Maryland

Maryland is a state located in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia, West Virginia, and Washington, DC to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east. The state's capital is Annapolis while its largest city is Baltimore. It has three occasionally used nicknames: the Old Line State, the Free State, and the Chesapeake Bay State.

One of the original Thirteen Colonies, Maryland is considered to be the birthplace of religious freedom in America, when it was formed in the early 17th century as an intended refuge for persecuted Catholics from England by George Calvert. He became the first Lord Baltimore and the first English proprietor of the then-Maryland colonial grant. Maryland was the seventh state to ratify the United States Constitution on April 28, 1788.

Before the American Civil War, it was one of the border states, straddling the North and South along with Kentucky and Missouri. Federal law permitted the sale of slaves within the state. Unlike Kentucky and Missouri which were admitted into the Confederate States of America under pro=Confederate governments, Maryland chose not to secede or establish a pro-Confederate government and there was rioting in Baltimore by pro-Confederate Marylanders. Of its 1860 population of 687,000, about 60,000 men joined the United States Army and about 25,000 fought for the Confederate States Army. Northern and Western areas of the state were especially close to the North while Southern and Eastern Maryland were especially close to the South. In each case, the political sentiments of these regions reflected their economic interests.

Maryland in The Guns of the South[]

Maryland was largely a pro-Union state during the Second American Revolution, the song "Maryland, My Maryland" notwithstanding. It remained part of the United States after the Confederate States renounced their claim to it, in negotiations held after the CSA won the Second American Revolution.

During the 1864 presidential election, Maryland was one of the 10 states that voted for Democratic candidate Horatio Seymour and allowed him to win the election. The state had seven electoral votes during the election.^[1]

Maryland in Joe Steele[]

Maryland went to Republican candidate Harold Stassen in the 1948 presidential election, despite the efforts of President Joe Steele's political machine.^[2] In the 1952 election, that problem was corrected, and Steele carried the states rather than Republican candidate Robert Taft.^[3]

Maryland in Southern Victory[]

Maryland was invaded by the Confederate States during the War of Secession in late 1862. Outside the town of Frederick, the Confederate cause almost came to grief in Maryland when a Confederate messenger nearly lost General Robert E. Lee's Special Orders 191. Those orders were recovered, and the Confederate invasion moved into Pennsylvania, where the campaign and the war was won at the Battle of Camp Hill.

In May and April of 1882, during the second cease-fire of Second Mexican War, Maryland was threatened with invasion again, only this time, the Confederates intended to annex the whole state if the Union didn't agree to quit the war on Confederate terms. US President Blane agreed to the demands before the threat was carried out.

During the Great War, the Confederate States, hoping to emulate Robert E. Lee's war-winning strategy, successfully invaded and occupied Maryland in 1914. The US Army finally liberated the whole state in the closing year of the war, 1917.

In 1944, during the final days of the Second Great War, Confederate General Clarence Potter passed through Maryland on his mission to plant a superbomb in Philadelphia. He noted how prosperous Maryland looked.

Twenty-ninth US President Upton Sinclair was born in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1878.

Maryland in The Two Georges[]

In the aftermath of the Seven Years' War, Maryland was one of a number of colonies that chafed under unrepresentative direct British rule. However, a new arrangement was peacefully negotiated forming the North American Union. Thus, Maryland was one of the oldest Provinces of the NAU.