Loyalty on the Line: Civil War Maryland in American Memory

During the American Civil War, Maryland did not join the Confederacy but nonetheless possessed divided loyalties and sentiments. Although Maryland\u27s government remained loyal to the Union during war, many regions and cities in the state harbored strong Confederate sympathies. In particular, Baltimore was a stronghold for Confederate sympathizers and became a central setting for contention between those supporting the Union and those in favor of secession and the secessionist cause. More than 46,000 Maryland soldiers fought for the Union while perhaps 25,000 soldiers from the state joined the Confederate Army. As a slaveholding state that did not secede, Maryland, along with Missouri and Kentucky, occupied a unique position in terms of its governmental policies on race and race relations. These divisions came to a head in the years following the war