Civil War

Civil War Notes
By Madison Nef
This paper is a continuation of my last one. Last time, we saw where Kentucky and Missouri stood in the Civil War. In this paper, I’d like to discuss Maryland and Delaware. Let’s get started!

Maryland

Maryland was a very annoying state during the Civil War to Lincoln. The reason for this was due to its bothersome location. Baltimore and most of eastern Maryland favored the Confederacy, the Union 6th Regiment of Massachusetts was attacked by Baltimore in April, the pro-Confederates isolated Washington through destroying bridges and cutting the telegraph wires.

Due to this, Maryland’s state legislature voted to join and recognize the Confederacy... and Lincoln acted quite abruptly, afraid to lose another state to the Confederacy. He automatically sent troops into Baltimore to do a number of things: suspend the writ of habeas corpus in that part of the state, watch as Federals arrested pro-Confederate citizens, and to take large measures to make sure the Union won in the 1961 governor’s race.

Due to this, Maryland remained with the Union- but sent troops to both armies; 40,000 to the North and 20,000 to the South.

Delaware

Delaware; on the other hand, was always loyal to the Union, never staggering or doing anything to disprove it. There were a minimal number of slave-holders in the state, and its entire economic structure leaned towards the North. A very small number of Delaware citizens joined the Confederate army. The remainder of the state banded together with western Virginia citizens who still supported the Union, and formed West Virginia.

In the end, having control and the support of these border states was vital to the Union. Not only did they have control of major rivers such as the Mississippi, Tennessee and Cumberland, but they also had full access to them for battle and strategies.

On the other hand, the Confederates were denied many vital military resources, the access to these major rivers which would have proved useful during combat, animals, minerals, food, manpower, and obviously; land. Thus, the retention of these 4 border states was a large key victory point for the Union.

To sum everything up- all the political warfare and tug-of-war between the Union and the Confederacy over the 4 border states in the end produced a fifth border state- West Virginia- which sided with the Union as well.

~Maddie