"Maryland - A Southern Perspective
The story that needs to be told"
by Miss Carolyn S. Billups


For 135 years, the question of whether Maryland was a Northern State or a Southern State has been debated. The people of Maryland made many contributions to the Southern Cause.

The Mason-Dixon line, the border between Pennsylvania and Maryland, was surveyed 1763 - 1767. What is south of the Mason-Dixon line is considered the South. Maryland falls below the line, therefore, it is in the South.

The first blood of the War was spilt on April 19, 1861 as Southern-sympathizers attacked the 6th Massachusetts troops and 26th and 27th Pennsylvania Militia at President Street Station in Baltimore. Seventeen civilians were killed and many more wounded in this attack by foreign troops on Southern soil.

After hearing of the Baltimore massacre, James Ryder Randall, a Baltimorean teaching in Louisiana, was inspired to write the words for what became the official state song, Maryland, My Maryland, to call Maryland to secede from the Union. Two verses that show Southern sympathies are as follows:

Verse 1.

"The Despot's heel is on thy shore, his torch is at thy temple door,
Avenge the patriotic gore that flecked the streets of Baltimore,
and be the battle-queen of yore."
(Note: "The despot" refers to Abraham Lincoln.)

Verse 11.

"I hear the distant thunder hum, the old line's bugle fife and drum.
She is not dead, nor deaf, nor dumb. Huzzah! She spurns the Northern scum.
She breathes, she burns, she'll come, she'll come! Maryland, My Maryland!"

Abraham Lincoln sent Federal troops into Maryland to prevent secession. He suspended the writ of habeas corpus, in direct violation of the Constitution of the United States. Maryland State legislators who supported secession were thrown into prison at Fort McHenry in September, 1861, without being charged, before the vote could be taken.

Maryland sent at least 22,000 of her sons to fight for the Confederacy. The actual number is not known as many more fought under assumed names for fear that their property would be confiscated. Many more Marylanders crossed the river and fought in Virginia regiments.

The botony cross, the red and white portion of the modern Maryland State flag, was used on the uniforms and kepis of Maryland soldiers to distinguish them from the other soldiers. Until the War, the Maryland flag consisted of the yellow and black colors of the Calvert family. The red and white botony cross was adopted by those who sympathized with the South.

Following Lincoln's election in 1861, red and white "secession colors" appeared on various items of clothing. People displaying these red-and-white symbols of resistance to the Union and to Lincoln's policies were vigorously prosecuted by Federal authorities. The red and white botony cross was incorporated into the Maryland State flag as early as 1880. In 1904, the Maryland General Assembly officially adopted the current design as the state flag. In 1945 a gold botony cross was made the official ornament for a flagstaff carrying the Maryland flag.

General Robert E. Lee had two uniforms which sported Maryland buttons. One was made by ladies in Baltimore and the other made by ladies in Frederick and Carroll Counties.

Rear Admiral Raphael Thomas Semmes, commander of the CSS Alabama - the most successful Confederate raider in the fleet - was born in Charles County, Maryland and educated in St. Mary's County, Maryland.

Admiral Franklin Buchanan, born in Baltimore, commanded the CSS Virginia. A bullet wound received the day before prevented Buchanan from commanding the Virginia in its duel with the Monitor in 1862. Buchanan again showed his courage during the Battle of Mobile Bay on August 5, 1864, defending Mobile with the ram Tennessee.

Colonel Richard Thomas Zarvona, was from Chaptico, St. Mary's County. He devised and executed a scheme to capture a steamboat which would be used to capture the U.S.S. Pawnee, a Union warship. Zarvona, disguised as a French lady, and his Confederates, disguised as laborers, booked passage on the St. Nicholas. The "French lady's" trunks contained not fine gowns, but pistols, sabers and other weapons. Once the St. Nicholas reached the middle of the Potomac River, weapons were distributed, disguises abandoned, and the steamboat was captured. Unfortunately, the Pawnee did not arrive as scheduled, but Zarvona did capture three cargo vessels, conveying them and their cargo to Fredericksburg, Virginia.

General Bradley Tyler Johnson was born in Frederick, Maryland, organized his own regiment in 1861 and served with distinction in such engagements as the siege of Richmond in 1862, the campaign of Second Manassas under Stonewall Jackson, the raid with Jubal Early in Maryland when Confederate troops approached as near Baltimore as Elkridge Kennels and burned the mansion on the place. After the close of the war he moved to Richmond to live and spent the rest of his life in helping needy Confederate soldiers and attempting to establish the forces of peace as valiantly as he had supported the forces of the war.

Captain William Henry Murray was born in Anne Arundel County, Maryland. Previous to the War, he served with the Maryland Guard and was elected Captain of Company D. In May, 1861 he went to Richmond, Virginia and organized Company H and joined the 1st Maryland Infantry, C.S.A. at Winchester. He participated in the first battle of Manassas and was with Stonewall Jackson in the Valley Campaign, Front Royal, Winchester and Harrisonburg.

When the Company was disbanded at Staunton in June, 1862, its term of service having expired, Captain Murray returned to Richmond and organized Company A, 2nd Maryland Infantry in August that same year. The regiment served under General Jones during the winter of 1862 - 1863 in the Valley of Virginia and took part in the fight with General Milroy at Winchester. They crossed the Potomac at Sheperdstown, June 18, 1863 and were heavily engaged during the second and third days' fighting at Gettysburg.

Captain Murray was killed in the gallant charge on Culp's Hill on the morning of July 3, 1863, at the age of twenty-four. He was buried where he fell, fully fifty yards in front of the breastworks, but was afterwards removed to West River where he sleeps in the church yard of Christ Church. A monument was erected to the memory of Captain Murray and his fallen comrades at Loudon Park Cemetery in Baltimore City, Maryland.

The Reverend Doctor Randolph McKim, who had served as a Private in Captain Murray's company, spoke at that memorial service and described him as "every inch a soldier and Captain, and yet every whit a man. But his highest glory was that he was a man whom his soldiers could follow no less in the camp than on the field of battle, for his character was as pure as his honor untarnished, his soul as stainless as his sword."

James R. Wheeler was born in Cheltenham, England on May 21, 1843. His parents brought him to American in 1849. They lived first in Baltimore, then moved to Havre de Grace in Harford County.

In January, 1863, at the age of 20, under cover of darkness, Wheeler rode out of Union-held Baltmore to join the Confederate cavalry in Richmond, Virginia. For the next two years, Private Wheeler served with Co. E, 1st Maryland Cavalry. During those two years, he was captured and imprisoned twice. The first capture occurred on June 12, 1863 at New Winchester, Virginia and imprisoned at Fort McHenry, then transferred to Fortress Monroe, Virginia where he was exchanged on June 26, 1863. He managed to return to his unit but was captured again at Germania Ford four months later on October 10, 1863.

Private Wheeler was first imprisoned at Old Capitol Prison in Washington, then transferred to Point Lookout prison camp in St. Mary's County, Maryland. Private Wheeler endured the horros of that camp until the close of the War in 1865. Mr. Wheeler returned to civilian life in Baltimore, managing several businesses, becoming president of the Commonwealth Bank of Baltimore.

This position consumed much of his life's work yet he immersed himself totally into the concerns of the less fortunate people of Baltimore. He worked hard for the establishment of the Confederate Soldiers' Home in Pikesville, Maryland in 1888 and served as its chairman of the board for 24 years. In 1906, he provided a building for the Confederate Widow's Home and then purchased enough burial lots so that each of the residents was assured a final resting place in the Loudon Park Cemetery. On January 24, 1925, at the age of 81, James Russell Wheeler died. He was buried in the New Cathedral Cemetery on Old Frederick Road in West Baltimore. "Soldier, financier, citizen, he is above all, one who loves his fellow man."

John Wilkes Booth, born and raised in Harford County, Maryland, felt so strongly for the South that he eliminated "the Despot."

James Innis Randolph of Charles County, Maryland served on General Ewell's staff. He was bitter following the fall of the Confederacy and expressed his feelings by writing, "I'm A Good Old Rebel. "

Baltimore City has no less than twelve Confederate monuments located throughout the city.

These are but a few examples of Maryland's contributions to the Southern Cause.

Bibliography:

New Windsor Dictionary; Universal Book and Bible House, Philadelphia, PA, 1947
Baltimore American & Commercial Advertiser, Baltimore, Maryland, Saturday, April 20, 1861
The Sun, Baltimore, Maryland, Saturday, April 20, 1861
The South, Baltimore, Maryland, Monday evening, April 23,, 1861
Marylanders In The Confederacy; Hartzler, Daniel D.
A Bond of Brothers; Hartzler, Daniel D.
Protocol for the Maryland State Flag; Stiverson, Dr. Gregory, Maryland State Archives
Historical Time Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Civil War; Faust, Patricia L.
History of St. Mary's County Maryland 1634-1990; Hammett, Regina Combs Confederate Monuments In The Monumental City To The War Between The States; Tracy, Mable
James R. Wheeler Chapter NO. 1859, Chapter History; Williams, Donna K.

In addition to the above, three books have been recently published and are worthy of the reader's attention. They are:

The Civil War in Maryland; Toomey, Daniel Carroll; Toomey Press, Baltimore, MD
Maryland: The South's First Casualty; Talbert, Bart Rhett, Rockbridge Publishing Company, Berryville, VA
A Southern Star for Maryland: Maryland and the Sucession Crisis; Denton, Lawrence M., Publishing Concepts, Baltimore, MD