Local Civil War
ACTION ALONG THE TRACKS
The Civil War along the B&O’s upper-Potomac Line
Presented by Steven French
Local Civil War
Sunday, July 11th 2:15PM-3:15PM & 3:30PM-4:30PM
PAW PAW TO ROWLESBURG
As the B&O passed through remote sections of the Potomac Valley and across the Allegheny Mountains, it presented Rebel raiders excellent opportunities to strike at isolated Union outposts guarding the line. The talk will focus on Herculean efforts by Gen. Benjamin F. Kelley to stymie these lightning raids. Also included will be discussions of the Battle of Oldtown, MD, Rosser’s capture of New Creek, WV, McNeill’s attack on the shops at Piedmont, WV, and “Grumble” Jones’ raid on Oakland, MD, and Rowlesburg, WV.
During the American Civil War, Maryland, was one of the border states, straddling the South and North. Despite some popular support for the cause of the Confederate States of America, Maryland would not secede during the Civil War. Because the state bordered the District of Columbia and the strong desire of the opposing factions within the state to sway public opinion towards their respective causes, Maryland played an important role in the war.
The single bloodiest day of combat in American military history occurred during the first major Confederate invasion of the North in the Maryland Campaign, just north above the Potomac River near Sharpsburg in Washington County, at the Battle of Antietam on September 17, 1862.
Preceded by the pivotal skirmishes at three mountain passes of Crampton, Fox and Turner's Gaps to the east in the Battle of South Mountain, Antietam (also known in the South as the Battle of Sharpsburg), though tactically a draw, was strategically enough of a Union victory in the second year of the war to give 16th President Abraham Lincoln the opportunity to issue in September 1862, the Emancipation Proclamation, taking effect January 1, 1863. Lincoln declared slaves in the rebelling states of the Confederacy but not those in the areas already occupied by the Union Army or in border slave states like Maryland, to be "henceforth and forever free".
Across the state, some 50,000 citizens signed up for the military, with most joining the United States Army. Approximately a tenth as many enlisted to "go South" and fight for the Confederacy. The most prominent Maryland leaders and officers during the Civil War included Governor Thomas H. Hicks who, despite his early sympathies for the South, helped prevent the state from seceding, and Confederate Brigadier General George H. Steuart, who was a noted brigade commander under Robert E. Lee in the Army of Northern Virginia.
Abolition of slavery in the State of Maryland came before the end of the war, with a new third constitution voted approval in 1864 by a small majority of Radical Republican Unionists then controlling the nominally Democratic state.
Presenter, Steve French, is a former middle school teacher and graduate of Hedgesville High School and Shepherd College. He has written several historical works on the Civil War and is revered for his extensive knowledge on this tumultuous time in American history. His writings include the multiple-award-winning Imboden’s Brigade in the Gettysburg Campaign, Rebel Chronicles: Raiders, Scouts and Train Robbers of the Upper Potomac, and Four Years Along the Tilhance: The Private Diary of Elisha Manor. He is also the author of over eighty historical articles that have appeared in numerous publications.
