CHAPTER XXIII

MARYLAND

S

TRANGE as it may seem, Maryland was the only

State in which the election of State officers or the election of presidential electors, or members of Congress, was substantially affected by the votes of soldiers voting in the field. In nearly all the other States where soldiers voted in the field the result of the elections would have been precisely the same if soldiers had not voted at all. All the acts of the various State Legislatures and all the amendments of the Constitutions practically went for nothing, except in the single State of Maryland. This justifies a somewhat extended consideration of what was done in that state about soldiers voting in the field.

Maryland was a border slave State. Its people had a very keen feeling of the importance of the State. They believed in the right of a state to separate from the other states at its pleasure, and when the Southern States attempted to separate from the other states they believed they were acting within their strict constitutional rights. The idea that the government of the United States was supreme over all the territory of all the states in the exercise of its constitutional powers was not accepted by them. They believed in the sacred soil of a sovereign state, and that the federal government had no right upon that soil for any purpose against the will of the state. But their geographical position between Washington and the North controlled the situation. It was

necessary for the Union cause that Maryland should be subjugated, and she was subjugated.

The Baltimore riots, and the telegrams of the secession Marshal of Baltimore for riflemen and troops from the mountains of Maryland and Virginia, saying, "We will fight them and whip them, or die," followed by the enlistment of over 15,000 State volunteers, the burning of bridges and cutting of telegraph wires to the north of Baltimore, closing communication with the North for several days, showed plainly that the people would not aid the Federal government if they could, but would rather fight it. But when, on May 13, 1861, General Butler seized the forts commanding Baltimore, and took control of Chesapeake Bay and of the rivers entering into it, - the Patapsco, Pawtuxet, and the Potomac,- all parts of the State were dominated by the Federal troops. Baltimore was seized, and Maryland was then subjugated. At the same time the House of Delegates was passing resolutions protesting against the pollution of the soil of Maryland by the foot of the Federal Army.

Eight companies of troops were raised in Maryland for the Confederate Army and mustered into its service on May 21, and 22, 1861. They fought with the Confederate Army in all its campaigns, and some of them surrendered at Appomattox. So many of Maryland's men went South that an artillery regiment was organized from them at Winchester, Virginia, in the fall of 1862. There was also organized from the refugees from Maryland, a Second Regiment of Maryland Cavalry, a Second, Third and Fourth Regiment of Maryland Artillery, all of which fought in the Confederate Army.

It should be remembered in this connection that

Maryland put into the United States service in the rebellion three regiments, two battalions and one independent company of cavalry; six batteries of light artillery; and nineteen regiments and one independent company of infantry; comprising in all 48,855 men, including 2,217 sailors. Of these troops 8,718 were colored.

The Legislature which had been called in session "to deliberate and consider of the condition of the State" at Frederick City, first resolved that they had no authority to pass an ordinance of secession, and then proceeded to pass through the Senate a bill creating a Board of Public Safety, which it was claimed was "simply a substitute for an ordinance of secession." It then adopted resolutions in regard to the calling of a "sovereign convention" by a vote of 43 to 12 in the House, and 11 to 3 in the Senate. Both Houses appointed a Committee to visit the President of the United States and the "President of the Southern Confederacy." The Committee to visit the President of the United States reported that the purpose for which they were appointed was defeated by the movement of Federal troops on Virginia, and therefore they did not feel authorized to see the President. The Committee to wait on the "President of the Southern Confederacy" performed their duty, and brought back a letter from President Davis expressing his gratification that Maryland was listed on the side of peace and reconciliation.2

The Legislature adjourned from time to time until the seventeenth of September, 1861, when there was apprehension that it would pass an ordinance of secession. Simon Cameron, Secretary of War, sent an order to

1 History of Western Maryland, Scharf, Vol. 1, p. 299. Ibid., pp. 202, 203.