250 Years · 50 States · One Historic Milestone

Maryland · History

Civil War Border State

1861

Civil War Border State

Maryland was a slave state that remained in the Union during the Civil War, but its loyalties were deeply divided. Confederate and Union forces fought on Maryland soil, most notably at the Battle of Antietam in September 1862, the bloodiest single day of combat in the war. Maryland's experience reflected the painful divisions of a border state caught between North and South.