Lincoln Prevents Marylands Secession
Many wonder why the state of Maryland was so severly split in her loyalty to the Union and the Confederacy. She was considered to be a Southern State and was heavily dependant on slave labor. It was believed she would follow Virginia out of the Union.
Her legislature was overwhelmingly for secession. But, not all of its citizens knew the voted outcome before Lincoln intervened. President Lincoln was quick to prevent Marylands secession by having the leading members of Marylands legislature thrown into jail and kept there until Lincoln was assured there would be no secession.
Had Maryland seceded, the nations capital would have been completely surrounded by seceded territory. The B&O Railroad, the National Road, and the Northwestern Turnpike would have been closed to the Union. Thus, there could have been an entirely different outcome……
Filed under: Civil War Blogs by Savannah Meade
I received a lot of spirited comments from the last post, so I thought I’d keep poking the bear with the stick. There’s an assumption going through the topic of Sarah Palin’s (non)relationship to the Alaskan Independence Party that works