A Visit To Civil War Maryland On Independence Day
For the past several years, I have tried to write a review on the Fourth of July appropriate to the themes of the day. This year, I am reviewing "Maryland in the Civil War" (2013), a photographic history in the Images of America series of local American histories. I thought this book about the war which divided our country followed by a tenuous union would make an appropriate subject for reflection on July Fourth. More specifically, Maryland was a border state which itself was divided in support between the Union and the Confederacy. Its loss to the Union would have been catastrophic. Maryland's divisions then reminded me of our divided country today. I live in Washington, D.C. close to the Maryland border.
Maryland's large role in the Civil War can't be adequately covered in a 128 page photographic history. Nevertheless, the book's authors, Mark and Dreama Swank, have selected excellent and varied images and provided good commentary to give a brief overview. The images, drawn from various government archives, offer good views of Civil War Maryland, some of which will be familiar to students of the period (such as the photo of Lincoln and General George McClellan meeting after the battle of Antietam and the photo of the hanging of the Lincoln conspirators) while other are unusual.
The book's opening chapters highlight Maryland's role as a border state with photos new to me showing the riots in Maryland involving Union troops and Confederate sympathizers during the earliest days of the war. The second chapter of the book follows-up on Maryland's divided character by showing the large role the state played in spying and intelligence-gathering throughout the War for both the Union and the Confederacy.
The battle of Antietam of September 17, 1862, receives the largest share of attention in the book with many now iconic photographs by William Gardner. The devastation of Antietam is well conveyed in this book with many moving photographs of America's bloodiest day. Other parts of the campaign leading to Antietam could have been given more attention . But the book captures the battle itself and its aftermath as well as the terrain and the historic buildings and homes of the period.
The book includes excellent photographs of Maryland's role as a railroad hub and of various Confederate attempts to disrupt the hub. The book covers well Point Lookout, a prisoner of war camp in which many Confederate prisoners died as well as the large Union hospital system in Maryland. A brief chapter of the book discusses the Lincoln assassination because many of the principle figures were Maryland natives. The final section of the book includes images of famous Marylanders on both sides of the line, including Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, and Raphael Semmes, the Captain of the Confederate commerce raider, the CSS Alabama.
This is a good if basic book for readers wanting a short photographic history of Maryland in the Civil War. A brief bibliography would have been a welcome addition. There is always something to learn about the Civil War, and there are many books devoted to Maryland's role in the conflict. Still, this book served its purpose in reminding me of our divided country and of the precious nature of our freedom and independence on this Independence Day in 2017.
