popular support for the cause of the Confederate States of America, Maryland did not secede during the Civil War. Civil War I turned and saw Dr. R. S. Steuart. One smallpox outbreak claimed the lives over 300 men during the winter of 1862 alone. Rockville, Maryland in the Civil War Speaker: Eileen McGuckian, As a small county seat located at the intersection of major roads in a slave-holding border state close the nations capital, Rockville saw considerable action during the Civil War. Subscribe to the American Battlefield Trust's quarterly email series of curated stories for the curious-minded sort! Mayor George William Brown and Maryland Governor Thomas Hicks implored President Lincoln to reroute troops around Baltimore city and through Annapolis to avoid further confrontations. 1864. The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal (nps.gov) parallels the Potomac River from Washington, D.C., to Antietam. Because our textbooks and monuments are wrong. He also served two terms as Acting Assistant Surgeon with the Union Army. Two said Booth yelled "I have done it!" [40], In another controversial arrest that fall, and in further defiance of Chief Justice Taney's ruling, a sitting U.S. This PowerPoint presentation covers both the Civil War history of the camps at Muddy Branch and the history and archaeology of its outpost blockhouse and camp located within Blockhouse Point Conservation Park. "The social and economic impact of the Civil War on Maryland" (PhD dissertation, The Ohio State University, 1963) (ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 1963. A soldier who survived his ordeal in a camp often bore deep psychological scars and physical maladies that may or may not have healed in time. WebThe Civil War Museum (currently closed) Schoolhouse Ridge Trails The 1862 Battle of Harpers Ferry Museum Maryland Heights Trail Bolivar Heights Trail Murphy-Chambers Farm Trail Last updated: July 24, 2019 Was this page helpful? Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War, Antietam Camp #3. Jubal Earlys Attack on WashingtonSpeaker: James H. Johnston. George P. McClelland served with the 155th Pennsylvania Infantry, Army of the Potomac, from August 1862 to his discharge in June 1865. Stuarts actions proved a catastrophe for the Confederacy because he should have been with Robert E. Lees army in Pennsylvania. Visit places and meet people who faced decisions and experienced wartime during those tumultuous times 150 years ago. When the writ was delivered to General Andrew Porter Provost Marshal of the District of Columbia he had both the lawyer delivering the writ and the United States Circuit Judge, Marylander William Matthew Merrick, who issued the writ, arrested to prevent them from proceeding in the case United States ex rel. The issue of slavery was finally confronted by the constitution which the state adopted in 1864. Throughout the War units [3][4] In seven counties, Lincoln received not a single vote.[1]. Union camp leadership was largely to blame for the death toll. $40.00 + $5.80 shipping. Prisoners at Andersonville also made matters worse for themselves by relieving themselves where they gathered their drinking water, resulting in widespread outbreaks of disease, and by forming into gangs for the purpose of beating or murdering weaker men for food, supplies, and booty. Learn about the Underground Railroad Movement by seeing short dramatic portraits of those involved (and some opposed), both anonymous and known. The Aftermath of Battle; All the Fighting They Lucius Eugene Chittenden, U.S. Treasurer during the Lincoln Administration, described the dreadful and horrifying conditions Union soldiers found at Belle Isle: "In a semi-state of nuditylaboring under such diseases as chronic diarrhea, scurvy, frost bites, general debility, caused by starvation, neglect and exposure, many of them had partially lost their reason, forgetting even the date of their capture, and everything connected with their antecedent history. Maryland Group Votes To Remove Civil War Plaque From WebDuring the Civil War, Baltimore had 44 forts, batteries, redoubts, and armed camps, and about 20 unarmed camps (hospitals, POW, etc.) For more than three years - May 1862 through July 1865 - Union soldiers lived, worked, and played on Maryland Heights. Plumbs newest book,The Better Angels, will be published by Potomac Books, an imprint of University of Nebraska Press, in March of 2020. [14], Hearing no immediate reply from Washington, on the evening of April 19 Governor Hicks and Mayor Brown ordered the destruction of railroad bridges leading into the city from the North, preventing further incursions by Union soldiers. Anxious about the risk of secessionists capturing Washington, D.C., given that the capital was bordered by Virginia, and preparing for war with the South, the federal government requested armed volunteers to suppress "unlawful combinations" in the South. Maryland Humanities Council (2001). George P. McClelland served with the 155th Pennsylvania Infantry, Army of the Potomac, from August 1862 to his discharge in June 1865. During the American Civil War (18611865), P ri mary source material documenting the inhumane conditions in Civil War prisoner of war camps abounds. After shooting the President, Booth galloped on his horse into Southern Maryland, where he was sheltered and helped by sympathetic residents and smuggled at night across the Potomac River into Virginia a week later. Disappointingly for the exiles, recruits did not flock to the Confederate banner. [62] However, McClellan waited about 18 hours before deciding to take advantage of this intelligence and position his forces based on it, thus endangering a golden opportunity to defeat Lee decisively. [68] Quartermaster John Howard recalled that Steuart performed "seventeen double somersaults" all the while whistling Maryland, My Maryland. Harpers Ferry is not occupied by either side again until February 1862. The constitution was submitted to the people for ratification on October 13, 1864 and it was narrowly approved by a vote of 30,174 to 29,799 (50.31% to 49.69%) in a vote likely overshadowed by the heavy presence of Union troops in the state and the repression of Confederate sympathizers. The Man Who (Almost) Conquered Washington: Gen. John McCauslandSpeaker: James H. Johnston. Suitable for adults and young adults. On May 23, 1862, at the Battle of Front Royal, the 1st Maryland Infantry, CSA was thrown into battle with their fellow Marylanders, the Union 1st Regiment Maryland Volunteer Infantry. The Odyssey of a Civil War Soldier Speaker: Robert Plumb. J.E.B. 2023 Montgomery County Historical Society. Of the 11,764 Confederates who entered Alton Federal Prison, no fewer than 1,500 perished as result of various diseases and aliments. [35] Two of the publishers selling his book were then arrested. South Mountain Civil War in MoCo Commandants purposely cut ration sizes and quality for personal profit, leading to illness, scurvy, and starvation. [38][39], The following month in November 1861, Judge Richard Bennett Carmichael, a presiding state circuit court judge in Maryland, was imprisoned without charge for releasing, due to his concern that arrests were arbitrary and civil liberties had been violated, many of the southern sympathizers seized in his jurisdiction. WebBetween 1861 and 1865, American Civil War prison camps were operated by the Union Civil War veterans did it differently. [citation needed], Thousands of Union troops were stationed in Charles County, and the Federal Government established a large, unsheltered prison camp at Point Lookout at Maryland's southern tip in St. Mary's County between the Potomac River and the Chesapeake Bay, where thousands of Confederates were kept, often in harsh conditions. In 1861, while the population was quite low, the death rate hovered around 2%. WebSeal of Maryland during the war. Stuart crossed the Potomac River with 5,000 horsemen including artillery at Rowsers Ford and proceeded to ransack Montgomery County. In 1865, when the number of prisoners ballooned to its peak, the death rate exceeded 28%. WebBegun in 1863 with the support of the Union League, eleven regiments were formed at Camp William Penn, the first Pennsylvania camp for volunteer African American regiments. MARYLAND ESTATE CIVIL WAR REGIMENTAL FLAGPOLE EAGLE FINIAL, BOOK DOCUMENTED TYPE. All Rights Reserved. The song's lyrics urged Marylanders to "spurn the Northern scum" and "burst the tyrant's chain" in other words, to secede from the Union. War produced a legacy of bitter resentment in politics, with the Democrats being identified with "treason and rebellion", a point much pressed home by their opponents. POW Camps in Maryland Despite the controversial number Confederates claiming only a few hundred and the Union claiming upwards of 15,000 mortalities the dreadful conditions Federal prisoners faced is unquestionable. Point Lookout Prisoner of War Camp Lastly, Stuarts army captured and controlled a large Union wagon train laden with supplies, which became a significant impediment to Stuarts expeditious travel onward to Pennsylvania. WebThe Civil War Camps at Muddy Branch and the Outpost Camp and Blockhouse at civil War original matches. He never shows in the day time & is cautious who sees him at any time.[56]. To serve as early warning stations on bluffs overlooking the Potomac, Union troops built a series of blockhouses. The poet Walt Whitman was driven to comment on the shocking living arrangements at Belle Isle after encountering surviving prisoners, appalled at "the measureless torments of thehelpless young men, with all their humiliations, hunger, cold, filth, despair, hope utterly given out, and the more and more frequent mental imbecility.". Headings - Maryland--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Maps - Maryland Campaign, 1862--Maps - United States--Maryland Notes Hatboro, PA: Tradition Press, Whitman H. Ridgway. $40.00 + $5.80 shipping. Maryland, as a slave-holding border state, was deeply divided over the antebellum arguments over states' rights and the future of slavery in the Union. Maryland [74] The new constitution emancipated the state's slaves (who had not been freed by President Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation), disenfranchised southern sympathizers, and re-apportioned the General Assembly based upon white inhabitants. Union Army Surgeon Dr. Edward Stonestreet & His Civil War Hospital in RockvilleSpeaker: Clarence Hickey. Yes No An official form of the United States government. Divided Nation, Divided Town: One Womans Experience Speaker: Emily Correll. They resemble, in many respects, patients laboring under cretinism. Because of this previous imprisonment, they were weaker and more susceptible to the harsh conditions and communicable diseases that flourished at Florence Stockade. Union Prisoner of War Camps How many were citizens of Maryland when they enlisted does not appear. [citation needed] Most of these volunteers tended to hail from southern and eastern counties of the state, while northern and western Maryland furnished more volunteers for the Union armies. The Battle of Monocacy was fought on July 9, just outside Frederick, as part of the Valley Campaigns of 1864. Life in a CCC Camp In recent years, America has commemorated valor by erecting monuments to entire wars, such as the World War II and the Vietnam Veterans Memorials. The hospital staff is known to have assisted with the escape of several Maryland slaves while United States Colored Troops served as guards at the prison camp. Maryland Florence Stockade operated from September 1864 to February 1865 and 15,000 to 18,000 Union soldiers were processed through the camp. [12] Chaos ensued as a giant brawl began between fleeing soldiers, the violent mob, and the Baltimore police who tried to suppress the violence. Spoiler alert:Washingtondidnt fall. Because the state bordered the District of Columbia and the opposing factions within the state strongly desired to sway public opinion towards their respective causes, Maryland played an important role in the war. [86], The legacies of the debate over Lincoln's heavy-handed actions that were meant to keep Maryland within the union include measures such as arresting one third of the Maryland General Assembly, which was controversially ruled unconstitutional at the time by Maryland native Justice Roger Taney, and in the lyrics of the former Maryland state song, Maryland, My Maryland, which referred to Lincoln as a "despot," a "vandal," and, a "tyrant.". On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. One prisoner commenting on the daily death toll and foul conditions proclaimed, (I) walk around camp every morning looking for acquaintances, the sick, &c. (I) can see a dozen most any morning laying around dead. He and his comrades had been captured during a bloody battle at Plymouth, North Carolina. Because Maryland had not seceded from the United States the state was not included under the Emancipation Proclamation of January 1, 1863, which declared that all enslaved people within the Confederacy would henceforth be free. [86] Democrats therefore re-branded themselves the "Democratic Conservative Party", and Republicans called themselves the "Union" party, in an attempt to distance themselves from their most radical elements during the war. State's participation as a Union slave state; a border state, Marylanders fought both for the Union and the Confederacy, Constitution of 1864, and the abolition of slavery. He goes about from place to place, sometimes staying in one county, sometimes in another and then passing a few days in the city. One feature of the new constitution was a highly restrictive oath of allegiance which was designed to reduce the influence of Southern sympathizers, and to prevent such individuals from holding public office of any kind. Approximately a tenth as many enlisted to "go South" and fight for the Confederacy. 18,000 Confederates were incarcerated there by the end of the war. [29] Civil authority in Baltimore was swiftly withdrawn from all those who had not been steadfastly in favor of the Federal Government's emergency measures.[30]. Sign up to receive the latest information on the American Battlefield Trust's efforts to blaze The Liberty Trail in South Carolina. For a time it looked as if Maryland was one provocation away from joining the rebels, but Lincoln moved swiftly to defuse the situation, promising that the troops were needed purely to defend Washington, not to attack the South. Civil War [28] By May 21 there was no need to send further troops. Point Lookout While they often wrote frankly of the carnage wrought by bullets smashing limbs and grapeshot tearing ragged holes through advancing lines, many soldiers described their prisoner of war experiences as a more heinous undertaking altogether. WebJuly 4 First civilian death occurs in Harpers Ferry when businessman Frederick Roeder is shot by a Union soldier on Maryland Heights. Donate Now, Civil War in Montgomery County and the Region. [33], The Merryman decision created a sensation, but its immediate impact was rather limited, as the president simply ignored the ruling. WebCumberland Civil War Forts (1860's), Cumberland Union defenses included: Fort Hill The 120 or so Union soldiers interned there were fed meager yet adequate rations, sanitation was passable, shielding from the elements was provided, and the prisoners were even allowed to play recreational games such as baseball. In addition to the high frequency of scurvy, many prisoners endured intense bouts of dysentery which further weakened their frail bodies. [51], A similar situation existed in relation to Marylanders serving in the United States Colored Troops. In July 1864 the Battle of Monocacy was fought near Frederick, Maryland as part of the Valley Campaigns of 1864. In the 14 months of its existence, 45,000 prisoners were received at Andersonville prison, and of these nearly 13,000 died. [16] President Lincoln also complied with the request to reroute troops to Annapolis, as the political situation in Baltimore remained highly volatile. Federal Identification Number (EIN): 54-1426643.