civil war camps in maryland civil war camps in maryland

civil War original matches. Prisoners at Andersonville also made matters worse for themselves by relieving themselves where they gathered their drinking water, resulting in widespread outbreaks of disease, and by forming into gangs for the purpose of beating or murdering weaker men for food, supplies, and booty. [1] Culturally, geographically and economically, Maryland found herself neither one thing nor another, a unique blend of Southern agrarianism and Northern mercantilism. [45] This is the only time in United States military history that two regiments of the same numerical designation and from the same state have engaged each other in battle. This presentation, based on the speakers 2009 book Send for the Doctor, is available as a first person portrayal of Dr. Stonestreet or as a PowerPoint slide show. Some narration fills in the material and moves events relentlessly to Civil War. At its peak, over 20,000 Confederate soldiers occupied Point Lookout at any given time, more than double its intended occupancy. [citation needed], The first bloodshed of the Civil War occurred in Maryland. WebPoolesville Civil War Camps (1861 - 1865), at or near Poolesville Union garrison posts Commandants purposely cut ration sizes and quality for personal profit, leading to illness, scurvy, and starvation. Lincoln had wished to issue his proclamation earlier, but needed a military victory in order for his proclamation not to become self-defeating. [29] Civil authority in Baltimore was swiftly withdrawn from all those who had not been steadfastly in favor of the Federal Government's emergency measures.[30]. South July 21 Union troops occupy Harpers Ferry. Early defeated Union forces under Maj. Gen. Lew Wallace.The battle was part of Early's raid through the WebThirty pen and ink maps of the Maryland Campaign, 1862 : drawn from descriptive readings and map fragments Names Russell, Robert E. L. Created / Published Baltimore : Robert E. Lee Russell, 1932. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. All Rights Reserved. ContactMatthew Gagleor call 301-340-2825. Losses were extremely heavy on both sides; The Union suffered 12,401 casualties with 2,108 dead. The hospital staff is known to have assisted with the escape of several Maryland slaves while United States Colored Troops served as guards at the prison camp. On April 14, 1865 the actor John Wilkes Booth assassinated President Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C. After he shot Lincoln, Booth shouted "Sic semper tyrannis" ("Thus always to tyrants"). [74] The new constitution emancipated the state's slaves (who had not been freed by President Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation), disenfranchised southern sympathizers, and re-apportioned the General Assembly based upon white inhabitants. It was actually two miles downriver in a placid, sandy-bottomed part of the Potomac on John Rowzees farm. J.E.B. [60] Hagerstown too would also suffer a similar fate. A Field Guide to Civil War Statues in WashingtonSpeaker: James H. Johnston. This presentation, based on the speakers 2009 book, 2023 Montgomery County History Conference, African American History in Montgomery County, Stonestreet Museum of 19th Century Medicine. Union Army Surgeon Dr. Edward Stonestreet & His Civil War Hospital in RockvilleSpeaker: Clarence Hickey. Sign up for our quarterly email series highlighting the environmental benefits of battlefield preservation. Overcrowding brutalized camp conditions in many ways. Some, like physician Richard Sprigg Steuart, remained in Maryland, offered covert support for the South, and refused to sign an oath of loyalty to the Union. Stuarts actions proved a catastrophe for the Confederacy because he should have been with Robert E. Lees army in Pennsylvania. In early summer 1864, theUnions prospects for victory in the Civil War brightened when Union General Ulysses Grant besiegedRichmond. While it emancipated the state's slaves, it did not mean equality for them, in part because the franchise continued to be restricted to white males. Archaeological work is continuing on the only blockhouse now located on county park land at Blockhouse Point. In the 14 months of its existence, 45,000 prisoners were received at Andersonville prison, and of these nearly 13,000 died. [45] It was agreed that Arnold Elzey, a seasoned career officer from Maryland, would command the 1st Maryland Regiment. WebCivil War Prison Camps Suffering and Survival Harpers Weekly depiction of Even though antebellum prison buildings provided some protection from the elements, blistering summers and brutal winters weakened the immune systems of the already malnourished and shabbily clothed Rebel prisoners. [75] Those voting at their usual polling places were opposed to the Constitution by 29,536 to 27,541. Real and reproduction Civil War-era medical instruments will be shown and used, along with a variety of Civil War-era bullets, Minie balls, grape shot, buck shot, clusters, and other slugs (all inert, safe, and with no gun powder) that created many of the battlefield wounds that the surgeons had to treat. Slave wealth and entrepreneurship in Civil War Maryland. The nature of the deaths and the reasons for them are a continuing source of controversy. The use of triage, general anesthesia, and pain management will be discussed. [14], Hearing no immediate reply from Washington, on the evening of April 19 Governor Hicks and Mayor Brown ordered the destruction of railroad bridges leading into the city from the North, preventing further incursions by Union soldiers. Civil War Campgrounds Marker Inscription. Life in a CCC Camp SHOP Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, consisting of about 40,000 men, had entered Maryland following their recent victory at Second Bull Run. See chart and explanation, p. 550. For a time it looked as if Maryland was one provocation away from joining the rebels, but Lincoln moved swiftly to defuse the situation, promising that the troops were needed purely to defend Washington, not to attack the South. Join this descendant of Civil War veterans, who shares songs and stories from the War Between the States, wearing both blue and gray, and accompanying himself on guitar. Overcrowding was yet again a major problem. MARYLAND ESTATE CIVIL WAR REGIMENTAL FLAGPOLE EAGLE FINIAL, BOOK DOCUMENTED TYPE. Fearing that Union forces could cause a jailbreak at Andersonville, a new Union POW camp was established in Florence, South Carolina. WebConfederate prisoners of war who secured their release from prison by enlisting in the Union Army, were recruited: Alton, Illinois (rolls 1320); Camp Douglas, Illinois (rolls 5364); Camp Morton, Illinois (rolls 99103); Point Lookout, Maryland (rolls 111129); and Rock Island, Illinois (rolls 131135.) Hatboro, PA: Tradition Press, Whitman H. Ridgway. [74] Article 24 of the constitution at last outlawed the practice of slavery. 56,000 men died in prison camps over the course of the war, accounting for roughly 10% of the war's total death toll and exceeding American combat losses in World War I, Korea, and Vietnam. Arrests of Confederate sympathizers and those critical of Lincoln and the war soon followed, and Steuart's brother, the militia general George H. Steuart, fled to Charlottesville, Virginia, after which much of his family's property was confiscated by the Federal Government. Despite the controversial number Confederates claiming only a few hundred and the Union claiming upwards of 15,000 mortalities the dreadful conditions Federal prisoners faced is unquestionable. Rockville, Maryland in the Civil War Speaker: Eileen McGuckian, As a small county seat located at the intersection of major roads in a slave-holding border state close the nations capital, Rockville saw considerable action during the Civil War. [3] In all nine newspapers were shut down in Maryland by the federal government, and a dozen newspaper owners and editors like Howard were imprisoned without charges.[3]. Marylands POW Camps in World War II. WebThe Heart of the Civil War Heritage Area is ideally positioned to serve as your "base camp" for driving the popular Civil War Trails and visiting the battlefields and sites of Antietam, Gettysburg, Monocacy, South Mountain, Harpers Ferry, Baltimore and Washington, D.C. Camp Washington (3) - A Union U.S. Civil War Camp in New York (1861-1862). Harris (2011) pp. By December of that year, more than 9,000 were imprisoned. Provided by Touchpoints Contact Info Mailing Address: The document, which replaced the Maryland Constitution of 1851, was largely advocated by Unionists who had secured control of the state, and was framed by a Convention which met at Annapolis in April 1864. Most of the men enlisted into regiments from Virginia or the Carolinas, but six companies of Marylanders formed at Harpers Ferry into the Maryland Battalion. Jim Johnston uses the statues to tell the story of the Civil War and of the artistry that went into them. A brochure published by the home in the 1890s described it as: a haven of rest to which they may retire and find refuge, and, at the same time, lose none of their self-respect, nor suffer in the estimation of those whose experience in life is more fortunate.[83]. Maryland had ratified the Thirteenth Amendment on February 3, 1865, within three days of it being submitted to the states. [28] By May 21 there was no need to send further troops. WebSeal of Maryland during the war. On September 17, 1861, the first day of the Maryland legislature's new session, fully one third of the members of the Maryland General Assembly were arrested, due to federal concerns that the Assembly "would aid the anticipated rebel invasion and would attempt to take the state out of the Union. If I am attacked to-night, please open upon Monument Square with your mortars. Candace Ridington portrays all of the characters using a mix of props and clothing alterations. Although Union leadership mandated a ceiling of 4,000 prisoners at Elmira, within a month of its opening that numbered had swelled to 12,123 men. [35] Two of the publishers selling his book were then arrested. The barracks were so filthy and infested that the commission claimed, nothing but fire can cleanse them.". Another was the 4th United States Colored Troops, whose Sergeant Major, Christian Fleetwood was awarded the Medal of Honor for rallying the regiment and saving its colors in the successful assault on New Market Heights.[54]. Lucius Eugene Chittenden, U.S. Treasurer during the Lincoln Administration, described the dreadful and horrifying conditions Union soldiers found at Belle Isle: "In a semi-state of nuditylaboring under such diseases as chronic diarrhea, scurvy, frost bites, general debility, caused by starvation, neglect and exposure, many of them had partially lost their reason, forgetting even the date of their capture, and everything connected with their antecedent history. The issue of slavery was finally confronted by the constitution which the state adopted in 1864. On September 14, 1862, Union forces led by Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan met Gen. Robert E. Lee s divided army at the Battle of South Mountain. In the early months of the camp's existence, the conditions inside Salisbury were quite good, relatively speaking. [84] Easton, Maryland also has a Confederate monument. Antietam Camp #3 is part of the Department of the Chesapeake, which includes Delaware, the District of Columbia, Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia. This history of the 1st U.S.C.T., credited to the District of Columbia contains roster on pp. [20] On April 29, the Legislature voted decisively 5313 against secession,[21][22] though they also voted not to reopen rail links with the North, and they requested that Lincoln remove Union troops from Maryland. WebDuring the Civil War, Baltimore had 44 forts, batteries, redoubts, and armed camps, and about 20 unarmed camps (hospitals, POW, etc.) Alton Federal Prison, originally a civilian criminal prison, also exhibited the same sort of horrifying conditions brought on by overcrowding. WebThe Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System currently includes information about two Civil [62] The order indicated that Lee had divided his army and dispersed portions geographically (to Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, and Hagerstown, Maryland), thus making each subject to isolation and defeat in detail - if McClellan could move quickly enough. (PowerPoint presentation.). In this case U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice, and native Marylander, Roger B. Taney, acting as a federal circuit court judge, ruled that the arrest of Merryman was unconstitutional without Congressional authorization, which Lincoln could not then secure: The President, under the Constitution and laws of the United States, cannot suspend the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus, nor authorize any military officer to do so. Not all those who sympathised with the rebels would abandon their homes and join the Confederacy. WebColonial Wars Pequot War French & Iroquois Wars King Philip's War Pueblo Rebellion This PowerPoint presentation covers both the Civil War history of the camps at Muddy Branch and the history and archaeology of its outpost blockhouse and camp located within Blockhouse Point Conservation Park. WebThe Battle of Monocacy (also known as Monocacy Junction) was fought on July 9, 1864, about 6 miles (9.7 km) from Frederick, Maryland, as part of the Valley Campaigns of 1864 during the American Civil War. While they often wrote frankly of the carnage wrought by bullets smashing limbs and grapeshot tearing ragged holes through advancing lines, many soldiers described their prisoner of war experiences as a more heinous undertaking altogether. Lincoln ignored the ruling of Chief Justice Roger B. Taney in "Ex parte Merryman" decision in 1861 concerning freeing John Merryman, a prominent Southern sympathizer arrested by the military. WebColonial Wars Pequot War French & Iroquois Wars King Philip's War Pueblo Rebellion King William's War Queen Anne's War Tuscarora War Dummer's War King George's War French & Indian War Pontiac's Rebellion Lord Dunmore's War American Wars Revolutionary War Tripolitan War Tecumseh's War War of 1812 Creek Indian War The First Seminole War Indeed, on the whole there appear to have been twice as many black Marylanders serving in the U.S.C.T. When the writ was delivered to General Andrew Porter Provost Marshal of the District of Columbia he had both the lawyer delivering the writ and the United States Circuit Judge, Marylander William Matthew Merrick, who issued the writ, arrested to prevent them from proceeding in the case United States ex rel. However, a number of leading citizens, including physician and slaveholder Richard Sprigg Steuart, placed considerable pressure on Governor Hicks to summon the state Legislature to vote on secession, following Hicks to Annapolis with a number of fellow citizens: to insist on his [Hicks] issuing his proclamation for the Legislature to convene, believing that this body (and not himself and his party) should decide the fate of our stateif the Governor and his party continued to refuse this demand that it would be necessary to depose him. The federal troops executing Judge Carmichael's arrest beat him unconscious in his courthouse while his court was in session, before dragging him out, initiating a public controversy. The battle of Antietam stopped the Confederate Army's first march to the north and produced Candace Ridington portrays a nurse reminiscing about her time of service in Washington, D.C., during the Civil War when the nursing profession struggled to create itself. Randolph McKim, Numerical Strength of the Confederate Army, New York, 1912. It did not affect Maryland. [15] One of the men involved in this destruction would be arrested for it in May without recourse to habeas corpus, leading to the ex parte Merryman ruling. Situated on a 54-acre island within the James River, a stone's throw away from the Confederate capital of Richmond, Belle Isle received the ire of Northern politicians and poets alike. This is a common thread among camps over the course of the Civil War. 45-50 minutes. [76] Other witnesses including Booth himself claimed that he only yelled "Sic semper! 1864. Meanwhile, General Winfield Scott, who was in charge of military operations in Maryland indicated in correspondence with the head of Pennsylvania troops that the route through Baltimore would resume once sufficient troops were available to secure Baltimore.[17]. "Southern sympathies: The Civil War on Maryland's eastern shore" (Thesis. We Were There, Too: Nurses in the Civil War Reenactor: Candace Ridington. A presentation in PowerPoint format about five remarkable women who made important contributions to the Union cause at various stages before, during, and after the critical years of the American Civil War. 62-65. His neighbors are so bitter against him that he dare not go home, and he committed himself so decidedly on the 19th April and is known to be so decided a Southerner, that it more than likely he would be thrown into a Fort. [12] Panicked by the situation, several soldiers fired into the mob, whether "accidentally", "in a desultory manner", or "by the command of the officers" is unclear. The battlefield medical care offered to Americas military today has its roots firmly planted in the innovative medical care of the American Civil War. He was in charge of a temporary Army General Hospital in Rockville, treating the wounded after the Battle of Antietam (1862), and also treated the ill soldiers of the 6th Michigan Cavalry Regiment in Rockville (1863) prior to its heroic efforts during the Battle of Gettysburg. "Through Storm and Sunshine": Valorous Vivandires in the Civil War, Point Lookout State Park and Civil War Museum. Florence Stockade operated from September 1864 to February 1865 and 15,000 to 18,000 Union soldiers were processed through the camp. The Constitution of 1867 overturned the registry test oath embedded in the 1864 constitution. However, Wallace delayed Early for nearly a full day, buying enough time for Ulysses S. Grant to send reinforcements from the Army of the Potomac to the Washington defenses. With a death rate approaching 25%, Elmira was one of the deadliest Union-operated POW camps of the entire war. Camp Washington (4) - A Union U.S. Civil War Camp in Kentucky (1861). WebBegun in 1863 with the support of the Union League, eleven regiments were formed at Camp William Penn, the first Pennsylvania camp for volunteer African American regiments. ", Cannon, Jessica Ann. The speaker brings a doctors bag from 1885 containing example medical instruments of the Civil War and the 1800s for show and tell. [55] Later in 1861, Baltimore resident W W Glenn described Steuart as a fugitive from the authorities: I was spending the evening out when a footstep approached my chair from behind and a hand was laid upon me. Merrick's fellow judges took up the case and ordered General Porter to appear before them, but Lincoln's Secretary of State Seward prevented the federal marshal from delivering the court order. During the early summer of 1861, several thousand Marylanders crossed the Potomac to join the Confederate Army. It has been estimated that, of the state's 1860 population of 687,000, about 4,000 Marylanders traveled south to fight for the Confederacy. To serve as early warning stations on bluffs overlooking the Potomac, Union troops built a series of blockhouses. Stuarts Wild Ride Through Montgomery CountySpeaker: Robert Plumb. After Atlanta fell to Union forces in September 1864, Confederates forces scrabbled to scatter the 30,000 Union soldiers imprisoned at Andersonville Prison in Macon County, Georgia. [40], In another controversial arrest that fall, and in further defiance of Chief Justice Taney's ruling, a sitting U.S. [citation needed] Most of these volunteers tended to hail from southern and eastern counties of the state, while northern and western Maryland furnished more volunteers for the Union armies. 2023 Montgomery County Historical Society. Early defeated Union troops under Maj. Gen. Lew Wallace. In addition to the high frequency of scurvy, many prisoners endured intense bouts of dysentery which further weakened their frail bodies. Plumbs newest book,The Better Angels, will be published by Potomac Books, an imprint of University of Nebraska Press, in March of 2020. P ri mary source material documenting the inhumane conditions in Civil War prisoner of war camps abounds. Because Maryland's sympathies were divided, many Marylanders would fight one another during the conflict. The 120 or so Union soldiers interned there were fed meager yet adequate rations, sanitation was passable, shielding from the elements was provided, and the prisoners were even allowed to play recreational games such as baseball. By the time the Civil War ended, more 52,000 prisoners had passed through Point Lookout, with upwards of 4,000 succumbing to various illnesses brought on by overcrowding, bad sanitation, exposure, and soiled water. [51], A similar situation existed in relation to Marylanders serving in the United States Colored Troops. Some soldiers fared better in terms of shelter, clothing, rations, and overall treatment by their captors. [45] Its initial term of duty was for twelve months.[48]. His executive officer was the Marylander George H. Steuart, who would later be known as "Maryland Steuart" to distinguish him from his more famous cavalry colleague J.E.B. Donations to the Trust are tax deductible to the full extent allowable under the law. False history marginalizes African Americans and makes us all dumber", Point Lookout History, Maryland Department of Natural Resources, "TimesMachine April 15, 1865 - New York Times", "Lee-Jackson Memorial" Smithsonian Art Inventories Catalog, "Confederate monuments taken down in Baltimore overnight", www.waymarking.com Rockville Civil War Monument - Rockville, Maryland, "As Confederate symbols come down, 'Talbot Boys' endures", National Park Service map of Civil War sites in Maryland, List of Union Civil War monuments and memorials, List of memorials to the Grand Army of the Republic, Confederate artworks in the United States Capitol, List of Confederate monuments and memorials, Removal of Confederate monuments and memorials. as white Marylanders in the Confederate army. [46], Maryland Exiles, including Arnold Elzey and brigadier general George H. Steuart, would organize a "Maryland Line" in the Army of Northern Virginia which eventually consisted of one infantry regiment, one infantry battalion, two cavalry battalions and four battalions of artillery. "[36] Although previous secession votes, in spring 1861, had failed by large margins,[22] there were legitimate concerns that the war-averse Assembly would further impede the federal government's use of Maryland infrastructure to wage war on the South. One notable Maryland front line regiment was the 2nd Maryland Infantry, which saw considerable combat action in the Union IX Corps. In 1861, while the population was quite low, the death rate hovered around 2%. Every purchase supports the mission. WebCamp Hoffman (1) (1863-1865) - A Union U.S. Civil War prison camp established in 1863 on Point Lookout, Saint Mary's County, Maryland. [18], Responding to pressure, on April 22 Governor Hicks finally announced that the state legislature would meet in a special session in Frederick, a strongly pro-Union town, rather than the state capital of Annapolis. During the American Civil War (18611865), Maryland, a slave state, was one of the border states, straddling the South and North. In March 1862, the Maryland Assembly passed a series of resolutions, stating that: This war is prosecuted by the Nation with but one object, that, namely, of a restoration of the Union just as it was when the rebellion broke out. The Presidency of Abraham Lincoln (18611865) suspended the constitutional right of habeas corpus from Washington to Philadelphia. In some instances, however, simple error and ignorance devolved into treachery and malicious intent, culminating in tragic losses of human life. [38][39], The following month in November 1861, Judge Richard Bennett Carmichael, a presiding state circuit court judge in Maryland, was imprisoned without charge for releasing, due to his concern that arrests were arbitrary and civil liberties had been violated, many of the southern sympathizers seized in his jurisdiction. Because our textbooks and monuments are wrong. WebParole Camp Annapolis, Maryland, 1864. A similar disregard for human life developed at Camp Douglas, also known as the Andersonville of the North." The First American President: Setting the Precedent, African Americans During the Revolutionary War, Save 42 Historic Acres at the Battle of Chancellorsville, Phase Three of Gaines Mill-Cold Harbor Saved Forever Campaign, An Unparalleled Preservation Opportunity at Gettysburg Battlefield, For Sale: Three Battlefield Tracts Spanning Three Wars, Preserve 128 Sacred Acres at Antietam and Shepherdstown. Thomas Livermore, Numbers and Losses in the Civil War, Boston, 1900. [citation needed]. Jubal Earlys Attack on WashingtonSpeaker: James H. Johnston. [6] Not all blacks in Maryland were slaves. Based on a letter that Dora, an ardent abolitionist, wrote to her mother describing her trials as rebel general J.E.B. Most Marylanders fought for the Union, but after the war a number of memorials were erected in sympathy with the Lost Cause of the Confederacy, including in Baltimore a Confederate Women's Monument, and a Confederate Soldiers and Sailors Monument. By October of 1864, the number of Union prisoners inside Salisbury swelled to more than 5,000 men, and within a few more months that number skyrocketed to more than 10,000. [66], Lee's setback at the Battle of Antietam can also be seen as a turning point in that it may have dissuaded the governments of France and Great Britain from recognizing the Confederacy, doubting the South's ability to maintain and win the war.[67]. However, the issues raised by Andersonville were shared by many camps on both sides. [5] Frederick would later be extorted by Jubal Early, who threatened to burn down the city if its residents did not pay a ransom. If they were lucky, several men could be crammed into thin canvas tents, but most were forced to construct their own drafty shelters.