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This dissertation is a study of the State of Maryland in the secession crisis of 1860-1861. Previous historians have emphasized economic, political, societal, and geographical considerations as the reasons Maryland remained loyal to the Union. However, not adequately considered is the manner in which Maryland understood and reacted to the secession of the Lower South. Historians have tended to portray Maryland's inaction as inevitable and reasonable. This study offers another reason for Maryland's inaction by placing the state in time and space, following where the sources lead, and allowing for contingency. No one in Maryland could have known that their state would not secede in 1860-61. Seeing the crisis through their eyes is instructive. It becomes clear that Maryland was a state on the brink of secession, but its resentment, suspicion, and anger toward the Lower South isolated it from the larger secession movement. Marylanders regarded the Lower South's rush to separate as precipitous, dangerous, and coercive to the Old Line State. A focus on a single state like Maryland allows a deeper, richer understanding of the dynamics, forces, and characteristics of the secession movement and the federal government's response to it. It cuts through the larger debates about the causes of secession and instead focuses on the manner in which secession was carried out, the intended effect of it, the actual effect it generated in the vitally important state of Maryland, and what it all says about the nature of internal divisions in the South at large.

The Texas Ranger tradition of over twenty-five years of frontier defense influenced the methods by which Texans provided for frontier defense, 1861-1865. The elements that guarded the Texas frontier during the war combined organizational policies that characterized previous Texas military experience and held the frontier together in marked contrast to its rapid collapse at the Confederacy's end. The first attempt to guard the Indian frontier during the Civil War was by the Texas Mounted Rifles, a regiment patterned after the Rangers, who replaced the United States troops forced out of the state by the Confederates. By the spring of 1862 the Frontier Regiment, a unit funded at state expense, replaced the Texas Mounted Rifles and assumed responsibility for frontier defense during 1862 and 1863. By mid-1863 the question of frontier defense for Texas was not so clearly defined as in the war's early days. Then, the Indian threat was the only responsibility, but the magnitude of Civil War widened the scope of frontier protection. From late 1863 until the war's end, frontier defense went hand in hand with protecting frontier Texans from a foe as deadly as Indians—themselves. The massed bands of deserters, Union sympathizers, and criminals that accumulated on the frontier came to dominate the activities of the ensuing organizations of frontier defense. Any treatment of frontier protection in Texas during the Civil War depends largely on the wealth of source material found in the Texas State Library. Of particular value is the extensive Adjutant General's Records, including the muster rolls for numerous companies organized for frontier defense. The Barker Texas History Center contains a number of valuable collections, particularly the Barry Papers and the Burleson Papers. The author found two collections to be most revealing on aspects of frontier defense, 1863-1865: the William Quayle Papers, University of Alabama, and the Bourland Papers, Library of Congress. As always, the Official Records is indispensible for any military analysis of the American Civil War.

This thesis is a socio-military history of the development and use of Belle Isle Military Prison; possibly the most notorious of all Civil War prisons. The prison compound stood on a seventy-five acre island in the James River, approximately one-half mile west of wartime Richmond. The island's use as a prison lasted intermittently from July 18, 1862 to February, 1865. During this period the Confederate authorities confined to Belle Isle over 20,000 Federal prisoners of war. The Confederate authorities were unprepared from the very outset of the Civil War to deal with such a large number of prisoners. Due to lack of planning and foresight, the Confederate authorities improvised in a piecemeal fashion and with "stop-gap" measures a prisoner-of-war system. Confederate prisons came into existence merely to relieve the overcrowding at other prison sites. Belle Isle was such a stop-gap measure. The island prison was used only after the other Richmond prisons were congested. The Federal prisoners at Belle Isle suffered from a number of diseases and illnesses, including pneumonia, pellagra, scurvy and dysentery. Possibly more devastating to the prisoners constitution were the psychological effects of prison confinement. So dismal were the conditions on the island that it became known by many prisoners as the "most infamous bit of land in the national geography." / Master of Arts

The present study is a socio-political and military history of the development, use and demise of Old Capitol Prison. Built to serve the legislative arm of the Republic, Old Capitol stood at the corner of First and A Streets. From the time the federal government assumed control of the building in 1861, it served as a prison for several classes of persons before its ultimate demise in 1865. Federal officials were overwhelmingly unprepared for the task of prisoner control. At no point before the outbreak of hostilities had any official advocated the maintenance of a permanent military prison system. A severe lack of planning and foresight created a veritable void, casting vast numbers of prisoners into hastily assembled prisons. In the District of Columbia, the building called "the Old Capitol" provided a warehouse for such prisoners. Prisoners confined in Old Capitol were of several categories. Confederate prisoners-of-war found residence there. As Lincoln's armies occupied Confederate territories, civilians of "secesh" political leanings were taken into custody. Persons of Southern political leaning in the border states found their way into Old Capitol. They were joined later by persons of similar persuasion from states both north and west. Slaves and white refugees flowing out of the South were also placed in the custody of the federal guard. Northern military men accused of alleged crimes, disloyalty, dissertion, etc., were guests of their own system. Old Capitol served as host for a vast variety of guests. This study attempts to tell their story. / Master of Arts

In the Spring of 1861, men from Roanoke, Botetourt, Craig and Bedford Counties enlisted in Confederate service and became members of the 28th Virginia Infantry Regiment. Their story is an integral part of the history of Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. This is a social-military study which documents the war-time careers of the men in the 28th Virginia. Letters, diaries, personal accounts and other primary sources were utilized in addition to various secondary sources. An examination of letters and diaries written by soldiers in the 28th Virginia is vital for one to understand Civil War army life. The 28th Virginia participated in most of the major eastern campaigns. As a part of Longstreet's corps, Pickett's division, they fought at 1st and 2nd Manassas, Seven Day's battles, Sharpsburg, Gettysburg, Seige of Richmond and Petersburg and the retreat to Appomattox. / Master of Arts