Maryland and the Civil War

April 29, 1861, is the day the state of Maryland made its decision and voted on whether or not to secede from the Union at the beginning of the Civil War. Maryland was a slave state, but it sat on the dividing line, and the citizens were especially conflicted when the Civil War came. It even bordered the nation's capital of Washington, DC. Sentiments ran high on both sides of the issue, and the first fatalities of the war came at the Baltimore Riots on April 18- 19, 1861.

Baltimore Riots

After tempestuous debates, the Maryland legislature voted not to secede from the Union, but that didn't end the controversy or the divisions. About 85,000 men would sign up to fight with the Union Army, and about a third of that number joined the Confederacy. Southern sympathizers had only to go across Maryland's southern border into Virginia to join the Confederate Amy.

Battle of Antietam 

Just like the debates, the fighting in Maryland grew fierce. The Maryland Campaign saw the Confederacy invade Maryland. Battles, like South Mountain, raged, and Antietam became the bloodiest day of the whole war. Even as the war ended, peace didn't come easily. Marylander, John Wilkes Booth assassinated President Lincoln, showing the bitterness some still clung to would remain for much too long across the nation.

Confederate dead at Antietam

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