Collections by Subject: Civil War in Maryland: Stars, Stripes and Glory
A Selected List of Holdings in the Archives and Manuscripts Department, University of Maryland Libraries
For more information about how to access materials in this guide, please visit the Maryland Room web page or fill out an information request.
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Felix Agnus papers, 1861-1869. 1.50 linear feet.
Location: Historical Manuscripts
Felix Agnus, a French sculptor, came to America in 1860. On April 20, 1861, he enlisted as a private in Company "C" of the 5th Regiment, New York Volunteers Infantry under Captain Henry E. Davis. In September 1862 he became a captain in the 165th, Regiment New York Volunteers, and was discharged on July 26, 1865 with the rank of major. During the war he married the daughter of Charles C. Fulton, publisher of the Baltimore American. After Fulton's death, Agnus became publisher of the Baltimore American and made it influential throughout Maryland. His papers consist of correspondence, legal documents, and financial and military records, all of which relate to the Civil War.
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Papers of Clara Barton, 1887-1918. 0.25 linear feet.
Location: Historical Manuscripts
Clara Barton was the founder of the American Red Cross. Her papers include correspondence relating to the Women's Relief Corps, Auxiliary of the Grand Army of the Republic. The letters, written between 1889 and 1890, concern Senate Bill 373 of the 51st Congress which proposed pensions for women who were nurses in the Civil War.
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Bowie Family papers, 1748-1956. 0.50 linear feet.
Location: Historical Manuscripts
The Bowie family owned several plantations in Prince George's County, Maryland, and the family included several prominent planters, businessmen, politicians, and military officers. In addition to providing useful genealogical materials, the collection includes ledgers detailing plantation management, correspondence concerning the American Civil War, and legal documents describing the family's estate.
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Brooke Family papers, 1750-1980. 13.00 linear feet.
Location: Historical Manuscripts
The Brooke family lived in Sandy Spring, Maryland. Their papers consist of numerous letters and diaries as well as financial and legal records. In particular, the diary of Mary Briggs Brooke, written in 1864, describes how the Civil War affected the daily lives of this Quaker family.
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Papers of the Burhaus Family, 1862-1863. 0.25 linear feet (14 items).
Location: Historical Manuscripts
Herman Burhaus, one of the ten Burhaus children of Brooklyn, New York, was a volunteer in the 4th New York Union Regiment during the Civil War. This collection contains ten letters he wrote to his sister while he was stationed in the Washington, D. C., area. The letters discuss military life, the battle of Sharpsburg (Antietam), and the Battle of Fredericksburg in which he was injured while serving under General Burnside of the Army of the Potomac. Also included in this collection is a cased ambrotype of Herman and his older brother Alexander. The photograph was taken in New York during the war, and both men are in uniform.
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Claude-Gray-Hughes-Tuck-Whittington Family papers, 1793-1938. 13.50 linear feet.
Location: Historical Manuscripts
These five families from the Annapolis area became interrelated through marriage. Records in the collection relate to various family members and consist of correspondence, deeds, ledgers, receipts, school notebooks, and literary writings which depict daily life in Annapolis, Maryland. The materials include descriptions of the Civil War and attitudes toward slavery.
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Demorest's New-York Illustrated News Woodcut Collection, 1861-1865. 4 woodcuts with prints and 1 broadside.
Location: Historical Manuscripts
During the Civil War, Demorest's New-York Illustrated News published woodcut pictures of life on the battle field. This collection consists of four engraved cherrywood plates that were carved in Philadelphia for the newspaper during the war years. Each block depicts a scene from the war in Maryland. Full-size prints from each block and photocopies of the newspaper issues in which the pictures were originally published accompany the print blocks. Also included is a newspaper print from the Pictorial War Record: Battles of the Late Civil War, Saturday, January 13, 1883 edition. It shows a reprint of a print originally published in Demorest's New-York Illustrated News depicting the "Capture of the First Confederate Battle Flag by the Eighth Illinois Cavalry."
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Papers of Leonidas Dodson, 1842-1889. 1.00 linear feet.
Location: Historical Manuscripts
Leonidas Dodson, a prominent citizen of Easton, Maryland, was greatly involved with the Methodist Episcopal Church. His papers consist of journals which focus on his civic and work responsibilities. Slavery, the Civil War, and the war's aftermath are among the topics he covers in his daily writings.
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Papers of William Emory, 1861-1873. 1.50 linear feet.
Location: Historical Manuscripts
William H. Emory was born in Queen Anne's County, Maryland. He graduated from the U. S. Military Academy in 1831 and spent most of his life in the U. S. Army, rising to the rank of brigadier general. His papers discuss social life in Maryland during the Civil War, his stay at Fort Leavenworth, and his efforts to retract his "hasty and much regretted" resignation from the Army in 1861.
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Archives of Messrs. Freeman and Almy, 1864. 36 items.
Location: Historical Manuscripts
In 1864, Captain Daniel C. Childs wrote from Baltimore to ship owners Messrs. Freeman and Almy in New York City. In the letters, Captain Childs discussed the purchase of an Italian brig named Gertrude, which he repaired and loaded with cargo for the West Indies. Included in the correspondence are details of the process, from the purchase of the ship at auction, to its repairs, to loading the cargo and obtaining a crew.
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Papers of the Hamilton Family, 1803-1923. 0.25 linear feet (100 items).
Location: Historical Manuscripts
The papers of this Charles County, Maryland, family include letters written by John Hamilton, Jr., to his father, John Hamilton, of Port Tobacco, Maryland. John Jr., while attending school, describes in his letters how the impending war has affected his school; he later writes of the murder of President Lincoln. Also, John's cousin, Susan A. Hill, sends letters to her uncle about the tense atmosphere in Washington, D.C., as the Civil War begins and troops are garrisoned in the city.
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George Koonce Collection, 1862-1864. 7 items.
Location: Historical Manuscripts
Seven documents attesting to the loyalty of Harper's Ferry resident George Koonce, who defended the town against the Confederate army in 1861 and lost his business as a result. The collection includes a letter dated January 17, 1862, in which R. Jones, Major and Assistant Inspector General of the U. S. Army, who had been in charge of defending Harper's Ferry during the events of April 18, 1861, wrote a letter of recommendation for Koonce, "Recollecting with satisfaction the loyalty…" On its verso, Colonel C. P. Kingsbury wrote: "I heartily concur with Major Jones as to the loyalty of Mr. Koonce and sincerely commend him to the kind consideration of any who may be able to give him employment."
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Papers of Isaiah S. and Martha Lang, 1858-1928. 0.5 linear feet.
Location: Historical Manuscripts
Isaiah S. Lang, and his wife Martha, were farmers in New Hampshire. They corresponded with many relatives, one of whom was Isaiah's uncle, David M. Sanborn of Baltimore, Maryland. Sanborn, who owned land in Baltimore City and Howard County, wrote to the Langs about slavery, and about the economic and social conditions of Baltimore during the Civil War.
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Papers of the Osburn Family, 1857-1864. 0.25 linear feet.
Location: Historical Manuscripts
The Osburn family papers consist of thirteen letters primarily written to Ginnie Osburn by her brothers Lewis and James who served in Maryland regiments of the Union Army during the Civil War. Major topics within the correspondence include life as a soldier, family concerns, illness, financial worries, travel on the frontier, business prospects, and local news.
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Records of the Phi Mu Fraternity, 1923-1945. 5.00 linear feet.
Location: University Archives
Initiates to this engineering honor society were required to prepare a research paper on an engineering topic of their choice. Among the papers are a few which focus exclusively on the Civil War. For example, Richard Funke wrote a paper titled "The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad in the Civil War." A greater number of papers, however, were written on the history and construction of various forts in Maryland Washington, D. C., and Virginia. Generally, these papers contain a detailed analysis of the chosen fort's construction, the history of its defense, and also maps, photographs, diagrams and blueprints depicting the fort and its surroundings. Other papers cover the Civil War only tangentially, when the author traces the history of a particular landmark from its beginnings, through the Civil War period, to the present.
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Papers of Willis A. Pomeroy, June - September, 1861. 0.25 linear feet.
Location: Historical Manuscripts
Willis Pomeroy served in the 4th Regiment of the Connecticut Volunteers attached to the 6th Brigade, 2nd Division, Army of The Potomac. His letters home, written in 1861, detail troop movements around the Potomac River, his promotion to brigade commissary, and daily life in a military camp. Places mentioned include Harper's Ferry, Hagerstown, Manassas, Williamsport, and Downsville.
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Papers of the Preston Family, 1799-1916. 3.50 linear feet.
Location: Historical Manuscripts
The Prestons were an upper middle class Catholic family from Baltimore, Maryland, who was sympathetic to the Confederate cause. Their letters and diaries describe life in Maryland during the Civil War. Of particular note are descriptions of the aftermath of the Battle of Gettysburg.
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Papers of John E. Rastall, 1861-1864. 2 linear inches (128 items).
Location: Historical Manuscripts
John E. Rastall was a Union Lieutenant with the First Regiment, Eastern Shore, Maryland Volunteers during the Civil War. The collection includes 128 letters written by Rastall to his family in Milwaukee, Wisconsin detailing his service in Virginia and Maryland, especially on the Eastern Shore.
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Papers of James F. Stepter, 1862-1864. 0.25 linear feet (21 items).
Location: Historical Manuscripts
James F. Stepter served as a private in the Union army during the Civil War. On August 14, 1862, he enlisted in Company B of the 6th Maryland Regiment Infantry, a company recruited from Cecil County. In the months before his death in 1864, he wrote numerous letters home to his wife Amanda from Harpers Ferry and various Union encampments. This collection consists of twenty-one of Stepter's letters which outline his personal observations on the war and military life, politics, and family concerns.
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Sterling Family papers, 1862-1864. 0.25 linear feet.
Location: Historical Manuscripts
Will Sterling and his wife Tillie lived in Annapolis, where Will was stationed, during the Civil War. The collection consists of correspondence among Will, Tillie, Tillie's mother and Will's father between 1862 and 1864. Topics include the mustering of troops, prisoners, changes in officers and duties, and slavery.
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Papers of John William Stewart, 1857-1906. 49 items.
Location: Historical Manuscripts
The Papers of John William Stewart span the years 1857 to 1906 with the bulk of material dating from 1857 to 1869 and consist primarily of correspondence written to John William Stewart from relatives and friends in Emmitsburg, Maryland and Shippensburg, Pennsylvania. They report on their health and that of family members and friends, engagements, marriages, prayer meetings, a trip on the Mississippi, and the Civil War. Included in one letter is an 1864 flyer entitled "Greeting to the Churches of the Presbytery of Baltimore from the Presbytery's Committee of Foreign Missions."
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Warfield Family Papers, 1801-1960. 10.00 linear feet.
Location: Historical Manuscripts
Edwin Warfield, born in Howard County, Maryland, was prominent in Maryland business, publishing, and politics. Included in his papers are two documents pertaining to an older relative, Albert Gallatin Warfield. The first document is a claimant's certificate showing that A. Warfield enlisted his slave Samuel Heall in the U. S. Colored Troops. The second document is a certificate from the Office of Commissary General of Prisoners regarding A. Warfield's status as a prisoner of war.
Maryland Manuscripts
The Maryland Manuscripts grouping consists of a wide variety of materials, such as letters, diaries, printed ephemera, and business ledgers, which have been described individually. Among these items are a number that relate to the Civil War. These items include letters from soldiers to their families, enlistment and discharge records, records of bounties paid to slave owners who enlisted their slaves in the U. S. Colored Troops, and an "Appeal for Peace Sent to Lieut. Gen. Scott, July 4, 1861" from the women of Maryland (MDMS 4334).
Complete listing of Maryland Manuscript numbers pertaining to the Civil War.
There are also several items of special importance:
- MDMS 4273--Letter written by a Union soldier named John W. Sturtevant to his family in New Hampshire while he was at the U. S. General Hospital in Annapolis in 1864. The stationary is printed with a large picture of the hospital site, and John has drawn a diagram of the grounds and of the arrangement of his hospital room.
- MDMS 4319--Volume of Post Guard Reports of the 6th Regiment of Maryland Volunteers. The reports date from September 1862 to March 1863. Places listed in the reports include Harpers Ferry, Camp Kenly, Bolivar Heights, Williamsport, Camp Maffitt, Camp Franklin, Camp Fred[?] Junction, and a Camp near Monocacy Bridge.
- MDMS 4543--"A Book for Quotations Belonging to Wm. Henry A. Hamilton of Baltimore Co., Maryland, Dick. College, May 2nd 1863." This notebook contains, alongside quotations from Aesop and Shakespeare, quotations of prose and poetry relating to the Civil War.
- MDMS 5213--The John Jacob Omenhausser Sketchbook. While a Confederate prisoner at Point Lookout Prison Camp, Omenhausser sketched scenes of prison life. The color drawings are done in the style of cartoons, with each person in the scene speaking a line of dialogue.
- MDMS 5390--Diary of Private L. J. Watkins, 1st Maryland Cavalry, C. S. A. The diary, written in pencil, discusses many battles in detail.
- MDMS 5433--Diary of Corporal Edwin Keay, Company C and E, 91st New York. The diary was written from Fort McHenry in 1865 and mentions guarding of prisoners and the death of Abraham Lincoln.
- MDMS 5497--Two letters written by Private Zachariah Taylor (Company H, 3rd Maryland Regiment), during the Civil War. The letter dated July 29, [1863] was written from Camp Urbanna in Frederick County, Maryland. The letter dated January 3, 1864, was written from West Virginia, on the back of a letter written to Private Taylor from his family in West Virginia. The letters detail troop movements and conditions.