Volume 39, No. 5 – May 2026
Website: www.CivilWarRoundTablePalmBeach.org

The President’s Message:

The April meeting was cancelled due to the inclement weather.  Our next meeting will be Wednesday, May 13^th at 7:00 PM.  The topic will be The Use of Checks During the Civil War.  I have actual checks that were in my family from the Civil War Era that we can peruse.  I look forward to seeing you at our next meeting.

Gerridine LaRovere

Maryland the State of Compromise and Neutrality

Maryland remained indecisive during the sectional crisis.  The eastern portion of the state had strong social and economic ties with the South.  The west was bound to the North.  Maryland would eventually remain loyal to the Union, but Marylanders experienced serious trauma in their decision.

The War’s first bloodshed occurred on April 19^th on President Street in Baltimore.  The 6^th Massachusetts Militia, marching cross town en route to Washington, D.C. was pelted with paving stones hurled by an angry mob of pro-secessionist civilians.  Shots were exchanged and four soldiers and twelve Baltimoreans were killed.  The incident angered the South and caused poet James Ryder Randall to write the song “Maryland, My Maryland.’

To Abraham Lincoln, Maryland was a vital border state that had to be kept from defecting to the Confederacy.  For a month General Thomas H. Hicks of the American Know Nothing Party delayed calling the legislature into secession.  His masterly inactivity forestalled disunionists from pressuring the legislature into calling a secession convention.  After Brig. General Benjamin F. Butler occupied Federal Hill which overlooked downtown Baltimore.  The Federal government supervised state affairs.  Elections were manipulated.  Unionists installed key political posts, the writ of habeas corpus was suspended, and persons deemed subversive were arrested including Baltimore’s mayor and nineteen members of the legislature.  In 1864, anticipating the thirteen amendment, the general assembly abolished slavery in the state.

The nearby Shenandoah Valley offered an inviting avenue for invasion.  A host of battles and skirmishes took place in central Maryland.  General Robert E. Lee anticipated many recruits and invaded the state of Maryland in 1862 but was met by Union minded western Marylanders.  Hard fighting took place in the south mountain passes before Confederates concentrated along Antietam Creek near Sharpsburg.  Major General George B. McClellan attacked on September 17^th in one of the deadliest days in the War.  Lee maintained his position, but heavy odds forced his retreat to Virginia.

The Confederates returned in 1864 during Lt. General Jubal A. Early’s raid on Washington, D.C.  Early levied a ransom of $200,000 from the town of Frederick while Brig. General John McCausland levied or extracted a ransom of $20,000 from Hagerstown.  The Battle of Monocacy near Frederick on July 9^th forced Major General Lew Wallace to fall back toward Baltimore, and Early advanced to Silver Spring.  After skirmishing around Fort Stevens, he decided against assaulting the Washington defenses.  As the crusty Confederate told an officer “Major, we haven’t taken Washington, but we scared Abe Lincoln like heck.”