Maryland Line (CSA)

The Maryland Line in the Army of the Confederate States of America was made up of volunteers from Maryland who, despite their home state remaining in the Union, fought for the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War. Of approximately 25,000 Marylanders who volunteered, most fought in the Army of Northern Virginia, and it was not until late in 1863 that a Maryland Line in the CSA was formally created. However, by this late stage in the war, few men wished to leave the units they had fought alongside for more than two years, and the exiles' dream of an independent Maryland Line in the Confederate army would never be fully realized.

Like other border states such as Kentucky and Missouri, Maryland found itself in a difficult position as war approached, with opinion heavily divided between supporters of North and South. The western and northern parts of the state, especially those Marylanders of German origin, tended to favor remaining in the Union, whilst the low-lying Chesapeake Bay area had a slave economy and tended to support the Confederacy if not outright secession.

However, Maryland would remain part of the Union during the United States Civil War, because of President Abraham Lincoln's swift action to suppress dissent in Maryland. The belated assistance of Governor Hicks also played an important role, as Hicks, initially indecisive, eventually co-operated with federal officials to stop further violence and prevent a move to secession.

By April 1861 it had become clear that war was inevitable, and it was around this time that a number of Marylanders began to resign their commissions in the US Army, among them, George H. Steuart, then a junior officer, who resigned his captain's commission to join the Confederacy.

On April 19 Baltimore was disrupted by riots, during which Southern sympathizers attacked Union troops passing through the city by rail, causing what were arguably the first casualties of the Civil War. Major General George H. Steuart, commander of the Maryland Militia ordered his militia to assemble, armed and uniformed, to repel the Federal soldiers, as Steuart himself was strongly sympathetic to the Confederacy, along with most of his senior officers. Perhaps knowing this, and no doubt aware that public opinion in Baltimore was divided, Governor Thomas Holliday Hicks did not order out the militia.

...
Wikipedia