Just in time for the 150th anniversary of the Civil War, "Maryland In The Civil War" answers the need for a compact and accurate history of this tragic and heroic era. These four essays explore famous battles on Maryland soil such as Antietam, and little known episodes such as Maryland's invasion of the Eastern Shore counties of Virginia, followed by the military occupation of Delaware!The first essay, "The Setting, 1859-1860," explores the Southern sympathies of the Eastern Shore, and slavery as an institution here. We trace the contributions and legacy of Eastern Shore natives Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass.
The second essay, "The Crisis, 1861," concentrates on the efforts of Governor Hicks to keep Maryland in the Union. It is a thrilling story and a surprising one, for Hicks, a Dorchester County farmer who had been elected thanks to the Know-Nothing (American) Party nomination in 1857, soon found himself fighting the grand issues of the day with a General Assembly that was controlled by Southern Democrats. The pressures to at least convene a legislative convention to consider the secession issue – as Virginia was doing at the same time – caused enormous pressure. And the Pratt Street Riots of April 19, 1861, when federal troops passing through Baltimore ran into a rioting gang of outraged civilians, caused emotions to run at fever pitch.
Hicks's nightmare came about, as Maryland became a "Battlefield, 1861-1863," the third essay. Here, I hope that readers will take their Kindles with them to the battlefields of Antietam, South Mountain, and Monocacy, follow the narrative, and ponder over the sacrifices made on those battlefields. Antietam still holds the doleful record of the greatest American casualties ever sustained in one day.
In the fourth essay, "Last Rolls of the Dice, 1864-1865," we follow the desperate gamble of General Jubal Early, CSA, to capture Washington. And of course, the path of deluded actor John Wilkes Booth is treated here, both the assassination of Lincoln, and the strange episode of Dr. Samuel Mudd, of Bryantown in Southern Maryland, who treated the injured Booth and just missed the death penalty at his ensuing trial.
Since Marylanders fought on both sides, neither should be forgotten. The Maryland Memorial at Gettysburg, seen on the cover of this e-book, portrays the scene, two wounded soldiers, USA and CSA, helping each other as they limp along. For a conflict that pitted brothers against each other, sometimes literally, that symbol of coming together is a worthy one, as Americans still ponder the past, and its lessons for the present.
