Address of Col. Bradley T. Johnson to the people of Maryland.
The following address has been issued by Colonel Bradley T. Johnson, who accompanys our army in Maryland: To the People of Maryland:
After sixteen months of oppression more galling than the Austrian tyranny, the victorious army of the South brings freedom to your doors.
Its standard now waves from the Potomac to Mason and Dixon's line.
The men of Maryland who, during the last long months, have been crushed under the heel of this terrible despotism, now have the opportunity for working out their own redemption, for which they have so long waited, and suffered, and hoped.
The Government of the Confederate States is pledged by the unanimous vote of its Congress, by the distinct declaration of its President, the soldier and statesman, Davis, never to cease this war until Maryland has the opportunity to decide for herself her own fate, untrammeled and free from Federal bayonets.
The people of the South, with unanimity unparalleled, have given their hearts to our native State, and hundreds of thousands of her sons have sworn, with arms in their hands, that you shall be free.
You must now do your part.
We have the arms here for you. I am authorized immediately to muster in for the war companies and regiments — the companies of one hundred men each; the regiments of ten companies.
Come, all who wish to strike for their liberties and their homes.
Let each man provide himself with a stout pair of shoes, a good blanket, and a tin cup. Jackson's men have no baggage.
Officers are in Frederick to receive recruits, and all companies formed will be armed as soon as mustered in Rise at once!
Remember the cells of Fort McHenry!
Remember the dungeons of Fort Lafayette and Fort Warren, the insults to your wives and daughters, the arrests, the midnight searches of your houses! --Remember these, your wrongs, and rise at once in arms and strike for liberty and right. 