Suppression of the Maryland Press

National History Standards

Materials compiled in this document can be used by educators to fulfill the following National History Standards for Grades 5-12:

Era 5: Civil War and Reconstruction (1850-1877)

    Standard 2B: The student understands the social experience of the war on the battlefield and homefront.

Standard 2B: The student understands the social experience of the war on the battlefield and homefront. 

9-12: Evaluate the Union's reasons for curbing wartime civil liberties. [Consider multiple perspectives]  

Primary Resources

1. DESCRIPTION: Letter, John A. Dix to M. Blair
   DATE CREATED/PUBLISHED: August 31, 1861
   NOTES: "I have received the letter of the postmaster of Baltimore with your endorsement in regard to the Exchange and other secessionist presses in that city. I presume you are not aware that an order for the suppression of these presses was made out in one of the Departments at Washington and in consequences of strong remonstrances from Union men in Baltimore was not issued."
   Endorsement: "I believe the Exchange, Republican and South should be suppress. They are open disunionists. The Sun is in sympathy but less diabolical."
   SOURCE: United States. War Dept., United States. Record and Pension Office., United States. War Records Office., et al. The war of the rebellion: a compilation of the official records of the Union and Confederate armies. Series 2 - Volume 1. (Washington, DC. Government Printing Office, 1894): 590-591. 

2. DESCRIPTION: Letter, W. G. Snethen to W. H. Seward
   DATE CREATED/PUBLISHED: September 15, 1861
   NOTES: "I thank you in the name of every truly loyal man in Baltimore an din my own poor name for your arrest of the traitors whom you have sent to Fortress Monroe.... I hope General Banks will take care that the Legislature shall not sit at all.... The arrest of W. Wilkins Glenn, the proprietor of the Exchange, has given intense satisfaction. Beale Richardson and his writing editor Joice, of the Republican, are very violent ...."
   SOURCE: United States. War Dept., United States. Record and Pension Office., United States. War Records Office., et al. The war of the rebellion: a compilation of the official records of the Union and Confederate armies. Series 2 - Volume 1. (Washington, DC. Government Printing Office, 1894): 595. 

3. DESCRIPTION: Case of Howard and Glenn, of the Baltimore Exchange Newspaper.
   DATE CREATED/PUBLISHED: September 14, 1861-November 27, 1862
   NOTES: F. Key Howard and William Wilkins Glenn were the editors of the Baltimore Exchange, a newspaper sympathetic to the Confederate cause. Howard was arrested September 12, 1861 with the Baltimore members of the Maryland Legislature and transferred to Fort McHenry. Glenn was arrested the same day and also transferred to the fort. 
   SOURCE: United States. War Dept., United States. Record and Pension Office., United States. War Records Office., et al. The war of the rebellion: a compilation of the official records of the Union and Confederate armies. Series 2 - Volume 2. (Washington, DC. Government Printing Office, 1894): 778-786. 

4. DESCRIPTION: Case of Thomas W. Hall, Jr. and S. S. Mills of the South Newspaper.
   DATE CREATED/PUBLISHED: January 19, 1862 - April 30, 1862
   NOTES: Thomas W. Hall, Jr. was arrested September 12-13, 1861 and confined in Fort McHenry. "The arrest of this person was a military precautionary measure of great necessity for the preservation of the peace and maintenance of order in Maryland. Samuel S. Mills was arrested February 17, 1862.
   SOURCE: United States. War Dept., United States. Record and Pension Office., United States. War Records Office., et al. The war of the rebellion: a compilation of the official records of the Union and Confederate armies. Series 2 - Volume 2. (Washington, DC. Government Printing Office, 1894): 787-790

5. DESCRIPTION: Fort McHenry, Baltimore
   DATE CREATED/PUBLISHED: Colored lithograph by E. Sachse & Co., 1865
   SOURCE: Cator Collection of Baltimore Views
   REPOSITORY: Enoch Pratt Free Library

See: Bayly Ellen Marks and Mark Norton Schatz, eds. Between the North and South: A Maryland Journalist Views the Civil War: The Narrative of William Wilkins Glenn, 1861-1869. Cranbury, NJ: Associated University Presses, Inc., 1976.

See also: 

• Baltimore and Federal Occupation
• Prisoners of War in Maryland
• Suspension of Civil Liberties in Maryland: The Case of Richard Bennett Carmichael
• Arrest of the Maryland Legislature

Associated Heritage and Preservation Organizations

Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine 2600 E Fort Avenue Baltimore, MD 21230 410 962-4290

Baltimore Civil War Museum - President Street Station 601 President Street Baltimore, MD 21202 (410) 385-5188

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Credits

Teaching American History in Maryland is a collaborative partnership of the Maryland State Archives and the Center for History Education (CHE), University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC), and the following sponsoring school systems: Anne Arundel County Public Schools, Baltimore City Public School System, Baltimore County Public Schools, and Howard County Public Schools.

Other program partners include the Martha Ross Center for Oral History, Maryland Historical Society, State Library Resource Center/Enoch Pratt Free Library, with assistance from the National Archives and Records Administration and the Library of Congress. The program is funded through grants from the U.S. Department of Education.

This document packet was researched and developed by Nancy Bramucci.

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