Maryland Humanities Council

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Rebel Heels and Northern Scum: Maryland's Role in the Civil War

In response to the Confederates firing on Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861, Abraham Lincoln called for 75,000 volunteers to put down a rebellion. The President could not have predicted the impact on the state of Maryland. The first bloodshed of the Civil War occurred in Baltimore as troops responding to Lincoln’s call were fired upon. With this auspicious beginning, many other critical events of the war took place in Maryland including the Battle of Antietam in 1862--which made possible Lincoln's famous Emancipation Proclamation--and ending with the pursuit of his assassins through Maryland after his murder. This program highlights how our state played a pivotal role in our nation’s most tragic conflict.


 

Thomas G. Clemens is Professor of History Emeritus at Hagerstown Community College. He received his B.A. and M.A. in history from Salisbury State University and his D. A. from George Mason University. He is a Founding Member and President of Save Historic Antietam Foundation. Clemens recently published "The Maryland Campaign of September 1862, Volume I: South Mountain," the first part of a three-volume historical, annotated manuscript that details one of the most famous campaigns of the Civil War. In addition to eyewitness accounts, the manuscript includes maps and photos.  Volume II, which includes the battle of Antietam, was released in September of 2012. Volume III will include the battle of Shepherdstown Ford, a biographical dictionary, and some of the veterans' letters to Carman, and will be published in 2013.