Civil War Maryland — Stories From the Old Line State
By Richard P. Cox
(November 2008 Civil War News)

Illustrated, bibliography, notes, 156 pp; 2008. The History Press, 18 Percy St., Charleston SC 29403, $19.99 plus shipping.

Reviewer: Kenneth D. Williams
Kenneth D. Williams is writ­ing a book on the 11th Pennsylvania Volunteers and is doing doctoral level work in American history. He has worked as a park ranger at Gettysburg National Military Park and Eisenhower National Historic Site

Review:
Richard P. Cox is a private practice attorney and freelance historian living in the Annapolis, Md., area. For the past few years, he has been a contributor to the Civil War section of The Washington Times concentrating on Maryland’s role in the American Civil War. Cox has compiled some of his reworked articles with new material for The History Press’ “American Chronicles” series latest addition, Civil War Maryland.

This slim volume contains16 chapters covering various aspects of the war in the Old Line State, but stays away from battle studies. Thus, you will not find any chapters on Antietam, the Gettysburg Campaign or Monocacy.

You will find vignettes on the Baltimore Riot of 1861; famous Marylanders such as Anna Ella Carroll, Franklin Buchanan and Raphael Semmes; and a discussion of Maryland POW camps and the legal battle over emancipation in the 1864 state constitution.

There are also chapters on less direct Civil War associated topics including Baltimore pundit H.L. Mencken’s musing on the meaning of the war and the Southern attitude and the ramifications of a false rumor on the development of the University of Maryland.

The book is a quick read with photographs or illustrations for each chapter. The subjects are lightly covered with a reliance on published secondary sources. If you are looking for an in-depth study of the war years in Maryland this is not your work.

On the other hand, if you wish to spend a few leisure hours traversing some of the well-known and less well-known aspects of “Murland” history, and maybe become interested enough to delve deeper into the source material, you really can’t go wrong with this book.