Crossroads of Freedom by McPherson James M.;

Author:McPherson, James M.;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2007-04-07T04:00:00+00:00

From James M. McPherson, Ordeal by Fire: The Civil War and Reconstruction (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1991). By permission of The McGraw-Hill Companies.

What happened to cause such a change? Soldiers testified that the friendly, almost tumultuous welcome they received in Maryland boosted their spirits. This reception illustrated one of the war’s ironies: instead of the Southern patriotism expected by Confederate invaders, residents of western Maryland manifested a deep-felt and unexpected American patriotism. At farm gates the farmers’ daughters waited with buckets of cold spring water to quench the men’s thirst. “If my hat was off once, it was off thirty times,” wrote a captain whose men enjoyed the experience. “Fine marching weather,” he added, “a land flowing with milk and honey; a general tone of Union sentiment among the people.”17 As the 5th Wisconsin marched through the village of Jefferson, they were “greeted with the greatest enthusiasm,” wrote a private in that regiment. “Flags floated from nearly every window and ladies waved their handkerchiefs from every balcony. . . . This aroused our Patriotism which was becoming dormant.” The regimental surgeon noted the “surprising change” in “the feelings and appearance of the men. The sallowness of face has given place to flush, the grumbling of dissatisfaction to joyous hilarity, the camp at night, even after our marches, resounds with mirth and music.” (Perhaps there was something besides water in those buckets.)18

A private in the 8th Illinois Cavalry, which scouted ahead of the infantry, also marveled at the good will of Marylanders that “was so different from any thing we have met with before, that it done us so good.” In the village of Middletown, the citizens “were perfectly wild. It beat all.” In Boonsboro the 8th clashed with Confederate cavalry, and “tho the regiment was yelling at the top of their voices, and bullets flying like hail, the people thrust their heads from the upper windows and cheered us on.”19

Hundreds of Union soldiers wrote enthusiastic descriptions of their reception in Frederick. The Confederates had departed only a few days earlier after cleaning out all the shoes, hats, and other clothing in town—paying in worthless Confederate currency. “When we went into Frederick, tho twas midnight we were met by thousands,” wrote the Illinois cavalryman. “How their tongues flew, all telling wrongs suffered at the hands of the rebs.” When the first Union infantry arrived next day, “an ovation awaited us that touched the inmost soul,” wrote an officer. “The whole city was fluttering with Union flags.”20

Brigade commander John Gibbon, a native of North Carolina who had remained loyal to the Union while three brothers went with the Confederacy, wrote to his wife from Maryland that “I did not believe before coming here that there was so much Union feeling in the state. . . . The whole population [of Frederick] seemed to turn out to welcome us. When Genl McClellan came thro the ladies nearly eat him up, they kissed his clothing, threw their arms around his horse’s neck and committed all sorts of extravagances.

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