which provided 75,000 Union soldiers,rnhas almost become synonymous with thernSouth, while Maryland, if anyone noticesrnher at all, has been moved north ofrnthe Mason-Dixon Line.rnAs evidenced by the election of 1860,rnMaryland’s politics prior to the occupationrnmirrored those of the South. Thernelection results belie the revisionist contentionrnthat only Maryland’s southernmostrncounties and her Eastern Shorernwere aligned with the rest of the South,rnwhile the western and central sechons ofrnthe state were sympathetic to the North.rnLincoln and Douglas together receivedrnless than ten percent of Marylanders’rnvotes. Although secessionist fervor wasrnrampant on the Eastern Shore and in thernlower counties of the Western Shore —rnpeople in St. Mary’s to this day still rememberrnthe name of the only man inrnthe county who voted for Lincoln—thernmajority of Marylanders, like the majorityrnof Southerners, voted either for Breckenridgernor for Bell, both supporters ofrnstates’ rights. In spite of the fact thatrnMaryland was home to more free blacksrnthan any other state in the union, Breckenridge,rnconsidered the extremist Southernrncandidate, was favored, if just by 737rnvotes, over the more moderate Bell. Butrnin the aftermath of Fort Sumter and Lincoln’srncall for 75,000 volunteers, Maryland,rnlaboring under the illusion that shernwas a free and sovereign state, hesitatedrnin seceding because she was waiting tornsee whether her “erring” sister Virginiarnwould depart. By the time Maryland’srnlegislators, the majority of whom were secessionists,rnwere to meet to vote on thernmatter of secession. Northern troops hadrncrossed Maryland’s border, and Lincolnrnhad suspended habeas corpus and orderedrnthe arrest of the General Assembly.rnSupreme Court Chief Justice RogerrnTaney was one of many Marylandersrnwho stood up to Lincoln and his outrages.rnTaney, like Sir Thomas More,rnwould have given the Devil himself benefitrnof law and defended unionist, secessionist,rnslaveholder, and Abolitionistrnalike from a fast and loose interpretationrnof the Constitution. While he denouncedrnslavery from the bench andrnfreed his own slaves years before the war,rnTaney is most famous for delivering thernmajority opinion in the Dred Scott v.rnSandford case of 1857, a ruling whichrnmany believe led directly to the war. Inrn1861, the pro-union Chief Justice challengedrnLincoln’s constitutional abuses.rnThe arrogant dismissal by Lincoln’srnagents of the writs of attachment andrnhabeas corpus issued by Taney in thernJohn Merryman trial in May of that year,rnhowever, left Taney with no recourse butrnto ask Lincoln to render to Maryland thatrnwhich was her birthright.rnAlong with Taney, other Marylandersrnwere key players during these turbulentrntimes. Born in Charles County, RosernO’Neal Greenhow, known as RebelrnRose, engaged in espionage right underrnthe enemy’s noses in Washington, D.C.,rnand provided the military intelligencernthat contributed to Beauregard’s victoryrnover McDowell at First Manassas. Alsornfrom Charles County, Admiral RaphaelrnSemmes served the Confederacy as therncommander of the A/czfcdm<3. Henry KydrnDouglas from Washington County inrnwestern Maryland rode at Stonewall’srnside until the general’s death followingrnChancellorsville, and maintained in hisrnmemoirs that the Barbara Fritchie talerntold by Whittier was a Yankee fabrication.rnAnd of course, southern Maryland’srnDr. Samuel Mudd is famous forrnsetting the broken leg of the era’s mostrnnotorious villain, Bel Air-born JohnrnWilkes Booth —actor, assassin, andrncharmer of boarding-house proprietressrnMary Elizabeth Surratt, also a Marylander.rnAn aging widow beguiled by thernhandsome Booth, Mrs. Surratt paid dearlyrnfor her infatuation: following a hellishrnimprisonment, she was hanged as a coconspiratorrnin the assassination of Lincoln.rnA devout Catholic, she swore herrninnocence from the Old Capitol Prisonrngallows even after she had received thernlast rites of the Church.rnWithout skewing events in favor of arnfeminist ideology, historians will findrnthat women have always been prominentrnin Maryland’s history. In an Episcopalrnchurchyard in Chaptico liesrnCatharine Hayden, another heroine ofrnthe war. Known as the Angel of Chaptico,rnshe was a young epileptic womanrnwho, at great peril to her life, obtainedrnmedicines from her physician brotherin-rnlaw and tended to the suffering Confederaternsoldiers who often hid themselvesrnin the woods surrounding herrnhome. Hungry, wounded, and seekingrnaid. Confederates continuously crossedrnthe Potomac into southern Maryland usingrna well-developed ferry system. As laternas the turn of the century, CatharinernHayden’s family received letters of condolencernfrom all over the South whenrnSouthern veterans, attending reunionsrnyears after the war, learned of her deathrnon December 26, 1872.rnAt first glance, there might seem to berna contradiction in honoring both secessionistrnCatharine Hayden and FrederickrnDouglass, who rose up from bondage onrna plantation on Maryland’s EasternrnShore and escaped to the “PromisedrnLand” only to be attacked, while onrnspeaking tours, by mobs in Pennsylvania,rnNew York, and Indiana. But both werernfighting for freedom. Douglass, a spellbindingrnorator and statesman, prevailedrnover the Northern and Southern racialismrnof the times without benefit of affirmativernaction or welfare. The same revisionistsrnwho hope that we never learnrnthat Yankee slavers, Europeans, andrneven some Africans all profited from slaveryrnwould also trivialize Douglass’s victoryrnover slavery in their endeavors to prettyrnup America’s history.rnA few years ago, a local paper representingrnnot-so-local interests featured anrnarticle about Sotterly Plantation on thernPatuxent River in southern Maryland.rnThe article described the plantation director’srnreluctance to repair Sotterly’srnrapidly deteriorating slave quarters becausernhe believed that by restoring therncabins he was condoning slavery. WhenrnI read the article, I wondered how one individualrnhad grown so great that he couldrnpresume to question the wisdom of preservingrnthe last vestiges of Maryland’srnpast.rnBecause little remains of our Southernrnidentity, Marylanders can afford nornmore tampering with our history. Ourrnoystermen and tobacco farmers are alreadyrnmuseum pieces. They’re nailingrnup brass whales even-where and openingrn”ye olde Yankee shoppes” in towns likernSt. Michael’s; “you guys” is replacingrn>n in Rockford,rnEat atrnLee’s Chinese Restaurantrn3443 N. Main StreetrnAUGUST 1998/49rnrnrn