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Cover image of Maryland Voices of the Civil War
Cover image of Maryland Voices of the Civil War
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Maryland Voices of the Civil War

edited by Charles W. Mitchell

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Winner, 2007-2008 Founders Award. The Museum of the Confederacy

Winner of the Founders Award from the American Civil War Museum
The most contentious event in our nation’s history, the Civil War deeply divided families, friends, and communities. Both sides fought to define the conflict on their own terms—Lincoln and his supporters struggled to preserve the Union and end slavery, while the Confederacy waged a battle for the primacy of local liberty or "states' rights." But the war had its own peculiar effects on the four border slave states that remained loyal to the Union. Internal disputes and...

Winner, 2007-2008 Founders Award. The Museum of the Confederacy

Winner of the Founders Award from the American Civil War Museum
The most contentious event in our nation’s history, the Civil War deeply divided families, friends, and communities. Both sides fought to define the conflict on their own terms—Lincoln and his supporters struggled to preserve the Union and end slavery, while the Confederacy waged a battle for the primacy of local liberty or "states' rights." But the war had its own peculiar effects on the four border slave states that remained loyal to the Union. Internal disputes and shifting allegiances injected uncertainty, apprehension, and violence into the everyday lives of their citizens.

No state better exemplified the vital role of a border state than Maryland—where the passage of time has not dampened debates over issues such as the alleged right of secession and executive power versus civil liberties in wartime. In Maryland Voices of the Civil War, Charles W. Mitchell draws upon hundreds of letters, diaries, and period newspapers—many previously unpublished—to portray the passions of a wide variety of people—merchants, slaves, soldiers, politicians, freedmen, women, clergy, slave owners, civic leaders, and children—caught in the emotional vise of war. Mitchell tells the compelling story of how Maryland African Americans escaped from slavery and fought for the Union and their freedom alongside white soldiers and he reinforces the provocative notion that Maryland’s Southern sympathies—while genuine—never seriously threatened to bring about a Confederate Maryland.

Maryland Voices of the Civil War illuminates the human complexities of the Civil War era and the political realignment that enabled Marylanders to abolish slavery in their state before the end of the war.

Reviews

Reviews

Mitchell's remarkable new book lets us listen and understand how the great war was fought to save the union, this state and our national soul.

Using excerpts from personal correspondence, journals, and newspapers from that period, Mitchell frames the issues (states' rights, slavery, secession) and the state's role in the conflict in both political and personal terms. There's plenty of bravado from the warriors, but Mitchell also does an excellent job including the voices of people who are simply snagged by the war... giving it more diversity and range.

A generously illustrated history of Maryland during the Civil War using documents from the time... Mitchell records gore for purpose and with meaning.

Both fascinating and illuminating... Maryland Voices of the Civil War belongs not only in libraries and schools, but also on the bookshelves of everyone interested in this state or that era.

Unlike other Civil War books, Voices focuses on the civilians that left behind written documentation about their experiences.

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About

Book Details

Publication Date
Status
Available
Trim Size
7
x
10
Pages
568
ISBN
9780801886218
Illustration Description
41 halftones, 52 line drawings
Table of Contents

Preface
Acknowledgments
Editorial Metho
Introduction
Part I: Indecision
1. Fall 1860–Winter 1861
2. April 1861
3. May 1861
4. Summer 1861
Part II: "Occupation"
5. Federals
6. Recruits
7. Arrests
8. Prison
9. Rebels

Preface
Acknowledgments
Editorial Metho
Introduction
Part I: Indecision
1. Fall 1860–Winter 1861
2. April 1861
3. May 1861
4. Summer 1861
Part II: "Occupation"
5. Federals
6. Recruits
7. Arrests
8. Prison
9. Rebels
Part III: Liberation
10. Slaves
11. Black Troops
12. Freedom?
13. Murder
Epilogue
Abbreviations for Frequently Cited Sources
Notes
Bibliographic Note
Index

Author Bio
Featured Contributor

Charles W. Mitchell

Charles W. Mitchell, a Marylander by birth and by choice, is a writer descended from a congressman, a pirate, and two Confederate officers who appear in the pages of this book. The ancestors of his wife, Betsy, include eleven Union soldiers, Pennsylvanians all. Charley and Betsy, and their two children, Abbie and Alec, live in Lutherville, Maryland.