which side did maryland fight on in the civil war
Maryland in the American Civil War During the American Civil War, Maryland, a slave state, was one of the border states, straddling the South and North. Because of its strategic location, bordering the national capital city of Washington D.C. with its District of Columbia since 1790, and the strong desire of the opposing factions within the state to sway public opinion towards their respective causes, Maryland played an important role in the American Civil War (1861-1865). New President Abraham Lincoln suspended habeas corpus in Maryland; and he dismissed the U.S. Supreme Court's "Ex parte Merryman" decision concerning John Merryman, a prominent Southern sympathizer from Baltimore County held in Fort McHenry (then nicknamed "Baltimore Bastille"). The Chief Justice, but not in a decision with the other justices, had held that the suspension was unconstitutional and would leave lasting civil and legal scars.[1] The decision was filed in US Circuit Court for Maryland by Chief Justice Roger Brooke Taney, a Marylander from Frederick and sometimes in Baltimore and protege of seventh President Andrew Jackson who had appointed him two decades earlier.