Maryland In The American Civil War
In the American Civil War, Maryland, a slave state, was one of the border states, straddling the South and North. Due to its location and a desire from both opposing factions to sway its population to their respective causes, Maryland played an important role in the American Civil War. The first fatalities of the war happened during the Baltimore Riot of 1861, and the single bloodiest day of combat in American military history occurred near Sharpsburg, Maryland, at the Battle of Antietam. Antietam, though tactically a draw, was strategically enough of a Union victory to give President Abraham Lincoln the opportunity to issue the Emancipation Proclamation. Later in 1864 the Battle of Monocacy helped delay a Confederate army bent on striking the Federal capital of Washington, D.C.
Nearly 85,000 citizens signed up for the military, with many joining the Union Army, although just over a third of these enlisted to fight for the Confederacy. Leading Maryland leaders and officers during the Civil War included Governor Thomas H. Hicks, who despite his early sympathies for the south, helped prevent the state from seceding, and General George H. Steuart, who was a noted brigade commander under Robert E. Lee.
Read more about Maryland In The American Civil War: Slavery and Emancipation, Legacy
Famous quotes containing the words civil war, american, civil and/or war:
“We have heard all of our lives how, after the Civil War was over, the South went back to straighten itself out and make a living again. It was for many years a voiceless part of the government. The balance of power moved away from it—to the north and the east. The problems of the north and the east became the big problem of the country and nobody paid much attention to the economic unbalance the South had left as its only choice.”
—Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908–1973)
“When they [the American soldiers] came, they found fit comrades for their courage and their devotion.... Joining hands with them, the men of America gave the greatest of all gifts, the gift of life and the gift of spirit.”
—Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924)
“The right to vote, or equal civil rights, may be good demands, but true emancipation begins neither at the polls nor in courts. It begins in woman’s soul.”
—Emma Goldman (1869–1940)
“The slanders poured down like Niagara. If you take into consideration the setting—the war and the revolution—and the character of the accused—revolutionary leaders of millions who were conducting their party to the sovereign power—you can say without exaggeration that July 1917 was the month of the most gigantic slander in world history.”
—Leon Trotsky (1879–1940)