Maryland's contested place in secession

Buchanan's home state shows how uncertain political allegiance could be in a slaveholding border state. Maryland's assemblies rejected secession and sought neutrality, although Union troops soon made that position impossible in practice. Roster-backed estimates support roughly four to five thousand Marylanders serving the Confederacy, far fewer than claims of many tens of thousands. Slavery was present in Maryland without shaping the entire state as completely as it did farther south, which may help explain the difference.