Lest We Forget

This website has been established by concerned Talbot citizens and is founded on the guiding principle of truth and historical accuracy. The information provided herein is derived from the Maryland archives and other verified sources. Maryland history, specifically Talbot County history, must be preserved and advanced so that present citizens and future generations can learn from the County's rich and diverse past. History must be preserved, not just for the benefit of our Talbot citizens, but for the benefit of our State and Nation as a whole. 

For Civil War history, this means the inclusion of accounts from Confederate and Union soldiers as well as public and private figures from all backgrounds. Monuments, such as The Talbot Boys, must be given proper context so those who have little knowledge of the past can learn and be inspired to learn.   As Susan Cooke Soderberg states in Lest We Forget - A Guide to Civil War Monuments in Maryland, "the word 'monument' comes from the Latin 'monumentum', meaning 'a recollection which may also be a warning.'"  The author further states, "To discover the message of those monuments we have to try so see them through the eyes of the people who built them."

Indeed, Marylanders had experienced the greatest crushing of civil liberties against a free State within the Union that has ever occurred. The U.S. Constitution, with all of its civil protections, was unlawfully taken from Maryland citizens. Maryland was forcibly occupied against her will by troops of other States. Marylanders were brutalized by this occupation with thousands of citizens imprisoned without trial, executions conducted without due process of civil law, seizure and confiscation of private property without recourse.  There were hundreds of documented rapes and sexual assaults against Maryland women by the occupying forces.

Constitutional protections of the First and Second Amendments were the first rights taken from Marylanders so that these abuses could not be reported and so Marylanders could not resist. The U.S. President instructed his military to immediately bombard civilian population centers if Maryland did resist. Many elected officials, to include a representative in the U.S. Congress, the Baltimore mayor, city council and police chief were unlawfully imprisoned. The entire Baltimore city government was replaced by Federal officers and Federal provost marshals were established throughout Maryland to oversee all local governments. Federal troops surrounded the Talbot County Courthouse and beat and imprisoned the circuit court judge for his attempt to provide Talbot citizens their Constitutional protections. Members of the Maryland Legislature were arrested and imprisoned because they protested to Congress and to the President over the unlawful arrest of Maryland citizens, the unlawful occupation of the State, and that they proclaimed Maryland only wanted peace and not war, and they petitioned the President for the same.

These are terrible facts that were part of a terrible war.  In Jon Roland's review of Chief Justice William Rehnquist's All The Laws But One: Civil Liberties In Wartime, he states "...an ancient legal maxim: "'Inter Arma Silent Leges' [In time of war the laws are silent]. The message is an ominous one: in times of crisis, such as a war, the Constitution has been violated, and is likely to be violated in such situations in the future."

History is life's teacher.

If you believe that Talbot County history should be preserved based upon the guiding principle of truth and historical accuracy, please support this effort by displaying a yard sign and/or bumper sticker. This display is not a statement against any political or social cause.  It is a statement that Talbot County history must be preserved and advanced with integrity and context, with the hope that we may learn from the past.  To receive a yard sign or sticker, or how you can contribute to the effort, please click the 'Contact Us' button below.

To learn more about Maryland history during the Civil War, please review our "References" section below.  This section provides a collection of historical documents directly from Maryland's Legislative archives and the US Library of Congress.  We have also included some incredible newspaper articles from 1861 recording the events of that time.  Check back often - we add content daily!