Service to Country

Abstract

The Maryland Agricultural College (MAC) was established in 1856 on land that had been worked by enslaved men, women, and children. Just five years after the founding of the MAC, General P.G.T. Beauregard opened fire on Ft Sumter on April 1861, marking the beginning of the U.S. Civil War. Although it was a slaveholding state, Maryland did not secede, and it served as an important border state. President Abraham Lincoln instituted a draft in March of 1863 to replenish the Union Army. The Conscription Act of 1863 allowed able-bodied drafted men to hire substitutes to serve in their stead. So, often, enslaved men were made to be substitutes for wealthy planters in Maryland during the Civil War. The U.S. Colored Troops (USCT) was established in 1863, and it was composed of free black men and freedmen, hundreds of whom were originally from Prince George’s County, going as far south as Florida and as far west as Texas. This research examines the impact of enlisted formerly-enslaved men from Maryland on the Civil War.