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Chapter 4: Marylanders enlist, and organize to defend Virginia and the Confederacy.
While these events were occurring at
Harper's Ferry, considerable numbers of Marylanders were rendezvousing at
Richmond.
The enrolled men commanded by
Colonel Trimble, called out by the board of police commissioners, were drilled in a more or less efficient way in
Baltimore, until the meeting of the legislature at
Frederick, when they were disbanded.
Johnson's company, at the same time, having left
Frederick and gone to the
Point of Rocks, furnished the nucleus around which gathered the men thus dismissed by the police authorities.
They formed the eight companies mustered into the service of the
Confederate States by
Lieutenant-Colonel George Deas.
But the volunteer companies, the
Baltimore City Guard, the Maryland Guard, the
Independent Grays, were as well instructed, as well officered as any American volunteers ever are, and some of them had historical reputations to maintain, for their companies had fought at
North Point.
They, therefore, regarded themselves as superior to the undrilled crowd that
Captain Johnson was ‘licking into shape at
Harper's Ferry,’ as they put it, and proceeded to
Richmond, where they at once put themselves in accord with the
Virginia authorities.
Marylanders were to be embodied into three regiments, armed and mustered into the service of
Virginia, who was to adopt them.
In carrying out this plan
Governor Letcher issued commissions to
Francis Q. Thomas,
ex-captain United States army, as colonel of the First; to
Bradley T. Johnson as lieutenant-colonel of the Second, and to
Alden
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Weston, major of the Third.
It was in the plan to consolidate these three into one if they failed to fill up into full regiments.
Captain Johnson promptly declined the commission sent him by
Governor Letcher, refusing to enter the military service of
Virginia on the distinct ground that
Maryland must be represented by
Maryland regiments, and for Marylanders to accept service under
Virginia would be to sacrifice the rights of the
State to the services of her own sons.
It was their duty, he believed, to give their own State the benefit of their service and of such reputation as they might be fortunate enough to win. Following this line of duty, he had caused the eight
Harper's Ferry companies to be mustered into the army of the
Confederate States, and he urged by every means in his power the consolidation of all Marylanders into the
Maryland Line.
This proved to be utterly impracticable.
They were all volunteers; away from home there was no State sentiment, no home opinion to direct or control their conduct, and they selected their associates and comrades from contiguity, from friendship and from relationship.
Men of
Maryland descent were scattered all over the
Confederacy, and thousands of young men who got through the lines sought out their relations and kinsmen in nearly every regiment of the army.
The
Maryland Line was the ideal of
Lieut.-Col. George H. Steuart and of
Maj. Bradley T. Johnson, and for two years they labored to collect the Marylanders.
All influences from home were directed to the same end. The flag, made in
Baltimore and brought over by
Hetty Carey, was inscribed ‘First Regiment Maryland Line.’
But not until 1863 was any considerable force embodied under that name.
In the early summer of 1861 the way to
Virginia was open and thousands of ardent youth left home and friends to fight for the
South.
In a few months, however,
Maryland was hermetically sealed.
Her bays were patrolled by gun boats, her rivers were picketed, and a
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barrier of bayonets sought to keep back the current of sympathy that day and night flowed to the
South.
All over the
State, the women, irrepressible as ever in times of excitement, flaunted the
Confederate red and
white in the faces of the army of occupation.
The babies wore
red and
white socks, the girls
red and
white ribbons—with
red and
white bouquets at their girdles and on their hearts, the young lads
red and
white cravats.
The larger boys were sent South by their mothers, sisters and sweethearts.
Regular lines of communication were established, with stations and passwords and signs for the ‘underground,’ as it was called.
They made their way by steamer down to the
Patuxent—on to the eastern shore.
They bought, ‘borrowed’ or ‘captured’ small boats, sail or with oars, and they put out in the darkness over the waters to find the way to Dixie.
The gun boats searched bay and inlet with their strong lights and their small boats.
Sometimes they caught the emigres and more frequently they did not. When they did the Old Capitol and
Point Lookout military prisons were the swift doom of the unfortunates, where they languished for months, half clad and nearly starved.
This blockade running went on over the
Potomac from the
Chesapeake to the District of Columbia, right under the surveillance of the
Federal authorities.
When the watch became too vigilant and the pickets too close along the rivers, the Marylanders made their way up through the western part of the
State, where the sentiment was generally Union, and forded the river from
Hancock up to the mountains.
Working through the mountains of
West Virginia, through the perils of the bushwhackers and Union men, ten thousand times worse than from Union pickets, they made their way, ragged, barefoot, starving, down to some camp in the valley of
Virginia, where they were welcomed with warm hearts and open hands.
During all that time the condition of the
Southern people of
Maryland was like that of the Cavaliers during the
Puritan domination in
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England.
They were tied to home by a thousand imperative duties, but their hearts were ‘over the water with Charlie.’
Every Southern family had a son over there.
Every Southern woman, young or old, had her heart there with lover or brother or son. There were few husbands, for the enlisted
Marylanders were generally youths unmarried.
The field officers,
Elzey,
Steuart and
Johnson, were the only married officers of the First Maryland regiment.
Social life in
Baltimore was almost obliterated.
Spies, male and female, of all social ranks, permeated everything.
You could not tell whether the servant behind your chair at dinner, or the lady by your side, whom you had taken to the table, were not in the employ of the
Federal provost-marshal.
But force never compels ideas, and hearts are beyond the power of bayonets.
During all that period, when nurses were arrested because the babies in their arms wore
red and
white socks, when young ladies were marched to the guard-house because they crossed the street rather than pass under the Union flag suspended over it as sign and proof of domination—during all that red time communication with
Richmond was incessant and reliable.
Word would be passed by a nod on the street, by a motion of the hand, and time and place given in a breath.
And in one of the parlors of one of the greatest houses of the town, blazing with every luxury that wealth and culture could buy, one or two score beautiful women would meet, doors and windows sealed, to see the messenger and to hear the news ‘from Dixie.’
Every story of a Maryland boy who had died in battle for the right, every exploit of a Marylander that had thrilled the army, every achievement of the First Regiment of the
Line, was recited and repeated and gone over, until human nature could stand no more, and ‘In Dixie's land I'll take my stand, and live and die for Dixie’ would burst from the throng and make indistinct vibrations on the outer air. At
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one of these mystic meetings of the faithful at the
Winns house, on Monument street, the messenger produced
James R. Randall's grand war song—‘My Maryland.’
It was read aloud and reread until sobs and inarticulate moans choked utterance.
Hetty Carey was then in the prime of her first youth, with a perfect figure, exquisite complexion, the hair that Titian loved to paint, a brilliant intellect, grace personified, and a disposition the most charming—she was the most beautiful woman of the day and perhaps the most beautiful that
Maryland has ever produced.
Her sister,
Jenny Carey, was next to her in everything, but
Hetty Carey had no peer.
While this little coterie of beautiful women were throbbing over
Randall's heroic lines,
Hetty Carey said: ‘That must be sung.
Jenny, get an air for it!’
and
Jenny at the piano struck the chorus of the college song, ‘Gaudeamus igitur,’ and the great war anthem, ‘
Maryland, My Maryland,’ was born into the world.
It went through the city like fire in the dry grass.
The boys beat it on their toy drums, the children shrilled it at their play, and for a week all the power of the
provost-marshal and the garrison and the detectives could not still the refrain—
The despot's heel is on thy shore,
Maryland!
His torch is at thy temple door,
Maryland!
for it was in the hearts of the people and it was true!
The rendezvous of the drilled volunteers produced three crack companies under
Capt. E. R. Dorsey,
Baltimore City Guards;
Capt. Wm. H. Murray, Maryland Guards, and
Capt. J. Lyle Clarke, Independent
Grays.
And soon after was organized another company under
Capt. Michael Stone Robertson, of
Charles county, whose company came from the counties of
St. Mary's,
Calvert and
Charles.
These
Richmond companies were mustered into the service of
Virginia, May 17th and 18th and June 17th.
Captain Clarke elected to take his company
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into the Twenty-first Virginia regiment.
It served its year with great eclat and was the crack company of that part of the army.
The other three were united to the battalion at
Harper's Ferry.
Virginia troops had by that time been taken
en masse into the army of the
Confederacy.
That battalion was reorganized into six companies, so as to equalize them above the minimum required by the law of the
Confederacy, and thus the First Maryland regiment was formed, with
Capt. Arnold Elzey, late United States artillery, as colonel;
Capt. George H. Steuart, late United States cavalry, as lieutenant-colonel, and
Bradley T. Johnson as major.
It consisted of 500 men armed with
Mrs. Johnson's rifles, calibre 54, and 220 men (the three
Richmond companies) with
Springfield muskets and bayonets.
The drill and style of the
Richmond companies set the standard for the rest, and during their whole service there never was anything but the most devoted comradeship and the most generous feeling.
The only rivalry was ‘Who shall get there first!’
Soon afterward
Capt. R. Snowden Andrews mustered into Confederate service his battery, which during the next four years won undying fame on a hundred fields as the First Maryland artillery.
Next came the Baltimore light artillery, known later as the Second Maryland,
Capt. John B. Brockenbrough.
The
Latrobe artillery, Third Maryland,
Capt. Henry B. Latrobe; and the
Chesapeake, Fourth Maryland,
Capt. William Brown, were organized and mustered into the service early in 1862 and served with distinction, the Third Maryland in the army of the Southwest with
Johnston and
Kirby Smith, and the Fourth Maryland in the army of Northern Virginia.
Capt. George R. Gaither brought to
Virginia a part of the Howard Dragoons, a troop of which he had been captain in
Howard county, with horses, arms and accoutrements, and mustered them into the First Virginia cavalry,
Col. J. E. B. Stuart.
as
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Company K of that élite corps.
A troop of cavalry composed of Marylanders was mustered into the Sixth Virginia under
Capt. J. Sturgis Davis.
Subsequently five troops of Marylanders were collected under
Davis and were known as the
Davis Battalion, of which he was commissioned major.
Capt. Elijah V. White, of
Montgomery county, organized a dashing troop of Marylanders as escort and headquarters guard for
General Ewell, which was afterwards enlarged into the Thirty-fifth Virginia battalion, commanded by
Lieut.-Col. ‘Lije’
White.
It was a Maryland command.
Harry Gilmor in the valley of
Virginia in 1863-64 collected a number of Marylanders into troops and formed a battalion known as the Second Maryland, or
Gilmor's battalion, of which he was commissioned lieutenantcol-onel.
He and they operated in the valley of
Virginia and rivaled
Mosby by their daring exploits behind the enemy's lines and against his supply trains; and in the lower valley, operating against and breaking the Baltimore & Ohio railroad, occupied and kept employed a large body of the enemy's infantry and cavalry from
Harper's Ferry to the
Ohio river.
In December, 1860,
South Carolina had sent a recruiting officer to Baltimore, and he enlisted there and sent to
Charleston five hundred men who were placed in the Lucas battalion of artillery and
Rhett's First South Carolina artillery.
They served with fidelity, gallantry and distinction in the defense of
Fort Sumter, for a large part of the garrison of that fortress during its bombardment were Marylanders.
During the autumn of 1862 seven troops of Marylanders were collected under
Lieut.-Col. Ridgely Brown, from
Montgomery county, as the First Maryland cavalry.
When the First regiment was mustered out of service August 12, 1862, on account of its depleted ranks, which had been worn threadbare by Jackson's Valley campaign and the Seven Days battles, the men who were mustered out were largely collected by
Captains Herbert,
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Murray and
Goldsborough, who formed three new companies, which with others formed the Second Maryland infantry battalion, of which
Herbert became lieutenant-colonel commanding, and
Goldsborough major.
The Second Maryland was officered by trained and experienced soldiers.
Almost every one of its captains had seen more than one year's service in the army of northern Virginia, and its field officers had been among the brightest captains in the ‘Old First,’ as the First regiment was always designated in the hearts and words of its old members.
The Second Maryland infantry and the First Maryland cavalry were in the valley of
Virginia about
Harrisonburg in the winter of 1862 and 1863. Co. F of the cavalry was recruited by three rich young Baltimoreans—
Augustus F. Schwartz, captain;
C. Irving Ditty,
first lieutenant, and
Fielder C. Slinghoff,
second lieutenant.
They furnished uniforms, horses, accoutrements and arms for their company at an immense expense, for everything except horses had to be smuggled through the blockade from
Baltimore.
In January, 1862,
Elzey and the field officers of the First having been promoted at
First Manassas, July 21, 1861,
Colonel Steuart, while on leave at
Richmond, procured an order to be issued by the
adjutant-general of the
Confederate States, that all Marylanders on application to the
adjutant-general would be transferred to the
Maryland Line, then consisting of the First regiment, in the army of the Potomac under
Joe Johnston at
Manassas.
This measure resulted in no practical, good result.
The
Marylanders were generally quick, bright, valuable young fellows, and commanding officers were not willing to part with them.
Many were taken on the staff, commissioned and non-commissioned, at division, brigade and regimental headquarters, and when one did apply in writing for a transfer, his paper was pigeon-holed and lost on its way up to the
adjutant-general.
The order added very few men to the
Maryland Line.
